Old Mill Site

[Metaldetective1975]

Hi everyone,
I just joined this forum and it looks like a great place for an incredible amount of useful information.

I just received permission from a landowner to detect his property (~9 acres) which includes some very old buildings and an old grist mill on a tiny creek. I heard that it was previously hunted, but it could still be an unbelievably great chance to find some really old stuff.

I did some library research and found a hand-drawn map from 1860 which show the grist mill (and possibly a sawmill, also) as well as some other buildings (houses, etc.).

I am interested in coinshooting, but any relics or historical artifacts will be returned to the owner, since he is a volunteer at a local museum. I get to keep any coins I might find.

I will be using my new Minelab Safari, and I have never hunted a site like this before. It seems very overgrown with weeds, shrubs, etc.. (and probably loaded with ticks, poison ivy and the owner's dog poop).

Any recommendations for hunting a very old site like this (all-metal mode, settings, locations, etc.)?
I presume that there will be quite a bit of iron, etc.. Thanks, in advance.

 

[airscapes]

Might want to do the clear areas now and the more overgrown in the fall and early winter. Hopefully it is and open ended invitation as 9 acres is years of hunting..

 

[Digdoggy]

Maybe try to include a small coil (sniper) no bigger than maybe 6 inches for separating trash like old nails but also it'll help you scoot in and around growth, weeds, stubble and right up in between tree roots. In fact don't forget to hit around the largest oldest trees. The roots help carry targets up toward the surface. People allways sat in the shade of these big old trees. Check the shade spot on the east side of the oldest trees. Also if houses were there try to imagine where the clothes line was in the back yard if you can tell where the house sat.
That's just a couple quick hot spots to get started. There's many more and all that property,,,9 acres and a mill? Could be old silver just about anywhere. HH n GL

Dog

 

[Treasurehunter1967]

Metaldetective1975,

Where ya from by the way? Did you find anything cool?

 

[Metaldetective1975]

Hi Stephen,
I live in Central NJ, but my old mill site is in NW NJ. I hope to get there on Sunday (family graduation and birthday parties almost every weekend this time of year).
I cannot wait to begin hunting this site... I will post anything I might find there.

 

[ironsight]

Sounds like a killer site. This time of year detecting in heavy brush is at best a PITA unless you weed wack or mow the area. Otherwise these overgrown type sites are best hunted in early Fall. I searched a similar overgrown site late Spring and counted 7 ticks before i got back in my car and a couple more later when i got home.

If you're after relics, all metal is the way to go. Basically be prepared to dig everything. If those old buildings were not moved back in the day, chances are good you're gonna find a corroded nail grave yard.

 

[Mega]

Any location like yours that once or still provides a service as in corn grinding or what ever and folks come to pay for the service will offer the chance of dropped items mainly coins or artifact that have dropped out of pockets while paying for the service,it may only be 9 acres or it may have been detected before,any opportunity to get on a site like this must be jumped upon.You have a good detector and the site really wants to be gone over in a methodical way,very slowly and try and work out which areas that would have had alot of visitors.

Try and step back and think of the areas that would have had the most traffic,footpaths or roads into the mill site,areas that would have loaded up the sacks onto what ever transport they used,these are the areas that you would have had the most chance of folks dropping money or any other items.

A site like that would keep me going for a very long time,i have just been given permission on a very similar site over here in the UK albeit the site was a very old brick making site,but the history goes back 100s of years so this tells me alot of folks must have walked or worked on that site and the chance of finding anything must be good,have been doing alot of research on the site and also google earth has shown me some hotspots,that may well be worth search your site with google earth as well just incase it highlights some interesting areas as well.

Good luck,take your time and you may find something nice.

 

[Metaldetective1975]

Many Thanks for the advice. I will certainly report back here with results.
Gotta run off now to one of those family parties.
Cheers!

 

[Metaldetective1975]

Man, am I really bummed.....
I went to this site, and it turned out to be trashiest place I have ever detected (even worse than public parks). No coins or relics. The place looked like a trash dump, with piles of old wood, concrete, pipes, construction materials and trash everywhere, and poison ivy all over the place. The ground was absolutely littered with pieces of wire, pull tabs, plumbing parts, construction debris and even auto parts (after much digging to a good-sounding target, it turned out to be a distributor cap from someones car). This was extremely disappointing but I kept digging "good" targets only to find more trash, even in the more remote areas.
The old mill building is still there, but was a dumping site for even more trash.

I was only there an hour before my new Koss headphones decided to stop working (only about 8 hours of use).
Once I get the headphone issue resolved (I may need to buy another), I may go back there, but I may wait until Autumn, as Ironsight mentioned above.

 

[azsh07]

Typical.....sadly old cellars and old foundations tend to become trash pits for people living in the area. here in Maine many were used to dump trash in when the towns used to either not have a town dump or when they started to charge fees. I have been a few miles down closed tote raods and found cellars full of junk dumped there...same with mills. Not even considering the metal trash related to a mill building...that can be fun enough but when you add people being pigs and dumping trash in them it ruins them completely sometimes.
Now I would also offer words of hope as I have hunted many grist mills. So...consider the following. Grist mills were such that farmers brought their grain to the mill from the local area. So....I have found that many times the majority of what i find is NOT within 100 feet of the mill.
I am not saying nothing was found close but more was found along the cart paths and surrounding woods/land. Think that farmers were traveling to and fro and would have to pay for the mill service or barter for grain etc. So while the immediate area surrounding the mill may be toast try and find the cart roads in and do those and in general try and move out away from the trash as far as it takes and search from there. Seriously I have found colonial coins hundreds of feet and even hundreds of yards away.
Hope that helps......if it is trashy...simply move away until the trash becomes tolerable....usually takes 100 feet or so....just my experience.