typical places for caches

[Skrimpy]

Anyone know if people used to put caches underneath their patios? I have a site of an old farmhouse. It's on the 1867 Beers map and on the 1891 beers map. The house has since caved in, (the privy is still standing so locating it won't be a problem) and I have been there to detect and bottle dig on several occasions but have yet to find something. On a previous trip, my buddy got a good, large signal and tried to dig, only to find that the signal was beneath a 4" thick slate slab approx 6'x6'. I've been back on several occasions and spent several hours digging around the slab in trying to undercut to the target. I have found in these trips that there are actually two signals underneath the slab, reading about 73 on the DFX, and at least reached part of one of them. From underneath the slab it seems to be a rounded rusty iron item. So, my questions are, why would someone leave a piece of trash on the ground below a patio if they want the patio to be flat?, and have any of you ever found any round cast iron containers in the ground. Do you all think a few more hours of digging worth finding out what is underneath this thing? Or, are they just pieces of junk and not worth the time?

 

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[Amona]

Anyone know if people used to put caches underneath their patios

10 years ago an Engineer from Cuba told me that he buried his jewelry and personal heirlooms in the patio where he live since he was born. He grew in the northern area of Cuba called "Varadero" where his father built a beach house. When Castro got in power he tried to leave the country but first he buried the little cache in the patio. Many years ago I saw in the internet seem to me a picture what is that house today.

That it is a true story

Amona

 

[Tubecity]

It's all guesswork, but what about a 'dutch oven' type cast iron pot with a lid.
IMO, being an old farmhouse it can be about anything cast used on a farm.
But my curiosity would drive me nuts to, so you'll probably do the same thing
most of us would... keep digging. Good luck & keep us informed.

 

[Skrimpy]

It's all guesswork, but what about a 'dutch oven' type cast iron pot with a lid.
IMO, being an old farmhouse it can be about anything cast used on a farm.
But my curiosity would drive me nuts to, so you'll probably do the same thing
most of us would... keep digging. Good luck & keep us informed.

The soil is hardpan. I don't see why someone would go to the trouble in digging a hole in it for garbage when the trash pit (very large btw) is less than 100 yeards away, especially when they want a flat slab patio, but I thought if anyone here said that they had never heard of people burying caches underneath the patio I wasn't going to dig it. Since Amona has heard of someone doing this, I will however go and dig that slab up.

 

[idigdirt]

Skrimpy, A long time ago i had stopped in to a local coin shop to see what they had (if anything new). I immediately noticed he had about 8 small denomination gold coins. In asking how he came about getting this many gold coins (this was a very small time coin shop), he related to me a very nice cache story. A local guy was metal detecting an old abandoned farm house south of this little town and in detecting a little ways out in front of the house, he got a fairly large signal. In digging down he hit something solid. He soon found that it was very shallow and somewhat square. He finally dug it out and here it was a slate fieldstone. The kind they used many years ago to mark a walkway. Well, he checked the ground and got a nice loud signal and he said that the guy dug down about 6 inches and dug up a prince albert tobacco can filled to the top with gold coins. The coin dealer said he bought em' all.He also went on to say that a doctor came in and bought all but those eight. He said that doctors and lawyers readily buy up his gold coins when he can get them in and that the few that were left would probably be gone soon! These kinds of stories are probably fairly commonplace in the cache hunting world. I wouldn't hesitate to dig it if i were you!

 

[Skrimpy]

Right now the ground is frozen and my hunting buddy that hit the signal won't go with me so it will probably wait until spring.

 

[gmstreet]

You say it's a slate slab? If so that rules out any type of iron re-bar, that's used to reinforce concrete walkways and patios. If it's actually concrete that would be my guess. Or, it could be they put some junk metal under the slate to keep it from sinking into the ground. In either case that still doesn't rule out a cache buried underneath the slab.
goodluck!!

Greg

 

[IndianaSmith]

I would think 2-3 guys could lift one side of a 6' X 6' X 4" slab? Dig a hole under 1 side I slide a 4X4 post under it, shore it up as you go. At 4" thick wouldn't be brittle.

Smitty

 

[BF750]

As much as I would like you to find that kettle of gold under that slate slab. I would put to much effort into it. The owner could have needed to raise the grade for the slab so it sat at the desired height. In my first house I found all kinds of junk metal and even a metal cable coiled up under the driveway when I went to replace it. It is easier to bury it and cover it up than trying to scrap it especially in that date range. Just my .02

Tony

 

[Casull]

If it were me, I'm sure my curiousity would make me go for it. Having said that, I don't see why anyone would bury a cache in such a fashion that it would be that hard to dig back up.

 

[cavers5]

It doesn't take long to hook it up to a winch on a vehicle/4-wheeler, use a red-devil, or even a car jack! Even if it's junk, at least you'll be able to sleep at night without thinking or dreaming about it!

 

[Skrimpy]

You say it's a slate slab? If so that rules out any type of iron re-bar, that's used to reinforce concrete walkways and patios. If it's actually concrete that would be my guess. Or, it could be they put some junk metal under the slate to keep it from sinking into the ground. In either case that still doesn't rule out a cache buried underneath the slab.
goodluck!!

Greg

Yeah, it's definately slate. I know it isn't rebar underneath there. I got to one of the signals partially. It is spheroid (at least part of it anyway) and is iron, and the dirt is hardpan at one inch. There isn't any way the slab was going to sink and again, I don't see why someone would take the time to dig a hole in the hardpan when the trash heap is less than 100 yards away just to throw away some scrap. However, it doesn't mean that they didn't. Also, there already was a large stone at the side of the slab (probably used to level the thing) with part of it just stuck underneath the edge. We will find out in the spring.

 

[savant365]

If you don't want to keep/save the slab for anything...they rent small jack hammers at most hardware stores. I would just bust thru it instead of trying to get it out of the way.

 

[Skrimpy]

If you don't want to keep/save the slab for anything...they rent small jack hammers at most hardware stores. I would just bust thru it instead of trying to get it out of the way.

Yup. Got myself a stone chisel and a small sledge. Should do the job just fine.

 

[MD Dog]

Geeze Skrimpy do you know what that piece of slate is worth ? Just use some ropes a four wheel drive vehicle and pull the slate off the area. then contact a stone Mason to see if they will buy the slate. Then your flush no matter what.

 

[dewcon4414]

You never know.... when in doubt i dig. However, VDI 73 for me sometimes is brass or copper. Could be an old piece of copper sewer line. Some people put a deck over their sewer line without ever thinking they may have to work on it some day. Best of luck.

 

[ivan salis]

old copper cooking kettles or iron kettles were often used as stash containers in days gone by -- me I'd just have to know "for sure"

 

[Skrimpy]

Geeze Skrimpy do you know what that piece of slate is worth ? Just use some ropes a four wheel drive vehicle and pull the slate off the area. then contact a stone Mason to see if they will buy the slate. Then your flush no matter what.

I thought about that b/c it would look rather nice as a center piece when I reset my slate patio. The thing is freaking huge. Problem is that it is on a public preserve property and at the moment there are no rules prohibiting THing so we don't want to attract attention b/c it's a great colonial era site. We get all kinds of people interested in what we are doing (inlcuding preserve board members) but nobody seems to care because we replace our divots, don't disturb the foundations or vegitation, and we don't leave any trash. There is a rule against motorized vehicles (including ATVs explicitly) so using machinery is out. I would really love to take the thing home but I think if I start asking the preserve questions about THing, we will have overstayed our welcome, and it really is way to big to try to get some guys together to haul it by hand. It just won't go without heavy equipment or beasts of burden (probably how the original owner got it there), and even if it would, it will probably require a flatbed to get the thing home and at that point people would start asking questions. I could look nice broken up into peices and put it back together with mason sand or some mortar. Maybe if I think about it a while I can figure a way to get the thing home...its about a 4" thick piece of bluestone and somewhere bewteen 6'X6' and 6'X10', I really havn't dug around it too much except near the signal.

 

[Skrimpy]

You never know.... when in doubt i dig. However, VDI 73 for me sometimes is brass or copper. Could be an old piece of copper sewer line. Some people put a deck over their sewer line without ever thinking they may have to work on it some day. Best of luck.

Nah. It isn't a sewer line. It's uphill from the Hudson. They would have gone downhill to the river for the sewage. Plus the privy is still standing. I think if they had installed septic or public sewer lines they would have torn the thing down. I've heard those things are worth money too. It's a two seater. Maybe I could tear that thing down and restore it for some good scratch. Anyone want an antique two seater privy? I haven't been up there in a while, it may even have the crescent moon on the peak. Next time I go up I will take a pic.

 

[Skrimpy]

If it were me, I'm sure my curiousity would make me go for it. Having said that, I don't see why anyone would bury a cache in such a fashion that it would be that hard to dig back up.

From what I understand when people were burying large amounts they made them more difficult to get to for two reasons.
1. It was more like their life savings
2. It wasn't very often they needed large amounts of cash, more often they had smaller caches easier to get to for quick access