help with theory needed

[greasecarguy]

I went back to my old trail, that led to a mountaintop resort. I attempted to look for areas that were flat, thinking the horse teams may have rested here and passengers would too. Unfortuneatly, this lead me nowhere. I found some clad, mostly pennies, a lot of pull tabs, bullets and junk. A ton of time and work to no avail.

I then went to the lookout areas thinking that hikers and the like would sit down there. Again, some clad...no silver or gold. Bullets and garbage.

After, I went to the resort shell. It has been abandoned for 80 or 90 years. near the old bar building, I found an old doorknob, some recent junk, a lot of trash; it was very tough digging. Not too sure anyone should be digging here on state land, and I was tired and bitten to pieces by the bugs.

Anyway, I really thought my thought train was quite logical. I think if there were good coins, I would have found one.

Is it fair to assume that if you find clad and you know this has been a popular area for 150 years, that there would be some good coins too?

Any research tips would be appreciated.

 

[steve in so la]

It sounds like you have the usual places figured out - pull outs, lookouts, etc. Keep in mind that no matter what, they have to have been dropped for you to find them. Not trying to be obvious, just realistic. Anything that old deserves a lot of looking - and just one or two great old coins will make it all worthwhile. Good luck, steve in so az

 

[z118]

It does sound like a very logical place to hunt... and that may be just the problem, because it may have also sounded like a logical place to hunt for some other guy with a detector 10 years ago.

I've always had lousy luck at places that you would think would be great to hunt... and I'm guessing it is because if it is obvious to me, it was most likely obvious to someone before me too.

 

[greasecarguy]

I agree z, obvious to one is obvious to another. However, if we follow that chain reaction, there would be nowhere left to hunt...no?

I am currnetly researching an old revolutionary site that is local. A book i am reading from 1959 indicated that there were several encampments/forts locally. One is known based on stone structures remaining at that time. But when I spoke to the historical society, they said that no one knows exactly where it was. The geography leads us to speculate based on suitability.

Would you guys say that this is also too obvious? If so, I'll need to look further into the other location. Most of these are 3 to 4 miles hiking into the woods. Some are trailess. One such spot where I am certain there was an Indian encampment yeilded nothing although I was brand new with an md.
This is 5 miles in by trail up and over a 1200 verticle climb. The other route is 1.5 bushwack along a small stream.

 

[steve in so la]

One of the best sites I ever did was a 1 1/2 mile walk in through the desert. It was an old railroad house site and we sifted/detected 1,000 items from the grounds. So sometimes the site can be worth the effort and sometimes not. Do as much research as possible and try them, I always look for the sites that are not in the books for all to read about. steve in so az

 

[greasecarguy]

to Steve in AZ

Steve can you describe the research process as you see it?