Hey Steve and Cierlast....Look what "we" dug today!

[Anonymous]

I guess you could say we had limited success!The first spot I hit was Steves circled X...And within a few minutes dug the 1920 SL Quarter! Believe it or not it lined up perfectly with Steves mark!Less than 6 feet from the Quarter I dug the 1920 merc and the 2 wheaties! I also dug a sterling silver spoon from the same area.(not pictured couldn't get a good scan)
Moving on to Steves 2nd mark I dug the 1912 V nickel.It was pretty much on mark with Steves map and was deep and giving a decent "gold" signal on my XLT.It got my heart rate up for a while.I dug a lot of trash but this was the only keeper from this area.
Steves 3rd mark was being guarded by a large bull and a small herd of cows.As I approached the spot the bull bellowed and began giving me hateful-yet amorous looks.Neither option appealed to me and I decided that no coin-gold or otherwise was worth facing that bull!I will check this spot another day
Steves 4th mark was under water due to the winter run off,so I headed to the other end of the field to check Cierlasts picks.
Cierlast's first mark near the creek was also under water so I headed for his second mark in the walnut tree grove.I spent pretty much the rest of the day in and around the walnut grove and dug the tokens,button,and whatzits along with a ton of trash.
No gold today but I seriously believe it is out there somewhere....maybe next time.I had a great time-the weather and ground conditions were perfect.I hope everyone enjoyed our little "experiment"...I know I did!

 

[Anonymous]

...that I had pull-tabs discriminated out. <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol">
Great digs! What an amazing site. You mentioned earlier that they dumped garbage on the field? What kind of trash and junk do you dig there?
It seems amazing that there are so many coins, tokens and badges there. WIs it possible that they were pumping out holding tanks from the toilets of a fairground or some other public place and spreading that on the fields? Or that this was a fairground or a picnic area itself?
What a great day out, thanks for taking us along! <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt="">

 

[Anonymous]

Steve,It was a large hog farm in its day.The owners had a contract with the city of St. Louis to accept all the garbage collected in the city.The garbage was loaded on train cars and hauled to this site on a daily basis.Sometimes several trainloads a day.There were a couple of dozen workers on this end who unloaded the trains and spread the garbage on the fields using mules and wagons to do so.The hogs ate the garbage and when they reached market size were shipped to St. Louis on the same trains to slaughter houses.
This went on for aprox 30 years and stopped in aprox 1920.There were aprox 600,000 people living in St.Louis in 1900. Multiply this by 30 years and you get a lot of garbage!
One of the most common trash finds is zinc canning jar lids....Thousands of them, many cut into pieces by farming operations done in the past.Brass and copper plumbing fixtures,parts of brass valves once used in the gas lights in the city,and melted lead are also common.There must have been thousands of bottles and jars as well.I have yet to dig a hole without finding broken glass.I have also dug a couple of dozen intact cork bottles over the years-accidently found while digging metal objects.
It is a beautiful piece of ground today and at a glance one wouldn't have a clue about its history or what is buried just beneith the surface.I discovered the site after finding a brief mention of it while researching local history by reading mico-film of past issues of the local newspaper at the library.
Since then I have discovered a SECOND site that had the same type operation about 50 miles away.Unfortunatly it has been devolped and paved over and its secrets are probably forever lost.
I suspect these type operations may have once been fairly common around many of our larger cities...

 

[Anonymous]

And from reading your other post below with the history and use if the land, the 'whatzits' you could potentially find would keep you busy for a lifetime.
Dan thanks for letting me try my hand at remote locating at your expense, it was fun!
Some really wonderful finds you picked up there. Keep us posted on how you do there in the future!
HH