GoGoGopher
New member
Took a day trip to a place called Happy Valley here in NY...It is a ghost town/NYS Wildlife management area...
There have been many tales about this place...It is said it was settled by the French in the 1820s-1830s, after the French and Indian war. Then in the 1930s, the townsfolk just all suddenly died off from Black Plague, some say Black Water Fever (Malaria), some said Small Pox...
Well, they were all wrong...The village of Happy Valley (Fraicheur as the French called it), was founded in 1820s, and was a small farming community of a few Hundred folk...The little village lived "Happily" until the Great Depression in 1920s hit...The Farmers could not afford to keep their farms running, and the State saw some cheap land coming up for sale...The state literally bought the land from these people for pennies...Pennies!!!...The farmers were forced to dismantle their homes to sell the lumber to make enough to move away...This all occurred over a span of 30 years, not overnight as legend would have you believe...So the final residents died or sold out to the state in the 1950s, and the State turned the area into a Wildlife Management Area...All that remains now of Happy Valley are a few Cellar holes, the remains of one old Barn and Silo (just the foundations), a Cemetery (oldest death 1873, newest Burial 2001, with plots still unfilled), and a one room schoolhouse which was burned to the ground by teens 2 years ago...We found the Cemetery, schoolhouse, and barn...We could not find any cellar holes with the foliage in summer now...We Will have to hit it again in the Fall before deer season...
Over 150 years of history, and all I found was:
Quarters - 1986, 2002 Dimes - 1965P, 1984P, 2001P Nickels - 1970D, 1992P Pennies - 1967, 1978, 1980, 1982 Zincs - 1990, 2000D, 2006, 2008
A piece of spoon (not silver), 9MM or 45 JHP, a copper washer, 2x 7.62x39 Wolf cartridges, and a 223 Remington Wolf cartridge
There were tons of iron signals as would be expected, but the Quantum II was great about sorting it out.
HH,
There have been many tales about this place...It is said it was settled by the French in the 1820s-1830s, after the French and Indian war. Then in the 1930s, the townsfolk just all suddenly died off from Black Plague, some say Black Water Fever (Malaria), some said Small Pox...
Well, they were all wrong...The village of Happy Valley (Fraicheur as the French called it), was founded in 1820s, and was a small farming community of a few Hundred folk...The little village lived "Happily" until the Great Depression in 1920s hit...The Farmers could not afford to keep their farms running, and the State saw some cheap land coming up for sale...The state literally bought the land from these people for pennies...Pennies!!!...The farmers were forced to dismantle their homes to sell the lumber to make enough to move away...This all occurred over a span of 30 years, not overnight as legend would have you believe...So the final residents died or sold out to the state in the 1950s, and the State turned the area into a Wildlife Management Area...All that remains now of Happy Valley are a few Cellar holes, the remains of one old Barn and Silo (just the foundations), a Cemetery (oldest death 1873, newest Burial 2001, with plots still unfilled), and a one room schoolhouse which was burned to the ground by teens 2 years ago...We found the Cemetery, schoolhouse, and barn...We could not find any cellar holes with the foliage in summer now...We Will have to hit it again in the Fall before deer season...
Over 150 years of history, and all I found was:
Quarters - 1986, 2002 Dimes - 1965P, 1984P, 2001P Nickels - 1970D, 1992P Pennies - 1967, 1978, 1980, 1982 Zincs - 1990, 2000D, 2006, 2008
A piece of spoon (not silver), 9MM or 45 JHP, a copper washer, 2x 7.62x39 Wolf cartridges, and a 223 Remington Wolf cartridge
There were tons of iron signals as would be expected, but the Quantum II was great about sorting it out.
HH,
