It Breaks My Little Heart

[Hendo0601]

So yesterday I finally got in contact with the caretaker of one of the oldest properties in the county. It has been occupied by white people since the 1850s and much much earlier by native americans. There is a house on the property that has been there since the mid - late 1800s. several years ago the city bought all of the property and turned it into a public park, but the house and surrounding farm land is still under the care of the previous owner. I was scouting along his fence line with my phone open to Google Earth and he asked me what I was doing. He thought I was a geo cache person. After I explained who I am and what I do, he agreed to give me unlimited access to the property to metal detect anywhere I want INCLUDING AROUND THE OLD HOUSE! Well my heart was in my throat as I walked up to this old beauty ready to start swinging my detector...then my heart broke into a thousand pieces when I noticed the entire area around the house and yard had been covered by that black plastic fabric to prevent weeds, and 5 or 6 inches of fill dirt on top of it. I searched around anyways and up against the walls I found a few old square nails and an old file...but any target i got in the yard was buried below the black fabric and I didn't want to cut holes through it because it's not mine. So much potential treasure buried there and no way to get it out I moved away from the house and searched near an old Creek and I found 2 horseshoes (my first ever!!!) some really long iron rail thing that kinda looks like fence post, and an ancient pick axe head buried about 2 feet down that was a real son of a biscuit trying to dig out. I didn't find a single coin, not even clad!! Since I have unlimited access to the property you can bet I will be going back to see what else I can find. Also, I have a question about the horseshoes...I had the smaller one in electrolysis all night long hoping to reveal the holes where the nails went through, but I'm not seeing them. Are these two just decorative? Used for for the game? I don't know much about about this stuff. The dollar bill is there for size reference. Thanks for looking and happy hunting

 

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[jeff of pa]

cool deal and finds.

if you Haven't , You should ask him if he's aware of the plastic, & his opinion
on you going through it.
unless this was done within the last few months,
By now I would think all weeds underneath it are starved out,
and slices here & there should not be an problem.

but I suppose it would be smart to ask

But I would ask if I got Silver signals

 

[Evolution]

What a tragedy with the black fabric covering the yard around the house. I would feel exactly the same way. Hopefully it wont always be there and you can go back another time and detect it. Sounds like it might produce a few relics.

 

[Hendo0601]

The entire property is owned by the city, as it is now a city park. I asked him and he said it was put down this spring and the city spent a ton of money doing it. I really want to cut through it, and I even tried in one spot where I was getting a killer signal, but I stopped myself because I don't want to break the law and destroy property, especially on my first day out there! With at least 6 inches of dirt on top it really limits what I might be able to find because that coin buried 6-8 inches down is now 12-14" down. It really sucks because I did tons of research on the property lol

 

[jeff of pa]

only places I've seen that stuff here are around Ball fields and
Play Equipment.

Trust me it would be a chore getting though it.
it seems to be made to last.

First time I encountered it, it was completely alien to me so I tried getting through & gave up.
You would need a very sharp tool.
and would be almost impossible to do on the sly anyway

 

[bulrush]

Cool finds. But that's not a pickaxe, it's a mattock (in my area anyway). I almost had to buy one to get rid of my bamboo.

 

[Hendo0601]

Ah okay...A mattock then! Thank you for the correction! Mattock or pickaxe it still sucked digging it out hahaha

 

[dirtlooter]

bulrush beat me to it, it is a great tool, especially when you need one.

 

[Hendo0601]

Well I don't particularly need one...I just so happened to aquire one, and judging by the rust and amount of corrosion and the fact it was so deeply buried that this one has been without an owner for many many decades, if not a century.

 

[Hendo0601]

I am still wondering if anyone can tell me more about the horseshoes. As I said this area has a history that goes back to the 1850s and there was even a small army contingent on the property for a few years. How can I date these things, or are they purely ornamental?

 

[jeff of pa]

The nail holes Could be rusted shut .

Of course they could be for game use or for over a door way also.

your probanly going to need more, better pics from all angles
for any real guesses which

 

[bootybandit]

Too bad on the ground cover. I wouldn't give up on that permission.

 

[RiverRat]

I recently moved into a house that had that god awful black plastic all under my front yard.... covered in lava rocks...I think it was put in around 7-10 years ago, according to my neighbors...the weather is hot and dry here most of the year....that plastic is now brittle and breaking down...it's easy to get through it...but , dammit...it's still there...(AND it's not doing a very good job on keeping the weeds out!)...

 

[Garrett424]

Cool finds.

Reading your story breaks my heart. There are just too many great spots disappearing everywhere.

 

[Hendo0601]

The bright spot in this dismal story is that while I was walking around I shined my flashlight through the basement windows and it's a dirt floor cellar.....soooooooo...I'm gonna ask him if he will let me down there to detect the floor. I have my fingers crossed!!

 

[PullTabPete]

I recently moved into a house that had that god awful black plastic all under my front yard.... covered in lava rocks...I think it was put in around 7-10 years ago, according to my neighbors...the weather is hot and dry here most of the year....that plastic is now brittle and breaking down...it's easy to get through it...but , dammit...it's still there...(AND it's not doing a very good job on keeping the weeds out!)...

I put that stuff down under my landscaping a dozen years ago. It took a lot of work and time and the weeds came through immediately. Still get chunks of it hanging out of the landscaping. It was a complete waste of time and effort. If I ever completely redo my landscaping, I'll pull all of that crap out.

 

[dokc]

A good pair of heavy duty scissors will cut right through and make a nice slit that you can pull apart, dig the dirt and then push back together.

 

[Davers]

So yesterday I finally got in contact with the caretaker of one of the oldest properties in the county. It has been occupied by white people since the 1850s and much much earlier by native americans. There is a house on the property that has been there since the mid - late 1800s. several years ago the city bought all of the property and turned it into a public park, but the house and surrounding farm land is still under the care of the previous owner. I was scouting along his fence line with my phone open to Google Earth and he asked me what I was doing. He thought I was a geo cache person. After I explained who I am and what I do, he agreed to give me unlimited access to the property to metal detect anywhere I want INCLUDING AROUND THE OLD HOUSE! Well my heart was in my throat as I walked up to this old beauty ready to start swinging my detector...then my heart broke into a thousand pieces when I noticed the entire area around the house and yard had been covered by that black plastic fabric to prevent weeds, and 5 or 6 inches of fill dirt on top of it. I searched around anyways and up against the walls I found a few old square nails and an old file...but any target i got in the yard was buried below the black fabric and I didn't want to cut holes through it because it's not mine. So much potential treasure buried there and no way to get it out I moved away from the house and searched near an old Creek and I found 2 horseshoes (my first ever!!!) some really long iron rail thing that kinda looks like fence post, and an ancient pick axe head buried about 2 feet down that was a real son of a biscuit trying to dig out. I didn't find a single coin, not even clad!! Since I have unlimited access to the property you can bet I will be going back to see what else I can find. Also, I have a question about the horseshoes...I had the smaller one in electrolysis all night long hoping to reveal the holes where the nails went through, but I'm not seeing them. Are these two just decorative? Used for for the game? I don't know much about about this stuff. The dollar bill is there for size reference. Thanks for looking and happy hunting

View attachment 1048802



View attachment 1048803

That Sux About the Plastic Stuff

The Horseshoes look to be used, normally with a little bit of chipping , I find where the holes were to be pretty Evident.

Keep hunting the site and you will likely have more cool finds.

What State are you in?

Davers

 

[Hendo0601]

I am in Washington state. We don't have even a third of the history that they have out east...so 1850s is about as old as it gets out here unless you are hunting for native American artifacts....which don't show up with a detector lol. Thanks for the info on the horseshoes. I was finding it hard to believe there would be two different size decorative horseshoes buried a foot deep about 10 feet apart. I have already drawn out sections on my map that I plan on detecting grid style.