I have been working on gaining access to a couple fields that housed 1875 homesteads in my local area. The first had 2 homesteads in the field on either side of the house. The drive that lead to the house was about 100' long. As I entered the drive I saw 3 signs, no solicitors, no trespassing, and no hunting, fishing...etc. I stopped at the signs on the telephone pole, hesitated, then thought what the heck. I drove to the house and knocked on the door. I was greeted by a white haired Charles Manson. Ugh...maybe this was a mistake. I stated my purpose and asked if I could search the field. He was nice enough but said "I can't let you do that". I responded "good enough, thanks for your time".... Check that one off my list.
Then I stopped at another house and was greeted by a friendly gentleman who proceeded to tell me a bit of the history and pointed to where he thought the homestead actually was. The homeowner said he has documents for the property going back to 1816 and that it would be OK for me to hunt the field but there were two rules. He gets 50% of the valuables and he had to be home while I was there. I agreed but figured it might be a problem if he started splitting hairs on individual coins etc. But I could always see where it goes and walk away if it gets too crazy. He said he was home all the time but the couple times I stopped by through the week he wasn't home.
I caught him at home yesterday but he had to leave in a half hour. He said I could hunt during that time. I said that I would just be getting warmed up and I would come back another time. I also said that if he changes his mind about me being there that I wouldn't give him any grief. Just let me know and I will move on. He said don't leave, we can walk the area and you can look it over. Then he said get your detector and see what you can find. I put it on speaker so he could hear what I was hearing. As we walked and talked and the detector sang out I picked a few artifacts from the ground (shotgun shells, lead bullet, fragments of copper or brass). We talked for over an hour about detecting, history, and whatever the conversation led to. He told me how
he had been done wrong by people he trusted in the past. I said that I am financially comfortable and that I have no need to steal from him. A man is only as good as his word and there shouldn't have to be any more than that. I think that helped ease his suspicions of any alterior motives.
Heck, I told him he should kick me off the property and hunt it himself. He smiled and said no, but would like to join me in the future. I told him the next time I come over, I will bring my other detector and he can use that while I'm there. He was also impressed with the pin-pointer and how it helped find targets. It was time for him to leave, so I said just honk your horn when you are ready and I will depart also. He smiled and said don't worry about it, you can stay as long as you want. So I continued to map the area with my GT. Although I didn't find any coins, I made a new aquaintance and possibly a hunting buddy.
Ran
Then I stopped at another house and was greeted by a friendly gentleman who proceeded to tell me a bit of the history and pointed to where he thought the homestead actually was. The homeowner said he has documents for the property going back to 1816 and that it would be OK for me to hunt the field but there were two rules. He gets 50% of the valuables and he had to be home while I was there. I agreed but figured it might be a problem if he started splitting hairs on individual coins etc. But I could always see where it goes and walk away if it gets too crazy. He said he was home all the time but the couple times I stopped by through the week he wasn't home.
I caught him at home yesterday but he had to leave in a half hour. He said I could hunt during that time. I said that I would just be getting warmed up and I would come back another time. I also said that if he changes his mind about me being there that I wouldn't give him any grief. Just let me know and I will move on. He said don't leave, we can walk the area and you can look it over. Then he said get your detector and see what you can find. I put it on speaker so he could hear what I was hearing. As we walked and talked and the detector sang out I picked a few artifacts from the ground (shotgun shells, lead bullet, fragments of copper or brass). We talked for over an hour about detecting, history, and whatever the conversation led to. He told me how
he had been done wrong by people he trusted in the past. I said that I am financially comfortable and that I have no need to steal from him. A man is only as good as his word and there shouldn't have to be any more than that. I think that helped ease his suspicions of any alterior motives.
Heck, I told him he should kick me off the property and hunt it himself. He smiled and said no, but would like to join me in the future. I told him the next time I come over, I will bring my other detector and he can use that while I'm there. He was also impressed with the pin-pointer and how it helped find targets. It was time for him to leave, so I said just honk your horn when you are ready and I will depart also. He smiled and said don't worry about it, you can stay as long as you want. So I continued to map the area with my GT. Although I didn't find any coins, I made a new aquaintance and possibly a hunting buddy.
Ran
