Dougie Webb
Sr. Member
- Jun 14, 2019
- 402
- 697
- Detector(s) used
- Fisher F5
Garrett Ace 200
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
Hey everyone - this new job of mine is really interfering with my hobby. I miss this forum! BUT, I have made what I consider to be a pretty exciting find! After tons of research, and the help of the David Rumsey Map Collection, I've figured out that Sherman's 60,000 soldiers (Forget, Hell!) camped out in my neighborhood the first two nights of their March to the Sea on 11/15-16, 1864.. The picture below is their encampment. The ones that I've circled conveniently lie on some vacant/wooded county property that is easy walking distance from my house (my house is the orange dot). I can't find anything about this by just a general google search, so I feel like there is a fair chance it has hardly ever been hunted!
My son and I went out there last night for about an hour right at dark yesterday. I turned sensitivity all the way up and turned off discrimination on my Garrett 200. I quickly found a cache of very old nails (so brittle that they snapped). We cleared out a little more dirt and eventually found this chunk of lead (mixed signals - maybe other metal in there too?). The picture below is after chipping/scraping/boiling for a good while last night. You can see the iron exposed in the middle. Originally it just looked like a clump of dirt. I realize now that it's just caked-on earth/rocks that have been stuck to this piece of metal for so long it's become like one piece. NO IDEA what it might be a piece of - just junk, obviously - but based on how much rock/dirt is cemented to it, it must have been there a good long while. There is no evidence of there ever having been a house on this property. So I am fairly encouraged that this little find might have something to do with Sherman's encampment.
Would LOVE someone with more experience than me (or anyone, really) to come on out and explore. PM me if interested. I'm in the Clarkston/Stone Mountain area.
My son and I went out there last night for about an hour right at dark yesterday. I turned sensitivity all the way up and turned off discrimination on my Garrett 200. I quickly found a cache of very old nails (so brittle that they snapped). We cleared out a little more dirt and eventually found this chunk of lead (mixed signals - maybe other metal in there too?). The picture below is after chipping/scraping/boiling for a good while last night. You can see the iron exposed in the middle. Originally it just looked like a clump of dirt. I realize now that it's just caked-on earth/rocks that have been stuck to this piece of metal for so long it's become like one piece. NO IDEA what it might be a piece of - just junk, obviously - but based on how much rock/dirt is cemented to it, it must have been there a good long while. There is no evidence of there ever having been a house on this property. So I am fairly encouraged that this little find might have something to do with Sherman's encampment.
Would LOVE someone with more experience than me (or anyone, really) to come on out and explore. PM me if interested. I'm in the Clarkston/Stone Mountain area.
Upvote
17
I have a friend who lives down in Georgia. They have a friend with an old farm. Maybe if I get a chance to take a few days off we can hunt both yours and her friend's farm!
