KMGMO
Greenie
Our land sits on the southern end of what used to be the town of Auburn, MO. Auburn was founded in the 1830s and pretty much dead by 1900 when the Hannibal-St.Louis rail passed through neighboring towns in the 1880s. I knew when we bought this piece of land I'd find remnants of buildings and infrastructure(other than the 1800s barn I'm trying to restore) but I had no idea how many stone foundations are in the woods! The family of the deceased farmer told me about the "Ice House" and it's whereabouts, but didn't mention the other four building foundations, or that the old pound dam was lined with cut limestone. While looking at a map from the 1870s, I noticed a dot with a circle around it directly behind the building titled "Store & P.O." my guess was well or ciistern, and after some careful digging through the brush, my guess was correct. I cleaned 3-4" of soil and leaves off the slightly elevated cement cap, which had brush growing on it. Part of the cap had collapsed and fell in, giving me an opportunity to shine my spotlight inside. I was amazed at the volume of this cistern. 7-8' in diameter and maybe 14-15' deep. Wanting to get a better look, I decided to wrap a chain around pieces of the cement cap and pull them away. One piece of the cap has the following scribed: -H.L. Achor 5 11 1910-. I am familiar with the name Achor because of records of landowners. Obviously, this cap is not the original but finding the writing is intriguing nonetheless. The bottom of the cistern is dry, and looks to be fairly clean other than chunks of cement from the cap and lining. I haven't gotten down in there yet but want to as soon as I have someone there with me. I'd also prefer the blacksnakes to be gone but I don't know how to accomplish that. With all that being said, I'd appreciate some advice on where and how to look for relics and coins around there. I have a decent metal detector I've borrowed but haven't gotten good at fine tuning it. I want to take it down in the cistern for sure. I've found dozens of horse and mule shoes excavating, and found various items with the metal detector near some foundations and in piles of dirt I've moved. I love history and learning how to uncover it. I'll post some pictures if I can figure our how. Thanks for any input!
