Farm Fields worth the time?

[jmz82]

I know the answer to that question would be different for every location but I'm just thinking about the fields I have easy access to. I'm in Western PA, to my knowledge nothing significant ever happened here and they have always just been farm fields. With no battles, camps, old structures, etc ever being here what is the likely hood that much if anything would be found?

 

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[dirtydig]

one thing i have learned, random happens often. i have hunted untouched 1800 home sites and found nothing but iron and ive hunted random spots and found silver. never turn down a field to hunt. you can move fast and its easy to dig! just fill in your holes eventhough it will be plowed soon.

 

[cudamark]

I know the answer to that question would be different for every location but I'm just thinking about the fields I have easy access to. I'm in Western PA, to my knowledge nothing significant ever happened here and they have always just been farm fields. With no battles, camps, old structures, etc ever being here what is the likely hood that much if anything would be found?

Do as much research as possible on that area. You never know what you might find. I wouldn't pass up an opportunity to hunt it regardless.

 

[jmz82]

Its all family property, there is one spot I know I want to hit but majority of it has no significant history to our knowledge. I know that doesn't mean anything. I'm sure to hit some of it but its literally like 200 acres of field, I have some other spots of higher priority that are all wooded but just wanted to get others thoughts.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Its all family property, there is one spot I know I want to hit but majority of it has no significant history to our knowledge. I know that doesn't mean anything. I'm sure to hit some of it but its literally like 200 acres of field, I have some other spots of higher priority that are all wooded but just wanted to get others thoughts.

I would say no. With the usage/image you're portraying: No. There needs to have been something there. Ie.: stage stop, camp, house, or something. The USA is just too new for such random field-worker losses to have accumulated to the degree to make it worthwhile to just wander off in "any field". Perhaps in Europe (like they do in Britain) they can just detect any cultivated field, and .... yes.... find coins. But that's because they have fields that have had 2000 yrs. of contiuous cultivation (the first 1900 of it completely by hand and mule power! ) But the United state is just too new.

And yes, you're on the east coast, so you *do* have more history of ag. cultivation usage of fields, than our west coast. But even at 200 yrs. of continuous cultivation (let's just say for example), yes: there are bound to be a random large cent a random button, a random IH, a random merc, .... etc.... simply because a harvester with sickle lost one there 180 yrs. ago, etc.... But your time is much better spent where people congregated, slept, played, drank, etc.... Not just a random fieldworker loss here or there.

JMHO.

 

[TerryC]

Hunting fields would definitely require some research as to what MAY have been there. I was hunting a field in NC and found a white-metal token from Tyner, NC. When I found it, Tyner was already gone! I almost past it up as it was aluminum. If near an old settlement, yes, dig fields. TTC

 

[bottlecap]

I am gaining a lot of good info from this thread...good question JMZ82.

 

[jmz82]

Thanks!

 

[whammy]

Hi jmz. I wouldn't pass up a chance to tect a farm field. A couple years ago I hit my uncles bean field as it's only a 5 minute drive from the house. Come to find out there was a log cabin site in the middle of this 20 acre field that nobody knew about. I have pulled rings, at least a dozen large cents, some spanish reales, and a coin ( 1800s ) from Bolivia out of this field. Have also found musket balls, an 1850s percussion pistol from Belgium, and various other items including indian head cents, mercs, and wheat pennies. Give the field a try and see what happens. Good luck.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Whammy , but don't you see ? In your case something WAS in that field . It was not just a random cultivated ag. field .

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

Whammy , but don't you see ? In your case something WAS in that field . It was not just a random cultivated ag. field .

Tom I believe what Whammy was saying is until he detected it they didn't know about the cabin, so that is why he would detect because you just don't know sometimes.

 

[cudamark]

That's my thought too. It might have been the secret headquarters for the KGC or freemasons....or just an empty field. I'm not saying to grid the place right off the bat but a series of searches to see if there is a hot spot would be in order.

 

[gunsil]

Sounds at least like a great place to hunt arrowheads after a rain between plowing and planting times. Lotta arrowheads worth more than a lot of the coins we dig. I'd go out after plowing with my MD and keep a keen eye to the ground for stone artifacts as well as listening for a beep from my machine.

 

[jmz82]

Sounds at least like a great place to hunt arrowheads after a rain between plowing and planting times. Lotta arrowheads worth more than a lot of the coins we dig. I'd go out after plowing with my MD and keep a keen eye to the ground for stone artifacts as well as listening for a beep from my machine.

I've done a fair amount of that for whatever reason the fields never produced much as far as stone artifacts. To add to that not many farmers plow any longer, they have no till methods that allow crops to be successful without plowing.

 

[whammy]

Hi Tom. I agree, but up until I found the first coin or artifact, nobody had a clue that anything was in the field. All I'm saying is give it a try and see if anything is there. At the worst your out a few hours, and at the best you find something that really produces, but I have to be honest and say it was total luck. It usually doesn't work this way.

 

[BryanM362]

one thing i have learned, random happens often. i have hunted untouched 1800 home sites and found nothing but iron and ive hunted random spots and found silver. never turn down a field to hunt. you can move fast and its easy to dig! just fill in your holes eventhough it will be plowed soon.

Absolutely! You just never know.

 

[deadeye 22250]

Look for bricks or pottery. Just because there is not any listing on any maps, does not mean there was nothing there. I have found a lot of places, not listed on any maps.

 

[Old Dude]

I'd say go with Tom and don't hunt it, but give me the location so I can! I only started hunting this past year and before I first went into fields, my oldest coin ( a 1902 V nickel ) was found in a park started in the 1970's. Ironically, this park was a field before it was a park. After the corn harvest, I started hitting only fields because I was impressed with the finds members here on the northeast coast and Canada were posting. By the end of 2013, I had bested that 1902 date by over 160 years and had coins from the 1700's and 1800's. I don't know about you, but if I have access to a site and don't hunt it, my imagination would drive me crazy.

 

[MuckyBottles]

Cover every little inch of the farm fields. You don't know if you don't try, who knows, maybe a farmer had a bender the night before did a huge pocket spill or drop his pocket watch. I always say to myself, look everywhere for everything, if you overlook locations, you could potentially be missing a lot.

Expect the unexpected...

 

[Tom_in_CA]

In each of the cases where someone says they went out to a field and found large cents, buttons, coins, etc.... it is inevitably because something was there. Not just "random farm fields". By "random farm fields" (cultivated ag land) that had never had anything there (no houses, no stage stops, no camps, no river-crossings, etc...) you would be relying on random field-worker losses. To THAT extent, no, random fumble finger field hand losses are not prolific enough in our young country, to be worth just wandering around to find.

But in cases where something WAS there, then that's different. And sure: if the field in question had some reason to suspect that (crockery, brick, oyster shell, glass, etc...) then by all means, maybe something was there.

Here's an example of the demographics of just regular field worker losses: Where I'm at, agriculture started about the turn-of-the-century (before that was just cattle primarily). And there's a particular furroughed field that had a European influence factor (a contact-era indian rancheria) that existed from the 1790s to the mid 1830s. After the 1830s, there was no more human influence/presence. Till, of course, ag started there in the teens or whatever. And even though we hunt the place for spanish reales and buttons, yet we have noticed that over the years, yes, we find an occasional nuisance wheatie, one time a buffalo, and another time a silver washington. Even a few memorials and a clad dime. But in no way shape or form would it ever have been worth hunting this field, for "that buffalo" or "that silver washington" in the amount of acreage the site covers. They're just needles in hay-stacks. It's only because of the earlier village thingy that we're even hunting there.