Hi Josh, As long as you are going to be looking for old houses, why not go all the way and start at your local Library and look for the History and "oldest" historic places that can possibly also be found on those TOPO's if you learn how to look for them. Land records(BLO) can show you dates of who lived where and when and legal land descriptions can show you their locations on the TOPO's. Got Rivers, old roads? Check Historic Maps for old Ferry Crossings, and Roads and High Grounds for camp sites during high water stages when folks would have been waiting for the water to go down . Historic Aerials will show old roads and even Anomalies /outlines of all manner of land disturbances, and folage where people were living and doing stuff. That's just some of the things you can tune in to. Read your local history and you will be surprised what turns up to help you find some good detecting spots. Most all Libraries, even in small towns take pride in their Local Histories and have a pretty good supply of whatever there is to be had on hand and are glad to help folks with it. Once you get into it if will become second nature and you will enjoy the research almost as much as the digging! HH, Charlie
