Old School Finds

[Sooper Dave]

I found a school that was built in the early 30's and decided to give it a shot last week. The first hour I spent close to the school and didn't have any luck at all. I decided to hunt the field down below the school and right away I started digging silver and wheaties. I have put in around 10 hours of hunting in 4 different hunts and have found 12 silver coins, 9 Buffalo nickels and around 50 wheaties. The oldest silver is a 1904 O Barber Quarter & 1911 Barber dime. I also pulled the top half of a nice gold ring, a neat trade token and a Infantry pin that was issued from 1910-1927. It's been a lot of fun hunting this spot but the signals are thinning out. I'm going to spend some time closer to the school with a smaller coil to see if I can find any keepers hidden amongst the trash. HH David

 

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[beez0404]

I have a buddy who lives very close to a school that opened in 1927. It is used now as a school admin office so still maintained. Over the last 6 years he has pulled over 50 silver coins from the grounds. He started out like gangbusters finding 25 the first 8 or 10 hunts then it slowed way down. This is his go to place when he only has time for a short hunt or doesn't feel like driving too far, or just doesn't have anyplace better to go. He has gridded areas and hunted right to left, left to right, top to bottom, corner to corner etc. Once he's done that in a small area he's checking it off as hunted out.

What I'm trying to say is you've hit a honey hole and should invest a lot more time there. Try gridding a 40ft x 40ft area and pound it till you don't find anything else. Then move over and do another 40ft x 40ft area. He told me he's started removing all the trash near the main entrance because he wants to see what's underneath. I'm too old and creaky to do all that but would love to work and grid an outlying area like where you found all those goodies.

Great hunting, and fantastic finds. Congratulations!

 

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[Sooper Dave]

I have a buddy who lives very close to a school that opened in 1927. It is used now as a school admin office so still maintained. Over the last 6 years he has pulled over 50 silver coins from the grounds. He started out like gangbusters finding 25 the first 8 or 10 hunts then it slowed way down. This is his go to place when he only has time for a short hunt or doesn't feel like driving too far, or just doesn't have anyplace better to go. He has gridded areas and hunted right to left, left to right, top to bottom, corner to corner etc. Once he's done that in a small area he's checking it off as hunted out.

What I'm trying to say is you've hit a honey hole and should invest a lot more time there. Try gridding a 40ft x 40ft area and pound it till you don't find anything else. Then move over and do another 40ft x 40ft area. He told me he's started removing all the trash near the main entrance because he wants to see what's underneath. I'm too old and creaky to do all that but would love to work and grid an outlying area like where you found all those goodies.

Great hunting, and fantastic finds. Congratulations!

View attachment 1007536

That sounds like an awesome place! We all dream of a go to place close to the house that produces like that. Did he find any silver halves or dollars there?
And yes I am a big fan of gridding on my hunts and going back over at opposite angles, It takes time but it's the most productive way to hunt a site. Thanks!

 

[unfound]

Sooper Dave, just tell me this school isn't in western PA...LOL Like a couple hours north of pittsburgh. I've been looking at an old elementary school that was built around 1920 and was in use up until around 1970. It is currently used by the community as a haunted house at Halloween. It had a ball field and swings beside it at one time.

I'm asking because I haven't had a chance to get there to hunt yet after all the research, and just want to make sure it's not the school, so I'm not out there looking for things that aren't there....ha ha....I'm pretty positive the site hasn't been hunted before. Well I was before today....LOL

Nice haul you have there, anyone would be proud to find a tenth of that, little happy dances all day !!!

 

[Daddyd2x]

Looks like an awesome good time! I think that's what everyone is looking for when they go out....well, at least me anyway.
Nice job!
HH.
D

 

[Sooper Dave]

Sooper Dave, just tell me this school isn't in western PA...LOL Like a couple hours north of pittsburgh. I've been looking at an old elementary school that was built around 1920 and was in use up until around 1970. It is currently used by the community as a haunted house at Halloween. It had a ball field and swings beside it at one time.

I'm asking because I haven't had a chance to get there to hunt yet after all the research, and just want to make sure it's not the school, so I'm not out there looking for things that aren't there....ha ha....I'm pretty positive the site hasn't been hunted before. Well I was before today....LOL

Nice haul you have there, anyone would be proud to find a tenth of that, little happy dances all day !!!

Your safe for now, I'm about 800 miles from there, but you need to make some time to hunt that old school. I bet it has some goodies hiding out waiting on you to find. Now go detect it before someone else does...

 

[beez0404]

Sooper Dave, just tell me this school isn't in western PA...LOL Like a couple hours north of pittsburgh. I've been looking at an old elementary school that was built around 1920 and was in use up until around 1970. It is currently used by the community as a haunted house at Halloween. It had a ball field and swings beside it at one time.

I'm asking because I haven't had a chance to get there to hunt yet after all the research, and just want to make sure it's not the school, so I'm not out there looking for things that aren't there....ha ha....I'm pretty positive the site hasn't been hunted before. Well I was before today....LOL

Nice haul you have there, anyone would be proud to find a tenth of that, little happy dances all day !!!

Unfound, are CW sites impossible to find in PA? There are pretty much none in my area of western NC but if they were here I would spend some time there. I crave a CW relic of pretty much any kind. A buddy said why not just by a 3 ringer off of Ebay as they are inexpensive. I don't want one I bought, I want one I found. Only one way to find out if that old school has been hunted. But get out there before someone else does.

 

[unfound]

Thanks sooper dave,

Stuck at work, life events and such...*sigh*, But now you got me pumped up and Saturday morning I'm going to be at that school.

I also found an old store and hotel by my Brother in laws house, through research it was there in 1861 and gone by 1911. He recently found the foundation to the old hotel while he was cutting some firewood. I have to hit that one too. Out in the woods, old coal mine store and hotel. I'd bet hard money that maybe me and a few historians (that study county history) are the only ones that know about it. There was also a school there and I'm about 90% positive I know where the foundation is.

Beez0404, CW sites are not hard to find at all in PA. A lot of CW history here. I am currently working less than 3 miles from this site. .Allegheny Arsenal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Arsenal Park, built in 1814...Being the keystone state, both north and south traveled through here back in the day. I'm on the western side of the state, and with some research, I know I could find an old camp or two to check out. Gettysburg and Philadelphia is out east, those guys find some cool relics.

Around my area I hit old homesteads and try to find the oldest I can through old maps. It's kinda funny finding silver out in the middle of the woods, trees all around you, some rocks as big as a truck, you often wonder if anyones ever been there at all. Then bam, high hit on the detector...right across the road from my house (just recently bought the place) in the woods is an old stone fence, made of stacked sandstone about 4 feet high, it has sections in it that are over one thousand feet long and wraps back around. I recently found out that the original house was built in the late 1700's. I've walked past that foundation several times recently while out in the woods with my dog and haven't had the detector to it yet. (It's like Tick central in there right now, I'm pretty sure it's their national headquarters.)

 

[david680]

Hunted a school like that years ago. It was a church by that time. Sat right beside the highway so was a easy target for anybody driving by. Around the old schoolhouse I found nothing, but in the field behind it I pulled out a very similar haul to yours, not as old though, no Barbers. Took a friend of mine out there one day and he pulled a couple of mercs around the building using a 5 inch coil. Sounds to me like you are on the right track!