ghost town thats never been detected?

ok so i have a rare oppertunity to detect on private property where an entire town used to sit that basicaly dissapeared in the 1920s about two years after they drained a recreational lake (1926) from what i have been able to dig up on the old town. no buildings are left to mark yards or buisnesses but there is still a church on the property. so my question is this. since this area is now farm ground and some woods used only for hunting where do I start? i am being taken out to the property by a friend who knows more about it then i do, but would i have better luck in the town proper or the lake area? oh i should mention this town was founded in the early 1830s befor this was even its own county. so any advice at all would be huge to me.

there hasta be opionions, suggestions, and tips from some of the pro's out there. im seriously in the hobby for like 2 weeks maybe a bit more lol im in way over my head

Might take a walk through the field and look for shards of glass or crockery, usually a good sign of activity. Mike.

See if you can locate a Sanborn fire insurance map for that town. Just Google, Sanborn maps+the state the ghost town located in or Sanborn+name of ghost town. You'll quickly find out what these maps are.

Is it on google maps? That might give you a different perspective that you can't get from down on the ground.

I would not focus on areas but kind of do a "sample" to isolate some productive spots.

There are some guys here that really know how to do this type of hunting, they'll come around.

no the only thing left visable is the church and the cemetary. not even sure of the dimensions of the town.

you will need to find an old map.....google, your local university, county courthouse, local historical society etc:
the recreational lake, was it filled in? if not look for the depression in the ground. homesites could also have left depressions.
if all farmland look for pices of bricks, concentrated areas areas with alot of nails and iron being found.
if you are in florida let me know and i will come and help you detect it!
that place sounds like alot of fun, do not tread on private land or farmers crops, make sure you dont tick anyone off and loose that spot!!!!!!

Well sounds like you have a great bunch of detecting ahead of you!! Congrat's..

Well to make it easy start at the church! Great place to look..I have always had luck around churches especially old churches...Especially around back in the shade tree area's...that's where the pic-nic table's would of sat usually for dinner on the gorunds, homecoming's all day singing's..Good spot to drop some coin's..

as far as finding the old houses...well most all of them would have a chimney...made of stacked rock or brick...so they are pretty easy to see in the woods piled up form falling down over time...Old road cut's are usually visible in the wood's also houses set along these road cut's...usually each house would have a large Oak in the front yard for shade to the home in the summer month's..No air conditioning back then,,,

Well hole's will be prominent for each house also...Also if you see a roadbed and walk it look for types of wild hedges in abundance...flowers also are visible this time of year...yes even 150 years after you can still find Jonquils around old home site's in the spring of the year...

Here's a road bed I took a pic of a couple of month's back


Here's a house site on the edge of the same road bed notice how different it look's from surrounding area..see the green clover ..it's springtime..


and here's a chimney in the wood's...notice it does not look like much..some will be 10 feet tall and other's will be hardly visible..some wont have chimney's at all..To a casual observer these site's can go un-missed but with a detector and some references you will find the house site's..


Most of the house sites here in my area the chimneys were made of rock instead of brick......sometimes the rocks have been hauled away. real old houses wont have a well but will be close to a water source...within 75 yards usually...a conglomerate of things will sometimes trigger you to a house site ..small tiny clues...I have been with people before and they never see them....I took me years to find subtle clues to some of them....The one in the pics are the easy one's..there's some that just feel like a house but nothing is there to tell you till you turn on a detector...Those are the best one's to find in my opinion...


If you are in a field and can trace the road beds from one end coming and one end going into the woods well the line through the field should be mostly straight..walk through the general area...Look for glass pottery etc...if it's and old site before say 1870 black glass will be visible...if you see purple glass and such in abundance it will be 1880's to early teens...Black glass will net you the older find's civil war and before...feather edge china...is an great indicator of pre civil war site's when also mixed with the black glass..

If it's an huge open field according to the direction it is away from you look into it with the sun at you back preferably in the morning or late afternoon...just have it behind you and look into the field and the spot's where the glass is at will light up twinkle for hundreds of yards with just the slightest movement of your head gazing along the field the sun reflection will get your attention...

Ask away on questions I will answer what I know...

Keith



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/2012 06:01AM by Keith Southern.

You should be able to get a map somewhere-somehow as that would surely help. Area Library is a good place to start...For some reason historical societies and such at least from my experience are not pro relative the hobby but your area may differ..

I would bet it has been detected...I know it would have been if in my area as the oldtimers left no stone unturned...Even so should be keepers in the ground...

Heck I would start in the churchyard especially on the sides of the pathway to the front door of the building...Do stay away from the cemetary for many ethical reasons old or not...

Do be polite, neat and respectful of property owners as it could provide many hours, days, months or even years of detecting and same old story tell your friends about your favorite fish hole and it will cease to exist...

If you get a Sanborn map...chances are the cemetery/church will be on it. If thats the case, your problems will be solved, as Sanborn maps were very precise in locations of buildings/structures. Besides the Internet, as others stated, there are other sources that may have a Sanborn map or a county map etc. Do your homework. If it was the county seat at one time, its recorded on some map.

If you have a hard time figuring it out,put in all metal and move quickly till ya find abundance of signals.

Hi Brian, I would be happy to help you out if I can with some research on the area you are asking about. There has to be some old maps out there that will answer your questions about where the town was located. Feel free to call me anytime ( I sent my phone number to you a few nights ago).
If you make it down to Jacksonville call me and we will hit a few spots around the area.....HH...

Roger

Keith injected some nice ideas in his post and imagine he has just been there done that in like areas.

Speaking from experience my buddy and I found an old church and apparently someone found it before us as the courtyard was picked clean and not a penny to be found.

In a 10 foot square to the rear of the church amongst the trees found 2 barber and one merc. dimes so indeed would surmise it was used for picnics and socials populiar in days gone by before TV's, PC's and the like.

Good luck and if you can locate where the general store was located should be a hotspot....

ok well here it goes. the property has been owned by a friends parents since the 50's, and they have never let anybody do any digging or detecting on the property ( not saying that people havnt snuck in and done it) anyway.... the sanborn map was a bust couldnt find anything that dated that far back on the net( i was wrong the town ended in 1907) but buildings remained untill 1920s. ihave viewed the area from google earth ( i love this program) and i have located a plat map of the town from 1890s from the local library as well as a small book the did in detail about who lived there at the founding and thrue the growth of the town and where they lived. thruesome effort i was able to figure out the measurments of property lines and roads so that i hope will help some. But awesome info on here so far thanks for the pics that will help alot being able to see pics once im there to recognize some of the features.


does tilling soil from farm use make things easier or tuffer when detecting?

also... should i spend the time digging every signal or discriminate? i doubt there is alot of trash like soda cans there so not really worried about that.
in illinois i have been told that the natural freeze and thaw cycle here along with the grass root system that most coins stay within the top 8 inches? (is this true?)
glass bottels? i have always collected these and actually have two that are in a museum in rochester minn. ( same bottles not the ones actually in the museum) but dont know much about 1800 glass. any idea where i can get info?
any idea how long plats where mapped? is there a specific format plotting them if there is houses ( log cabins in the time) already on the property befor the town as actually plotted?
when dealing with old wells have any of you found items close to the wells or in them?

should i spend the time digging every signal or discriminate?.............if your comfortable with all metal and its not real trashy use all metal. on some detectors id mode is deeper, so you might want to check that out.

in illinois i have been told that the natural freeze and thaw cycle here along with the grass root system that most coins stay within the top 8 inches? (is this true?)..............it was true for me up in ohio but it depends on a soils density and other factors.

glass bottels? i have always collected these and actually have two that are in a museum in rochester minn. ( same bottles not the ones actually in the museum) but dont know much about 1800 glass. any idea where i can get info? ..........there are bottle collecting forums on the internet! you are also going to want to find any bottle dumps on that property.

any idea how long plats where mapped?.............nope.

is there a specific format plotting them if there is houses ( log cabins in the time) already on the property befor the town as actually plotted?..................i dont know.

when dealing with old wells have any of you found items close to the wells or in them?...........yes, in them but be carfull!!!!! bottle dumps(could be a nearby creek), and outhouses.

Terradigger:

Just how in Gods name does one find the Sanborn maps on the internet say ... for Tennessee, Carter County, Elizabethton? I have searched many times for these maps and they are always behind closed doors of some University, locked beyond reach of us commoners of the internet unless you just happen to work at said university or be a student there. I have wasted many hours trying to find these or make sense of some site that is suppose to have these maps or other historcal maps. If you could give a poor soul the information of how to do this, I for one would be greatly appreciative. Give me a link or something for the particular place mentioned above as I don't seem to have any luck in finding out how to use these mystical internet locations that offer such things to find my area... or any area as far as that's concerned.

I guess you can tell I'm experated in trying to find out where these maps are and how to actually SEE one! I'm beginning to think they are just a myth :-)

Tks...

C.

Let your detector find the hot spots for you. Do dig all of the soda tab ID targets....... and all of the 'coin' targets. Ignore digging iron. You can dig the foil targets later. Sounds like this site will have minimal trash.