How does one begin cache hunting?

[Just_curious]

Bro...dont even get me started on this. You wouldn't believe the crap that I've woken up to along the lines with your theory, but slightly different. Now, in exact reference to what you are theorizing, alot of these paths and locations have become either A: a registered/national historic site, or B: the real information on towns, villages, paths, camps, etc. have been purposefully hidden, suppressed, or destroyed.

Going to what RW mentioned, I feel like caches in the home were much more likely during those times. I feel like if you were going to hide your money during a time when money was tight and hard to make, would also mean that they would hide somewhere that was relatively easy to get to/access...like in the home in legitimate hiding spots.

 

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[Tesorodeoro]

I think following up on stories of people dying tragically is a good start.
Most people had something saved up. Otherwise they ran the chance of starving.
Certain eras were known to be dangerous.

 

[lookingharder]

This is just my two cents. I think we spend a lot of time looking for the millionaire who buried all his wealth in his back yard and overlook the common folks. Most of my main hunting locations are old homesteads. old census maps are great for this. I have found that no matter who the original owners where, during hard times, Civil War, Depression, everyone tried to make sure what ever they had was kept in a safe place. More times than not, it was just to keep it safe in case the house burnt down, tornado's hurricanes, etc. I always walk about a hundred yard circle around an old homestead looking for old growth tree's, rock piles (most farmers had rock piles from the fields stacked somewhere) natural landmarks. places that would stand the test of time. By doing this I also find where the outhouse was(great place to find stuff) the water source, (out houses where always below the water source) plus it gives me a wider scope of the land. Old growth trees are a good place to find old coils because nothing beats sitting in the shade of an big tree and coins fall out of pockets. $20 from the sell of a hog, stuck in a jar would be vast riches for some old farmer and a great find today. If the old house is still standing or you have the old foundation, look under the front porch or where it would have been. Iv'e found LOTS of old whiskey bottle under front porches, Paw would empty the bottle and throw it under the house, Maw would never look under the porch so Paw was safe. Don't overlook the common mans riches too, by doing so your success rate will increase drastically.

 

[Curtis]

Some of us have posted the answers in other threads..but, remember they didn't have he modern alarms/motion detectors. They used what they had, a chicken coop, hog pen, and of course horses would give off warnings if someone was around...many houses have the chicken coop and hog pens within sight of a bedroom window so people could visually check the sounds the animal made...so even thought I may seem gross to some the places where animals were kept made good places for us to check. Also near the gate posts look to see if the top of the post is plugged with a piece of wood that can be removed as the post maybe drilled out and is the cache spot. also some fence posts were shorter than they look as under the post was the cache spot.

Go back to the place you dreamed about offer to split the find with the owners......they have nothing to lose....if the job entails destruction it might be a little different. ..but give it a shot!

 

[Joe-Dirt]

I think following up on stories of people dying tragically is a good start.
Most people had something saved up. Otherwise they ran the chance of starving.
Certain eras were known to be dangerous.

Agreed, an area I’d love to hunt is the burnt district along the Missouri/ Kansas border, lots of looting done on both sides of the boarder there and slot of folks knew it was coming sooner or later and I’m sure the common man would bury his hard earned cash. Also, a lot of folks were driven off their property and or murdered on the spot so the potential for un-recovered stashes would exist. I have a lot of family on the Missouri side of the boarder and we always heard the horror stories of before and during the war. My GGG grand father Richard “Dick”Kinney was driven from the family farm as a young man and never returned. I’m not sure if anyone else from his immediate family did, but he was killed in a battle near Centralia Missouri in 1863 or 1864.

I did once try to get some permissions in the Sniabar area, but was told it was fairly built up and never followed up. Around where I live now, I’m still trying to find the colonial cellar holes, but they are tough to find and get permission to hunt.

 

[Honest Samuel]

# 17. Get a written contract fist, and tell them nothing until you find the money.

 

[boogeyman]

You might try genealogy records on the man and see if there is anything on him. If memory serves me, KVM mentioned in his books that it's rare to find the big caches, and to be careful of legend types, as well as concentrating on smaller caches. Many people go after the big ones, but there are thousands of small caches that never made the headlines, and those can be (and are) a cache hunter's bread and butter.

Have you tried the Library of congress newspaper archives? Did you just search that particular town or county? Newspapers were notorious for mistakes. Try searching for other variants of the name. Smyth for Smith, Jon for John, you get it! Are there other towns with the same name in the state? (Don't ask me how I know this one) Broaden your searches & you'll probably find stuff you missed.

 

[GoldBug---)]

When I was a teenager, I had a job demolishing old houses. I often wondered then why there were these washers in the tops of these old doors?
Recently read a report on where to stash your valuables... Turns out - you can hide a lot of coins in a door. So my hunt has extended to people selling old doors.

Getting Creative.

 

[maipenrai]

I remember that my father was always in a slight panic, when I looked around the chicken coop. Sorry I didnt check out that coop a little better. He hid money Everywhere! A lot found, but sure there was much more. It wasnt until I hanging around TN, that I thought of the coop.

 

[ColeBen]

Thanks everyone for the useful information, definitely a great starting place.
Happy hunting🖤

 

[MiddenMonster]

If anyone is looking for a handy gadget to aid the search for caches, I saw something on one of those 1-800 TV commercials last night. They call it the "Lizard Cam", which could best be described as a poor man's borescope. I think the snake is 12' long, and has an HD camera on the end, in addition to an LED light. It also comes with a magnet, hook and mirror attachments, which extend beyond the camera so you can see what you are doing. The only catch is that the Lizard Cam has to be used with a smart phone or tablet, i.e. it's not a stand alone device. I have no idea as to the quality, but it's just under $40 and the commercial was pimping an offer to get a second Lizard Cam "free"--as long as you pay the "additional fee". You also get one carrying case and a small "Atomic Beam" flashlight. I've seen other snake cameras out there, but this is the cheapest one I've seen. If you search in walls or in other potential hiding spots this might be worth checking out. Even if the cache thing doesn't pan out, you might be able to recoup your money by fishing wedding rings and other things out of the drains of neighbors.