Can’t find a school house

[MasonDixonMding]

I tried finding a early 1800s school house. It’s on several maps, and always in the same spot. I have some good land marks. A old house, two roads and a small stream.
I thought my only trouble would be getting permission. This is all open fields now. I started by walking right to where I thought it was, with no luck. Than I started a large grid. I covered about two or three acres. I could not find any nails any where. The ground is low and a little wet. Could the nails have sunk out of reach? I did find a colonial copper. It was very far from the roads and it wasn’t deep. (6”to8”)
I’m thinking this was a random drop. It didn’t sink out of reach. Could the building have been relocated? I think it was there for many years so I would think they would have to replace the roof which would have left nails. I am real stumped!
I plan on trying again.

Any ideas?

 

[fullbattery]

Old maps are notoriously inaccurate. We regularly find home sites several hundred yards away from where the map(s) showed, even with decent landmarks available.

Relocation of the building is quite possible. The property we've hunted the past two weeks has an old building on it. It was reportedly a school house moved many years ago. The building does not appear at the current location on any historic maps we've looked at.

What kind of soil do you have in that area? Here it's red clay. There's no way all evidence of a school house could sink below detecting depth. I could see it possibly happening in very sandy soil, but seems unlikely that it would all sink that low in the relatively short period of time we're talking about.

 

[hoser]

Time to break out the big guns and contact the old timers living in the area. Like fullbattery said, maps are not always reliable. If it was there, someone will know where it was located.

 

[EmuDetector]

Have you used anything like ARC GIS for LiDAR? Sometimes you can get a depression in the ground. I have a lot of free time today, if you PM me some info I'd like to help out on the digital end. I always enjoy your posts.

 

[GKman]

I would look for early aerial photos of your area of interest. There may be some evidence of where it was back in the 30s, 40s

Lidar is a possibility as well, although I'm not sure if there were many one room school houses with cellars that would leave a trace on the lidar imagery.

 

[robby4570]

I tried finding a early 1800s school house. It’s on several maps, and always in the same spot. I have some good land marks. A old house, two roads and a small stream.
I thought my only trouble would be getting permission. This is all open fields now. I started by walking right to where I thought it was, with no luck. Than I started a large grid. I covered about two or three acres. I could not find any nails any where. The ground is low and a little wet. Could the nails have sunk out of reach? I did find a colonial copper. It was very far from the roads and it wasn’t deep. (6”to8”)
I’m thinking this was a random drop. It didn’t sink out of reach. Could the building have been relocated? I think it was there for many years so I would think they would have to replace the roof which would have left nails. I am real stumped!
I plan on trying again.

Any ideas?

PM'ed you

 

[eman]

Not sure how they did it in Maryland but in Indiana schoolhouses are typically located at crossroads and placed approach 2 miles apart. If you have the location then I would look at the crossroads and look for a hill. Alot of old school houses have been bulldozed and likely buried under soil. Probably want to go all metal and listen for nails like your doing until you know your in the right area. Alot of times on the maps it actually across the road on the otherside. or plus or minus 100 yards in any direction - hence look for a dirt mound. If they till the field it should make it easier becasue you should see brick fragments somewhere..Good Luck!

 

[MasonDixonMding]

I have four different 1800s maps. It’s on all four in the same spot. I’ve tried lidar just flat fields. It’s gone on the early 1900s map. I’m hoping to go back and expand my search.

I’ve found many old home sites that have no visible trace. Two sites took me a couple of months to find them. But they where only on one old map and there where not many land marks. This site should have been very easy to find?

 

[7centsworth]

Like Gkman said. Try historicaerials.com. I found where a place was from the early 1800’s by looking at the difference in the land in the 1950’s. I could see lines in the grass in 1950 and I took a picture and then added different effects on my iPhone to bring out any detail I could.

 

[eman]

I have four different 1800s maps. It’s on all four in the same spot. I’ve tried lidar just flat fields. It’s gone on the early 1900s map. I’m hoping to go back and expand my search.

I’ve found many old home sites that have no visible trace. Two sites took me a couple of months to find them. But they where only on one old map and there where not many land marks. This site should have been very easy to find?

Any update on this? If you'd like a 2nd set of eye's I'm happy to take a look.

 

[MasonDixonMding]

Any update on this? If you'd like a 2nd set of eye's I'm happy to take a look.

I found it yesterday and I posted on coin shooting and relics. Thanks for the offer. Are you the near the mason dixon line?

 

[eman]

I found it yesterday and I posted on coin shooting and relics. Thanks for the offer. Are you the near the mason dixon line?

Nope, Indiana so no worries. Glad you found it.