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What Ghost Towns Have You Hunted?

Charles B

New member
Now-a-Days I try to stick to hunting ghost towns. I enjoy the solitude of the mountains here in Pennsylvania. I was recently up on the Sinemahonning River and as I had walked about 2 miles through the woods I saw 3 herds of Elk, 2 Golden Eagles and a wild trout stream with beautiful brook trout.

I did find an un-named ghost hamlet. The folks that lived here mined coal from a mine on the top of the mountain. I took these photos but didn't hunt it yet.

Let's hear about your ghost town adventures and see some pictures!
 
Looks like a perfect place to hunt. :thumbup:
 
This is probably a virgin site. I'm actually saving it until I can get some of the young guys in our group out there to hunt it. I've been at this longer than most of these guys have been alive....:shrug: not that I'm older than dirt or anything! I get a real kick out of seeing the young guys find a seated coin or large cent....I get to live vicariously and remember those good 'ole days!

I really enjoy the history and seeing what others are finding at these forgotten places.
 
I wish I were going on that hunt. :drool:
 
Hello Deusdigger,

You're always invited to come along if you get to Pennsylvania. I've just located 10 new ghost towns in Clinton County, Pa with the potential for 11 more. Some of these are really remote and most likely virgin sites....miles of hiking from the access road, but that's what has kept them from being rediscovered. I'll be doing more photography and video when I return to this area (when the snow melts) so you'll get to see everything. I'm hoping to find the old mine and maybe some artifacts. Going to try to do a little fishing too. It's going to be an interesting summer locating all of these. The area is also infested with rattlesnakes.
 
Hello Charles,
I located an old Ghost towns location a couple years ago.
It was a town that was once the only town in the area and was growing fast.
Then came the civil war and it was burn't never to be rebuilt again.
there are a lot of old building remains there, and the local historical society holds meetings there once in a while.

I contacted the owner,an elderly lady, she was as nice as could be and very interested in telling me about the old town.
That was until i brought up metal detecting!
It seemed over the years,People got to going in on their property and metal detecting without permission,so she said they do not let anyone do that anymore.
This made me sad, Later i contacted the historical society and tried to get permission through them,even offering to give all the finds to the society.
That did not work either.
Oh well, at least i feel i did the right thing by contacting the owner!

LabradorBob
 
Hello Bob,
Yep, I've had similar experiences. I got permission once from the owner of Gazzam in Pa. Then about an hour later he came and found me and said he changed his mind. As I was leaving a car load of young men was pulled up and they were out talking to him; as this ghost town is a little remote and from my prior conversations with the owner I think they were his nephews who were perhaps growing some contraband in the woods. I just said thank you and left....lots of other ghost towns on my list.

To this day I'm not even sure he was even the real owner; maybe just the nearest guy to the town. We talked for a couple hours before he gave me permission then I suspect he called his nephews who he said "keep an eye on the area".
 
There's a place about 20 miles from here that used to be a popular resort, but is closed now. Some members of my church asked the caretaker to ask the owner about me going dirt fishing there and they said no. It seems some people had posted on facebook and ancestry.com about metal detecting there without the owner's permission and they didn't care if he liked it or not and the end result is people who ask and practice metal detecting ethics are denied permission because of some undesirable folks.

There is a location of an old fort built in 1813, just a little way from where I was on the river today and it's also owned by the historical society and I have not asked them because I'm pretty sure the answer will be no. Next time they let the water down, two years from now I intend to detect below the high water mark in the river. I don't feel like that is wrong as long as I am in the public river, but I may email DNR just to be on the safe side anyway.

I do intend to ask them to hunt on the land area because it's a good size lot on the river, but don't expect anything. I'd love to work with the state archaeologist and have a display at the local library of the finds from this location. This would be some good public relations for our hobby. Unfortunately, most archaeologists think we are a bunch of scavengers and grave robbers. HH


LabradorBob said:
Hello Charles,
I located an old Ghost towns location a couple years ago.
It was a town that was once the only town in the area and was growing fast.
Then came the civil war and it was burn't never to be rebuilt again.
there are a lot of old building remains there, and the local historical society holds meetings there once in a while.

I contacted the owner,an elderly lady, she was as nice as could be and very interested in telling me about the old town.
That was until i brought up metal detecting!
It seemed over the years,People got to going in on their property and metal detecting without permission,so she said they do not let anyone do that anymore.
This made me sad, Later i contacted the historical society and tried to get permission through them,even offering to give all the finds to the society.
That did not work either.
Oh well, at least i feel i did the right thing by contacting the owner!

LabradorBob
 
Hello Fongu,

Many times I'll ask the property owner to go out with me and try out metal detecting...I give them all of the finds. I've even made them display boxes for the finds. I always have extra detectors with me just for this purpose. Sometimes once they understand the true nature of the hobby they will allow you to come back.....other times they think that their land holds something of incredible value and they are just incredibly greedy individuals.... and I wouldn't want to be bothered dealing with them. There are just too many places to hunt where it's sheer enjoyment without the aggrevation of a mean person spoiling the day.

I have converted many people to our hobby by teaching them to search their own property and they remain friends and hunting buddies....also it helps if someone who knows the property owner can introduce you to them.
 
WOW, does look like a great place to take a peak with the detector but, I'm more impressed there are Elk in PA. Never new that....Can ya heard some up here to NY...:shocked:

AND, you lost me at Rattlesnakes, yikes...
 
Hello JoeL0,

Yep we have an Elk herd of about 1,600. Got some BIG 7x8 Bulls. They allow a limited hunt of about 40-50 per year. I'd love to see the game commission move some to the Adairondacks and into West Virginia to expand their range. They are a big tourist attraction here. We had a cow elk walk up behind our car and scratch herself on it while the kids watched out the rear window. I've been just the width of a 2 lane road away from one of the big bulls....stayed close to the car while I was getting pictures incase he came after me.

We also have lots of snakes. We caught a 4' rattlesnake last year but the most aggressive one was a 5-6' black snake. I had to pin it down with my detector as it was trying hard to bite me. Also have lots of bears, coyotes and reportedly mountain lions now. I also often see Eagles; both Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles as well as Osprey and assorted Hawks.

The Northern Tier Counties in Pa. are still pretty wild. The ghost towns are numerous, native trout streams plentiful, abundant wildlife of all sorts and even a little gold in the rivers. The mountains aren't as steep as the Rockies but otherwise the area compares in beauty in every way.

Give me a yell if you're coming this way to metal detect and I can show you some great ghost towns and Elk.
 
Hello, this is the first time I look here. I'm Spanish and I'm no good English, sorry.
But this issue "ghost towns" is awesome. I like your pictures, and these stories. A ghost town has so much to tell ...
Thanks for sharing
Best Regards
 
Hello Senda,

You are correct. Ghost towns have a lot to offer besides metal detecting. I enjoy learning the history of the towns and photographing them in the different seasons. We look for the old dumps also, collect old bottles and document what we find at these places because soon they will be entirely gone. I also have the opportunity to photograph wildlife and I have found some native trout streams with beautiful brook trout in them. It's a good way to spend some leisure time.

Thanks for stopping by FindMall and I hope that you check in once in a while.

H.Charles
 
Thank you, Charles. Thanks for stopping to look at the world and share it.
Long ago entered the Forum Garrett AT PRO but my language problems I had looked at the "ghost towns" and it's great!
These ruins of stone houses remind me of my country, but here we have ghost towns ...
Best regards and see you around here
 
I live in gibsontown also known as needmore currant name is brachfield located in rusk co. tx it's just a crossroad community now but dates to the 1830's and once had a post office, school and church, in the 1950's i remember a cotton gin two filling stations two general stores and a barber shop. i never thought of it as a ghost town until recently! (define ghost town) our interest in detecting has made us aware of places like this.
 
Hello Skip,

You're sitting right in the middle of a great place to hunt.
There's nothing not to like about ghost towns. I'll be privy digging at one on Saturday. They just never seem to hunted out.

H.Charles
 
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