Sunday, January 4, 2015

First Dig of The Year! 1.4.15

Today we ventured out to 2 new properties. One of which we have been waiting to get on for almost a year. Our first stop was to a property that we have only recently received permission to. It is a field just off the main road. It use to be covered with trees but the owner had it cleared. We were told about an old house that had burned down, which we later found out we were looking in the wrong part of the field for and also learned that it had burned down more than 60 years ago. There was also a barn on the property at that time and we are beyond excited to find. We did not stay on this property long for we were finding mostly trash. A lot of canslaw and shotgun shells.

From there we went to the second location, we will call it the "Colonial House". The history of this house is that it is colonial era and burned down nearly 60 years ago. The story on its untimely demise is that some teenage kids were inside the house smoking. No one was living in the house at the time. At some point in the middle of the night the house burned to the ground leaving only the 2 chimneys standing. The owner of the property agreed some many months ago to show us the location of this house. Today he done so and boy what a day. The first signs we came across that there had one time been a house there were bricks. Almost every hole we dug had bricks in it. In fact one hole that my dad, Not a Nickle is what he goes by, dug was pretty much nothing but bricks. We believe it may have been part of a chimney. At the bottom of this 2 foot hold he found what we believe to be the lid to a pot. Its made of Iron and is a nice size. Half of it is missing and there is a spot on the top that looks like it was once a handle. Not too long after this he found the first coin of the day, a large cent. We believe the date to be 1814 but the condition of the coin is pretty bad. Maybe 20 or 30 mins later I found the second and last coin of the day. Let me tell you a little about this hole. I dug one hole and found an iron rod in it. Right beside that hole I got another signal, The wall of the first hole was part of the second hole. In the second hole I found 2 pieces of Iron which we have yet to determine what they are. As I'm about to cover the second hole I check to make sure there isn't anything else there. I hear this really beautiful beep and on my screen pops up and strong 77-78 signal. I call my dad over because I want to make sure that I'm not the only one who is picking up such a beautiful signal. We dig the hole and low and behold a coin. At first sight we are unable to determine what it is and it isn't until we get home that we discover what it is I have found. It is a 1773 Virginia Halfpenny.

All in all we had a not so terrible day of detecting. We found several pieces of Iron at the second site that were objects used in the colonial time period. We are hoping to get back out there soon. Today was a rare day for January. We had 70 degree weather. Usually its in the 30's at this time of year.

Hope you enjoyed our hunt. If you would like to see some of our finds you can go to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtxb9i-au1p5KfkwE2vAVbg If todays video has not yet been posted it will be as soon as I can Edit it.

Happy Hunting!!