Park experts: what would you do at this park?

I'm no expert but I like the "L" shaped area by the courts across from the parking lot. I also like the totlot and the grassy area above it in the picture.

Solocus said:

I'm no expert but I like the "L" shaped area by the courts across from the parking lot. I also like the totlot and the grassy area above it in the picture.

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For sure! It looks like the basketball court is in the original spot still. Which makes the area around it and that "L" shape you mentioned as good hunting areas. I only have an hour after work tonight but I'm going to go hit it and keep going back for a while. Suggestions still welcome!!


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I would start wandering and see if you can figure out where, if, and how deep the old coins are. The grass areas all look like they haven't changed much so any of the areas could hold old coins. Who knows if it has been hunted before, but go slow and see if you can find anything.

Those trees along E Palm Ln look like they have been there awhile, check around them!

I love ball diamonds...so I would start there.

Not an expert.

The softball field, tennis courts and the picnic area by Palm Lane appear to be the oldest and most undisturbed areas. I'd hit those first and after that I would be like a kid on a sugar high. Here, there and everywhere!!! DISCLAIMER!!! I'm no expert on parks or anything to do with MD'ing. I'm still trying to find some silver in a little park that has been a boat landing and picnic area for over 60 years. Over 200 coins and a gold plated ring, about 2 and a half tons of bottle caps, pull tabs, beaver tails and busted beer bottles. Not one drop of silver, so far. So, take my advice with a grain, or three, of salt. Good luck.

Old, non-refurbished parks in the west are hard to come by. Chances are the park has been hit many times, so the easy stuff would be few and far between. Because of the dry weather, I doubt the targets are very deep. If lots of pull tabs and junk, go with your smallest coil, and search the out-of-the-way places around edges of sidewalks and trees.
There are also 2 locations I found that intrigued me:
Southwest corner by the pool. I believe it use to be grass in the 50's, but hasn't had any grass since the 70's. Pass your coil around that area and see what you get.
Also, 2 blocks south of the park is a collection of vacant lots on mcdowell. Used to have some homes that were torn down in the 70's. Nothing ever built back on the spot since. May hold some keepers.

God luck!!

I agree with JAMFLICKER - go visit it and start where you think the original dirt is. Then wander from there and check out the whole place. Sometimes the older dirt was moved to fill another area that "looks" new. You'll never know until you spend some time there.

Good luck!

RenoGeoff said:

Old, non-refurbished parks in the west are hard to come by. Chances are the park has been hit many times, so the easy stuff would be few and far between. Because of the dry weather, I doubt the targets are very deep. If lots of pull tabs and junk, go with your smallest coil, and search the out-of-the-way places around edges of sidewalks and trees.
There are also 2 locations I found that intrigued me:
Southwest corner by the pool. I believe it use to be grass in the 50's, but hasn't had any grass since the 70's. Pass your coil around that area and see what you get.
Also, 2 blocks south of the park is a collection of vacant lots on mcdowell. Used to have some homes that were torn down in the 70's. Nothing ever built back on the spot since. May hold some keepers.

God luck!!

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Thanks for the insight. I'm sure this place has been hit quite a bit in the past but I'm willing to take my chances and see what's here as you are totally right on finding old west parks that haven't been refurbished. Encanto (another of our oldest parks here) has been refurbished so many times it's no where near original.

On the abandoned lots, they are literally EVWRYWHERE in this town. I have about 20+ locations from known home sites from the 40s-50s. Problem is finding the time to hit all these spots! Wife keeps a short leash

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I'll let you all know what I find!


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Basketball courts first.
I don't care how long they have been there or what kind of dirt has been moved around the area this is the highest percentage area in the park to find jewelry.
Use a sniper coil if you have one, for sure.
Plenty of trash around these, more than you might want to believe, probably, but work it right and it might be rewarding.
Dig all trash signals, all the solid ones at first along with the coins you will find, then after you clean them out go over it again and dig more trash,
You need to get as much of this out of the way as you can.
Masking will hide other, better targets.

You don't have to do this all at once, I usually would hit this area for as long as I can stand it until I get bored and then go wandering.
I have a site like this and I have been there 4 times so far and found gold at the court on my first visit, still not done with the court but I went a-wandering and found gold again at another area of my park.

Areas I would wander to see what is happening would be those trees at the north side of the park.
That area has probably had a bunch of people hanging out under these trees over the years, who knows what you can find.

The tot lot area next, not just the chips but the grass all around the lot.
This is where parents hang out watching their kids, and this grass area is exactly the kind of place I found that second piece of gold at my park.

I rarely hunt ball fields unless it was not one of those kind in perfect shape.
I Also usually do this after season if I do hunt them.

I have found there could be good targets all over the field, but for jewelry in the area behind the infield up to about 10 yards, and definitely along lines from where balls could have been thrown from the outfield to the infield...areas from right field on s line toward second and also in between first and second.
Same with the center field and left field positions.
Again trash signals should be dug like foil and tabs along with the higher tones, the reason why is not just gold but silver necklaces will not come in as high tones but way lower, and players running in from the outfield can lose these.

All areas near parking lots should be searched, people taking keys out of their pockets could lose much.

The last place I would hunt would be around the tennis courts.
I hate these things, the big problem here is the tops off of tennis ball cans,
They could be everywhere, shallow and deep, and they usually sound just like a high tone coin.
Not all are the same, some brands come in at different numbers and you dig a few of these to notice those common numbers and you can avoid these for awhile if you want.
There will probably be a lot of trash, large pull tabs off the lids of some of those cans, foil from the caps off of sports drinks, regular tabs and more.
There could be coins and jewelry too, but unlike those basketball courts most players don't pile all their belongings in a pile on the grass out side these things then they play, they do that inside the fence.
If nobody is on the courts you might want to check around the perimeter inside the fence.
Not easy to do unless you have a Compadre, but you might spot the odd piece of jewelry somebody left behind.
Scan the courts with your eyes while you are there.
I talked to a member that used to be a tennis player and he said you would not believe the amount of jewelry he has found just laying there on the courts right in the open.

Do along the sideways on that main road will be a good place to start.

HIT IT ALL!!! Start at the ball fields.

WildDigger said:

HIT IT ALL!!! Start at the ball fields.

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I agree! I would start at the baseball diamond area, and work my way over to the L-shaped area or the shaded tree areas in the top right corner. I can picture a lot of people, past and present, resting under those tree's for shade. The baseball area would be my first choice though. It's bound to be pretty trashy though. However, in 1958, kids played outdoors all the time and baseball would have been a popular activity.

sidewalk strip at the bottom of the picture for me ... easiest to work and always pay off for me then after that do the just wondering around spots till I can id the better spots ... pool area of course the BBC, don't want to offend anyone

that little patch at the top right looks primetime too

SeabeeRon said:

Those trees along E Palm Ln look like they have been there awhile, check around them!

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Yep! defiantly the trees. Most people hit the obvious areas and the trees on that edge would be my first venture. I would always survey a place look for the obvious and the search any tree line in the out lying areas first then migrate toward the obvious if i found nothing.

The entrance appears to be off of East Palm and therefore as everyone has to enter the park I would try those two square plots adjacent to the footpath.

Thanks everyone. I did an hour at the park last night. A million pull tabs and about .30 in clad. Crappy crappy hunt :/ way to trashy for my liking. I'll probably go back and try to find an area without so many pull tabs as I'm sick of digging them :/


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Basketball court....LISTEN to Digger27 on this one...Dig everything. I bet you find gold and silver there.....