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Ed Steinhoff said:It does seem a little lame right now, maybe give it a little time to find its feet and it might take off.
warmer weather and people being able to get out and dig will probabley help.
Right now most of the info can be found in the encyclopedia.
HH Ed in co.
H.Charles Beil said:Hi guys,
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
My comment was really like a tongue in cheek response. This doesn't bother me...probably motivates me more....it's just like water off a ducks back.
What I know, is that ghost towns have been very generous to me. I have recovered numerous small caches, lots of jewelry and coins are almost always pre-1900. I dig every signal because the iron that you overlook at these places could be an old gun, button, badge etc. Heck, I even like square cut nails.
We have some good stuff in the works I just need to find where to place these files for the guys to download without opening them up to the entire Internet....I want it to be a FindMall exclusive.....old history books, atlases, collections of photos in a library so we don't have to search through a lot of other websites to find what we're looking for.
I'll also be designing some tutorials on how I go about finding a new ghost town as the places I search won't show up on any map within the last 100-200 years. Some are only on one particular type of map and you won't find them online or in an encyclopedia. So if you'd like to search a virgin site I'll show you how to find them and LabradoreBob will show you how to map them. I think we have a pretty good team going here. Kayden is also a good researcher and mapper. I know he's found some places on google earth and penn pilot that he must have magnified with a microscope. You'll want to get to know him as well.
Check back often to see what we have all added to this forum.
Cheers
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H.Charles Beil said:Hello Deusdigger,
I tend to use the old Beers and Sanborn Maps as well as railroad maps. Railroad maps are key. Look for spur lines that came off the main lines and run into the mountains.....they were always going somewhere that made economic sense. Today these lines are long gone and so are the towns that they served.
O.K...now you've forced me to release one of my closely guarded secrets to my success as a treasure hunter.....I have recovered many small caches in these forgotten towns.....As I have gotten older, I've come to the realization that I have as much chance of searching all of these places as I do in running a marathon and I really enjoy identifying them for others to search just to see what they find.
Are you looking anyplace in particular? I usually select a county and look for all of the lines that once served the area.....rail lines, coal trams, electric railroads etc...Along with the large lines there were small privately owned railroads that served only a smaller area. These would typically connect perhaps several mining communities or logging towns together and also connect to a larger line. These sometimes are not shown on the maps of the larger continental railroads because they were not owned by them even though they connected to them. These are the railroads that you want to learn about.
Gosh you're killing me letting this information out. I could have hoarded this information and searched these towns until I was older than Mathesula; at least for the next 900 years...........there are lots of unsearched towns out there just waiting for you.
I don't care how much you torture me.....I'll never reveal my secrets about the North-East stagecoach lines and how it was a legal requirement that they have a tavern at every stop.....
Cheers