First fall field hunt

[Mark in S.E. IA]

Today I tracked down the owner of a bean field that was just picked. Right away he told me that I could MD his field but he does not think their ever was a 1 room schoolhouse "1RSH" there. He called his dad to check with him and he said the same thing. The school was a 1/2 mile north of there field, but I could MD it if I wanted to. Then he asked me if I could help him find a punch that he lost yesterday while working on the combine in that field. I said sure if he knows about where he lost it.... I know right where I lost it....He meet me at the field and I hopped in his pickup and we drove way across his field to a place that had a inside corner. we get out and he points to the ground and said that he got out of his pickup right there and walked less then 10 feet over to the combine and it fall out of his back pocket because it had a hole in it, lol... I made 3 swings of the MDer and found it... he's like your kidding, I looked for ever and could not find it. It blended in real good with all the bean stocks on the ground. Last night he was talking to his wife and said that he wished he knew of somebody that owned a MDer to help find his punch... and what are the odds that you come knocking on my door today to MD my field, life crazy some times. He drops me off at my car and tells me to have fun but I don't think the school house was ever there, it's a 1/2 mile north.

I get to MDing and I'm starting to think he was right. I'm not finding anything and getting very very few iron hits and those could be from the old field fence that use to be there. Most 1RSH you get a lot of iron hits. I was there for about a hour before I found my first coin and it was a 1898 Barber dime and about 10' from it I found a 1935 Buff which was toasted from the fertilizer. Later on I found a IH and a wheat and both of those coins are toasted bad too I can't see a date on either coin. Somebody MDed this field in the past and did a pretty good job at it. they cleaned most of the trash out and left me just a few coins.

After I was done MDing the field I went back over to the owners place to show him the coins. Most times I do not do that but I wanted to prove to him that there use to be a 1RSH there and my research was right, lol.... he told me that their use to be a 1RSH a mile north of his place and his uncle owns the land. I can MD it after they take the coin out. I guess he was talking to his uncle earlier on the phone and he told him about me finding his punch so I guess his uncle told him that I can MD his field too... it's a corn field and I do not like corn, but I'll take what I can get, lol

 

[Digger]

Good stuff Mark. Nice to hear that the harvest is underway up that direction. There have been a few corn fields started down this way....very few....and no beans yet. If it stays dry, it shouldn't be long though. Glad to hear that you found the punch so quickly. You will be surprised how many doors that might have opened up for you. Congrats on a successful outing. HH Randy

 

[Old Longhair]

Good job Mark!

You did better than I did today. I tried to get permission to hunt a site that there used to be a 1RSH, but others hunting there w/o permission queered it for me.

 

[jabbo]

Nice finds Mark. I like searching farms too but here's what I learned about cleared land at old farms. Some portions of land that were cleared of trees long ago became crop fields and some portions of land were cleared but were never planted, was strictly for fire wood. The fire wood portions have very few coins, if any. Old crop field portions is where the old coins are. Many times I searched the wrong portion and found almost nothing. I recently learned this from a local museum curator when I told him I found only a few modern coins in certain cleared portions. In old crop fields I find mostly 1700's King George pennies and sometimes 1800's silver, plus horse shoes and other tell tale signs of frequent activity from days of old. Jabbo

 

[Vilon]

good! congratulations.

 

[7centsworth]

Nice finds and good story.