I've started a thread over at another forum about getting access to a very cool site.
I think I have an Exclusive VIP ALL Access pass to a Ghost Town!!
I've been researching Ghost Towns in my area and have found a few within day-trip distance (we live in an RV so we can just drive it there for a multi day hunt) that seem promising. One in particular while not THE closest one is one of the closer ones to me and really piqued my interest. So I focused on it - we'll call it GT1 for now - about 3 weeks ago I started researching all the internet links I could, which led me to some local newspaper articles and some old books and maps. The maps are on a state funded server so they are free to the public and some of the maps import directly into Google Earth (my favorite tool) as overlays. I found a map from 1944 that still shows the location of about 10 structures that are now long gone. The town was active and populated from about the 1860's through the late 1940's and while no longer a town, some of the original families' descendants still live near there. And this is where my story takes an interesting twist...
In doing my research, I stumbled onto a link to - of all things - FACEBOOK!! There is a section of Facebook where people can log places they have been, and I found 10 people that say they have been to GT1 AND, one of them says he LIVES THERE!!! So I sent him a friend request and a message on Facebook which he answered almost immediately. He gave me his phone number and I called him. We talked for somewhere around half an hour and he invited me up to meet him, sit and go over my research and his stories that have been handed down in the family over the decades and to plan how we are going to try to bring the history of GT1 back to life. He is very interested in verifying (or disproving) some of the stories he has heard over his lifetime, and on a side note, he also is a scuba diver wanting to get a metal detector for diving with. Additionally, just before his father passed he told the sons that he had buried a mason jar of coins somewhere under the concrete slab of the old general store before the slab was poured. This guy's brother dug up that slab down to 6 feet looking for this cache. Only one small section of the slab got left in place so that the whole site wasn't destroyed - I told you this guy is into preserving the town's history - and we have that to start from as well.
I'll know more next week after I meet with "Mr. GT1". I'm (and I hope Y'all understand) keeping all of this really close to the vest right now, only 5 of us know any more of the details than what I have said here. I'm fairly confident that this site won't get pillaged as it is entirely on private lands - either Mr. GT1 or his neighbors' - and I am the only one he has spoken with about this. Since I live in an RV, I have no room to keep artifacts (other than a few coins if he allows me a few) so I assured him that any finds are his first and the county's Historical Society's second if he wants to donate them. All I want is to preserve the history of the town, be recognized for it, and maybe get an odd old coin or two.
Now, I have over 1125 hours detecting, 95% of that is on the beach. So if any of you full time dirt fishers have any tips or hints for this "novice" on how to preserve my finds - from the minute my digger touches the soil until I have it on the table at the house - I'd sure appreciate your input. This is all on forested land so cutting plugs isn't going to be an issue but I am pretty good at it when I have to do it.
So stay tuned to this thread and I will update it with finds and more info as I have them!
I think I have an Exclusive VIP ALL Access pass to a Ghost Town!!
I've been researching Ghost Towns in my area and have found a few within day-trip distance (we live in an RV so we can just drive it there for a multi day hunt) that seem promising. One in particular while not THE closest one is one of the closer ones to me and really piqued my interest. So I focused on it - we'll call it GT1 for now - about 3 weeks ago I started researching all the internet links I could, which led me to some local newspaper articles and some old books and maps. The maps are on a state funded server so they are free to the public and some of the maps import directly into Google Earth (my favorite tool) as overlays. I found a map from 1944 that still shows the location of about 10 structures that are now long gone. The town was active and populated from about the 1860's through the late 1940's and while no longer a town, some of the original families' descendants still live near there. And this is where my story takes an interesting twist...
In doing my research, I stumbled onto a link to - of all things - FACEBOOK!! There is a section of Facebook where people can log places they have been, and I found 10 people that say they have been to GT1 AND, one of them says he LIVES THERE!!! So I sent him a friend request and a message on Facebook which he answered almost immediately. He gave me his phone number and I called him. We talked for somewhere around half an hour and he invited me up to meet him, sit and go over my research and his stories that have been handed down in the family over the decades and to plan how we are going to try to bring the history of GT1 back to life. He is very interested in verifying (or disproving) some of the stories he has heard over his lifetime, and on a side note, he also is a scuba diver wanting to get a metal detector for diving with. Additionally, just before his father passed he told the sons that he had buried a mason jar of coins somewhere under the concrete slab of the old general store before the slab was poured. This guy's brother dug up that slab down to 6 feet looking for this cache. Only one small section of the slab got left in place so that the whole site wasn't destroyed - I told you this guy is into preserving the town's history - and we have that to start from as well.
I'll know more next week after I meet with "Mr. GT1". I'm (and I hope Y'all understand) keeping all of this really close to the vest right now, only 5 of us know any more of the details than what I have said here. I'm fairly confident that this site won't get pillaged as it is entirely on private lands - either Mr. GT1 or his neighbors' - and I am the only one he has spoken with about this. Since I live in an RV, I have no room to keep artifacts (other than a few coins if he allows me a few) so I assured him that any finds are his first and the county's Historical Society's second if he wants to donate them. All I want is to preserve the history of the town, be recognized for it, and maybe get an odd old coin or two.
Now, I have over 1125 hours detecting, 95% of that is on the beach. So if any of you full time dirt fishers have any tips or hints for this "novice" on how to preserve my finds - from the minute my digger touches the soil until I have it on the table at the house - I'd sure appreciate your input. This is all on forested land so cutting plugs isn't going to be an issue but I am pretty good at it when I have to do it.
So stay tuned to this thread and I will update it with finds and more info as I have them!