Sad sight

[dts52]

I’m on vacation in Charleston SC. They’re putting in a foundation on East Bay Street. For those of you unfamiliar with Charleston, a part of the city lies on fill placed over the years starting no later than the early 1700s, As they expanded the footprint into the harbor. As I watched the excavator pulling material about 8 feet below grade, I saw old pilings made from tree trunks. The soil had that characteristic black color of saltwater saturated fill. The area is obviously fenced off and I was tempted to ask whether I could poke around some. Knowing the answer ahead of time, I walked away after a few minutes. What a shame. So many historic CW era buildings (some antebellum) being demolished in the name of “progress”? If I had hit the billion dollar lottery last month, I’d buy up some of these properties just to preserve them... but I didn’t even win $2. I assume the project got the “go-ahead” from the local archeologists, But it’s hard for me to understand how. Oh yeah, I forgot... money talks. I hope the good people of SC realize that “progress” has its price. Come to Connecticut and see how many cornfields I walked as a boy hunting for arrowheads are now unused parking lots attached to vacant strip malls.
Sorry for the rant.
HH
dts

 

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[A2coins]

Happens everywhere it sucks but the population grows!!!!! Ya know

 

[Kace]

I hate seeing that happen Everywhere!

Kace

 

[Kray Gelder]

The preservationists are very powerful in Charleston. There are some real wrecks as far as houses go in Charleston, that should have been knocked down a long time ago. Some get refurbished, some need to go away. The historical society will let someone demolish an old house only after lengthy review. I know you cannot metal detect within the Charleston city limits, and you cannot hunt for or keep artifacts, all the way to the low tide mark.

 

[villagenut]

Same here....different city, same story. Sad,sad,sad. I have seen archaeologists perform there survey of shovel tests with such wide spatial coverage that nothing would be expected to be found....and what was found was ignored as heirloom discards. Ok for the bulldozers now.

 

[dts52]

The preservationists are very powerful in Charleston. There are some real wrecks as far as houses go in Charleston, that should have been knocked down a long time ago. Some get refurbished, some need to go away. The historical society will let someone demolish an old house only after lengthy review. I know you cannot metal detect within the Charleston city limits, and you cannot hunt for or keep artifacts, all the way to the low tide mark.

I guess I won’t be jumping the fence tonight to sift through the piles!
dts

 

[dts52]

The preservationists are very powerful in Charleston. There are some real wrecks as far as houses go in Charleston, that should have been knocked down a long time ago. Some get refurbished, some need to go away. The historical society will let someone demolish an old house only after lengthy review. I know you cannot metal detect within the Charleston city limits, and you cannot hunt for or keep artifacts, all the way to the low tide mark.

As I said, sorry for the rant. This wasn’t a decrepit (like me) old building that’s being replaced and what would be the find of a lifetime for me is just a run of the mill artifact. My post was simply a reflection of my frustration with urban sprawl at the expense of things valuable to me. I realize it’s a selfish position and again, sorry for the rant. I suppose some day my great, great, grandkids will say they can’t believe that I just recycled all those valuable pull tabs.
HH
dts

 

[trdking]

AAAAAH Lets all give it up for "progress"

 

[Plumbata]

I'd still try sneaking in there, or at least stalk the area and if trucks full of excavated fill are leaving the site, follow them to find where they're piling the treasure-laden loads and hopefully that location would be more accessible.

 

[Kray Gelder]

As I said, sorry for the rant. This wasn’t a decrepit (like me) old building that’s being replaced and what would be the find of a lifetime for me is just a run of the mill artifact. My post was simply a reflection of my frustration with urban sprawl at the expense of things valuable to me. I realize it’s a selfish position and again, sorry for the rant. I suppose some day my great, great, grandkids will say they can’t believe that I just recycled all those valuable pull tabs.
HH
dts

dts...It didn't sound like a rant to me. Just thought I'd shed a little insight into Charleston's attitude on old houses, and relic hunting. I have mentioned here a while back about a park here in Georgetown, where a fort used to be, that saw action in both the Revolutionary War and the War of Northern Aggression. "Their" archeological study involved digging a couple of meter-square holes a few feet deep, finding a few relics, and declaring the site "historically significant." Those two words make it off limits to metal detecting or relic hunting.

 

[dts52]

I'd still try sneaking in there, or at least stalk the area and if trucks full of excavated fill are leaving the site, follow them to find where they're piling the treasure-laden loads and hopefully that location would be more accessible.

I met a shop owner here in Charleston a few years back who told me that when they were building the new medical college or hospital, I can’t recall which, he and a friend bought a few hundred yards of the excavated material and had it dumped on their vacant property some distance away. They sifted a little at a time and the artifacts they found were amazing. The property on East Bay looks as if they are pulling only a few dozen yards to pour footings. If I was staying here longer and had a car and my MD I would certainly ask where it was headed. Unfortunately, I have neither car nor MD so it’ll just have to be one of those places I wished I had detected.
HH
dts

 

[dts52]

dts...It didn't sound like a rant to me. Just thought I'd shed a little insight into Charleston's attitude on old houses, and relic hunting. I have mentioned here a while back about a park here in Georgetown, where a fort used to be, that saw action in both the Revolutionary War and the War of Northern Aggression. "Their" archeological study involved digging a couple of meter-square holes a few feet deep, finding a few relics, and declaring the site "historically significant." Those two words make it off limits to metal detecting or relic hunting.

I totally understand and it is unfair of me to criticize the modernization of a city. It’s like me telling someone that they shouldn’t make money because I think the property has value to a detectorist. I know what my reaction would be. I also understand that historically sensitive areas need to be regulated because those few nitwits who swing MDs and claim to be detectorists would be digging holes everywhere.

Do the restrictions apply to property owners? I saw an episode a few years back where “King George” and the “Ringmaster “ were hunting a yard right in downtown Charleston. Those guys got the most prime spots ever!

Next week I’ll be home in Connecticut, digging ox shoes and square nails (I can’t pass up a strong signal, even when the machine tells me it’s rusty iron.) In another 6 weeks or so the ground will be frozen like concrete and I’ll be counting the days until the Spring thaw.

HH
dts

 

[Kray Gelder]

I totally understand and it is unfair of me to criticize the modernization of a city. It’s like me telling someone that they shouldn’t make money because I think the property has value to a detectorist. I know what my reaction would be. I also understand that historically sensitive areas need to be regulated because those few nitwits who swing MDs and claim to be detectorists would be digging holes everywhere.

Do the restrictions apply to property owners? I saw an episode a few years back where “King George” and the “Ringmaster “ were hunting a yard right in downtown Charleston. Those guys got the most prime spots ever!

Next week I’ll be home in Connecticut, digging ox shoes and square nails (I can’t pass up a strong signal, even when the machine tells me it’s rusty iron.) In another 6 weeks or so the ground will be frozen like concrete and I’ll be counting the days until the Spring thaw.

HH
dts

Property owners can do what they want. I should have said public property, beaches, parks, medians, sidewalk strips, etc. Connecticut sounds like a good area for finding relics and coin. Weather here has finally cooled down, but other things are keeping me from getting out to a few places on my list. Soon. Good luck to you.

 

[nwpa]

I feel about it the same way you do as well, I think there should be more time put in on excavations than just a couple bore holes but time is money I guess.
It's been done everywhere just bulldozed and built or paved over and the history is pretty much forgotten about.
Just something we have to deal with as there's not much we can do about it.

 

[RustyGold]

Yep! Joni Mitchell sang a song about that in the 70's.
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

They took all the trees
And put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half to seem 'em

No no no
Don't it always seem to go,
That you don't know what you've got
Til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Hey farmer farmer
Put away the DDT
I don't care about spots on my apples
Leave me the birds and the bees
Please!

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Hey, now they paved paradise
To put up a parking lot
Why not?

 

[dts52]

I feel about it the same way you do as well, I think there should be more time put in on excavations than just a couple bore holes but time is money I guess.
It's been done everywhere just bulldozed and built or paved over and the history is pretty much forgotten about.
Just something we have to deal with as there's not much we can do about it.

I hear you nwpa. Like the highways around the Gettysburg area all the way into the Shenandoah valley. New developments going in everywhere, places that are sacred ground holding the blood of patriots. A great example is George Washington’s headquarters in Morristown NJ. Ah, the price of progress.
HH
dts

 

[dts52]

Yep! Joni Mitchell sang a song about that in the 70's.
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

They took all the trees
And put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half to seem 'em

No no no
Don't it always seem to go,
That you don't know what you've got
Til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Hey farmer farmer
Put away the DDT
I don't care about spots on my apples
Leave me the birds and the bees
Please!

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Hey, now they paved paradise
To put up a parking lot
Why not?

At least they took away the DDT.
dts

 

[pulltabfelix]

Joni Mitchel was right.
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot

they did exactly that in the 1980's in a county near me. The oldest home in Dekalb county Georgia was moved and they put up a three story hotel and the exact spot of the old home was under the new parking lot. Kind of hard to metal detect and recover from 8 inches of asphalt. Good metal detecting sites in fast growing suburban cities like Atlanta are doomed to be developed. And it can happen fast. I had a great site with three old home sites on the property. It was on my list to detect but waited two months and drove by one day and trees all gone and the hilly site was leveled out flat by a fleet of big yellow earth movers. No chance now. Now when I find an old home site on undeveloped property I try to move a little faster.

 

[SCdigger]

There are actually a few guys down there that have tight relationships with the major construction and grading companies around charleston that actually pay to have the dirt hauled to their properties where it is spread out and searched.