OK NOW what do I do???????

[Youngladd]

I spend countless hours researching an old fairground site that was active from 1890-1950. I waited all winter to hunt it. I estimate from historic documents that there has been over 20 million visitors to the site up until 1950 it has been vacant and closed to the public for over 50 years. A buddy and I went up last weekend and hunted it for over 12 hours. WE DID NOT FIND A SINGLE COIN ANYWHERE ON THE PROPERY, not even clad. The soil is very very sandy. I suspect they have all sunk beyond detection range. There shouldn't be any clad because the place has been deserted for over 50 years. I thought about maybe picking out an small area and dig down 2 feet and sift everything through a screen. I am not allowed to use heavy equipment.

I need suggestions I know the place has got to be full of coins,silver and gold.

 

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[ModernMiner]

Wow, that's very weird. Was your detector turned on?
Any junk at all?
-MM-

 

[Copperhead]

Wow Youngladd, what..if anything...DID you find?

you beat me to it MM..

 

[Youngladd]

Wow, that's very weird. Was your detector turned on?
Any junk at all?
-MM-

I found lots of rusted iron objects and surface pulltabs and beer cans from hobos who have been on the property

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Has it been graded or filled? My favorite park (beside a river) was flooded most of last summer and there's 4" of fresh silt in some spots and other spots were eroded down. All new strategies required. A few years ago they graded it and the same - formerly good spots were buried but previous dead zones had new life (and older coins).

 

[Youngladd]

Has it been graded or filled? My favorite park (beside a river) was flooded most of last summer and there's 4" of fresh silt in some spots and other spots were eroded down. All new strategies required. A few years ago they graded it and the same - formerly good spots were buried but previous dead zones had new life (and older coins).

There is no chance of the property being graded or filled, I have many old maps and pictures and I am certain it is orginal ground. I did find very old iron objects that were larger but the property has about 1 inch of black soil and pure sand and small rocks underneath. The whole county has soil like that.

 

[Jeffro]

don't give up on the site, for sure.

Do you have old photos of the site, like maybe from the library? Sometimes if theres a reference point, you can figure out what area to go to. Fill dirt has already been mentioned, one prime spot up in Portland is this way.


Run your sensitivity as high as it will possibly go without getting erratic on you, and slow down your sweeps as well as overlap them severely.

Raking the top soil or sand off a ten foot square down to the hardpack will give you a good idea of whether or not it'd be worth pursuing.

 

[Copperhead]

How big an area are we talking about?

 

[Youngladd]

How big an area are we talking about?

Its about a 20 acre piece of property, but we concentrated on the most historically active area. We ran at full sensitivity and searched in pinpoint mode slowly looking for faint small signals and we dug everything.

 

[BioProfessor]

So there were two of you detecting? Did you both find the same type things - aluminum & rusted iron. Two of the toughest targets to deal with. Exactly what were the rusted objects? Were there lots of them? Are they consistent with an area hosting a fair. Did they exhibit a halo effect. If they have been there undisturbed for that long, there should be a fairly large area of iron oxide around the object. I hunt an old fairground of about the same age so I have some experience as to what should or shoudn't be there as junk.

If you are finding nothing as far as coins and the iron objects are not what would be on a fairground, there are several things that could explain it. One is that the area has been used for something else during the 50+ years it lay idle and it was restored after that use. That use did something to/with the coins. Or you are at least the second person to research the area. It may have been someone's "honey hole" for many years and the "easy" coins are just gone.

You say the area has a layer of black sand/dirt over rocks. If these are somehow different, the mineralization may be higher. Did you have trouble ground balancing the detectors? Did you get a large number of "false" hits? Do you have access to a PI machine? That may be worth a try.

Keep the information coming. We'll figure this out.

Daryl

 

[Gribnitz]

Were you searching in all metal mode ? That will get you extra depth to see if your right about stuff sinking too far.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

How tall is the grass and has it been plowed?

Plowed fields are tough because the humps and dips throw the ground balance off and the soil is disturbed.

Grass, stalks and mulch add layers over the targets and reduce depth (because you have to float the coil over them or get tangled).

 

[Youngladd]

So there were two of you detecting? Did you both find the same type things - aluminum & rusted iron. Two of the toughest targets to deal with. Exactly what were the rusted objects? Were there lots of them? Are they consistent with an area hosting a fair. Did they exhibit a halo effect. If they have been there undisturbed for that long, there should be a fairly large area of iron oxide around the object. I hunt an old fairground of about the same age so I have some experience as to what should or shoudn't be there as junk.

If you are finding nothing as far as coins and the iron objects are not what would be on a fairground, there are several things that could explain it. One is that the area has been used for something else during the 50+ years it lay idle and it was restored after that use. That use did something to/with the coins. Or you are at least the second person to research the area. It may have been someone's "honey hole" for many years and the "easy" coins are just gone.

You say the area has a layer of black sand/dirt over rocks. If these are somehow different, the mineralization may be higher. Did you have trouble ground balancing the detectors? Did you get a large number of "false" hits? Do you have access to a PI machine? That may be worth a try.

Keep the information coming. We'll figure this out.

Daryl

I have to be carefull not to reveal the location. Most of the iron rusted objects were nuts bolts nails, wire and old jar lids. All the buildings are run down and crumbled, the forest has overcome the entire property. The soil is 1 inch of top soil and the rest sand. There is evidence that hobos were sleeping in the buildings and there is beer cans and aluminum tabs everywhere. The place has been idle for over 50 years, it is unlikley that it was someones honeyhole. no false hits, no pi detector

 

[Copperhead]

We don't need to know everything, Youngladd. I think we're all just interested in solving this "mystery". From what you've told us so far, I'd expect you'd be finding alot of coins too. You say it's 20 acres...what info are you basing your "area" of concentration on?

 

[Dimeman]

Were the nails in one area?? Or scattered or in a few different areas?? If so if they tore down structures the nails might be very close to where the buildings were.I would concentrate in an area about 20 ft by 20 ft and really search it hard. Go across, at an angle, go the other way across, and see what you come up with.

If you don't get anything at that spot try another spot about the same size 20ftX20ft, and then do the same thing...cover it as completely as possible, in different directions and angles.

 

[Youngladd]

We don't need to know everything, Youngladd. I think we're all just interested in solving this "mystery". From what you've told us so far, I'd expect you'd be finding alot of coins too. You say it's 20 acres...what info are you basing your "area" of concentration on?

I have old maps where all the buildings are and they are all still standing somewhat, we covered the stage area ,a dried up swimming pond, around all the buildings and water fountain and by all the concession stands. I am telling ya the coins should be there but they are not, they all probably sunk, that is they only reasonable explanation, there is no way both of us missed them and there is no way that place is hunted out.

 

[Youngladd]

Were the nails in one area?? Or scattered or in a few different areas?? If so if they tore down structures the nails might be very close to where the buildings were.I would concentrate in an area about 20 ft by 20 ft and really search it hard. Go across, at an angle, go the other way across, and see what you come up with.

If you don't get anything at that spot try another spot about the same size 20ftX20ft, and then do the same thing...cover it as completely as possible, in different directions and angles.

believe me we tried , i was determined not to go home empty handed, toward the end of the day we starting scratching our heads and I was very disappointed.

 

[bakergeol]

Old fairgrounds were a prime target 45 years ago so you really don't know the history of the site. Commonly who is alive today has no idea what was done so many decades ago. I recovered thousands of silver coins from the virgin ones I detected back in that era both currently used and long abandoned. However, what does not make sense is what you are not finding- incredible amounts of trash dropped by visitors which were common on all sites I detected. You should have layer after layer of trash and coin layers representing yearly use.

My suggestion is what has been given before. Find a club in your area where you can borrow a really good PI- such as a ML SD or GP series. If you have a lot of black sand PIs are not effected as VLFs will be. If you can't find one borrow a high end unit such as an Explorer 11 or SE. They will not have the depth of a high end PI but perhaps it will be enough.

George

 

[BioProfessor]

I am not familiar with your machine. I don't know how deep it will go and whether it can find things underneath rusted iron and aluminum. In the old fairground I hunt, I tried using my PI machine and it was so junky, it was useless. Years of accumulated trash just drove me crazy. I would get about 6-10 hits per swing. That is a lot of junk. I had to switch to my DFX to be able to find anything but the junk.

Here is something to try. Take a post hole digger (or a small head shovel) and dig a small diameter 8-10" hole about 18 inches deep. Pick a place where you think there should be coins. Take four silver dimes and put one at the "North" end of the hole 3" down pushed about 2-3" into the side of the soil so it is covered with undisturbed soil. (It is probably a good idea to put the coins in small zip lock bags so you can find them and recover them easy.) Put the second one in the "East" position at 6" deep and 2-3" in the soil, the third one at the "South" position at 9" still 2-3" in, and the last at the "West" position at 12" deep and 2-3" in. Put the soil back in the hole and tamp down. If you can locate these four coins, there is nothing wrong with the detector or its settings. If you can't, then we know the coins are there but your detector isn't "seeing" them.

 

[Copperhead]

Well I guess you could try what you first thought of. Pick what you think is a "hot spot", grid off a 10x10 area. If it's that sandy, you should have easy digging. Take 6 inches off the top and detect again. See what you get. Good luck, and keep us posted.