GRAY GHOST
New member
hello all, i live near interstate 95 in central virginia. as many of you already know, it's a civil war hotspot many miles long and wide. over the last six years i've lived here, i've been detecting just about everywhere i can swing my coil. it's been good, so don't get me wrong. but i have found disturbed soil is sometimes very hard to tell from other soils. naturally, we all like to detect as close to home as possible, which brings this old problem to light. for me, anyway.
when interstate 95 was built back in the 1950's, vast amounts of sand were needed for the concrete to build the roadbed with. the states contracted with individual landowners to buy their sand, sometimes a mile or two away from the road itself. most of the time, the land was graded back down to a natural looking appearance, and sometimes not - large hills were left instead. as time went on, trees and grass regrew. everything recovered.
i could sometimes detect for an hour or so and not get a single beep. and in prime civil war country! we all know that not any one man or machine gets it all; that wasn't it. so, for a short time, the lack of beeps was a mystery to me. some spots would produce some really nice finds. 10 feet away, and on for many yards, nothing. how frustrating. i had never encountered disturbed soil, so i didn't know what to look for. a friend explained it to me, and set the record straight.
any main road built up until the 1960's probably had gravel or sand or even dirt mined from the sides of the road. young trees and little plantlife are a dead giveaway, as are multiple hills of dirt like you see piled up at modern construction sites. the finds are mostly very modern, nothing old at all. i've seen bricks from an old demolished house strewn out for nearly a mile. if your're in an area that you suspect has disturbed soil, do some random spot checks to determine if any coins or relics are there at all. might save you some time and grief later on.
just imagine all the coins and relics that lie below our roadbeds! it boggles the imagination. it gives me goosebumps just to think about it! thanks for reading, and hh,
when interstate 95 was built back in the 1950's, vast amounts of sand were needed for the concrete to build the roadbed with. the states contracted with individual landowners to buy their sand, sometimes a mile or two away from the road itself. most of the time, the land was graded back down to a natural looking appearance, and sometimes not - large hills were left instead. as time went on, trees and grass regrew. everything recovered.
i could sometimes detect for an hour or so and not get a single beep. and in prime civil war country! we all know that not any one man or machine gets it all; that wasn't it. so, for a short time, the lack of beeps was a mystery to me. some spots would produce some really nice finds. 10 feet away, and on for many yards, nothing. how frustrating. i had never encountered disturbed soil, so i didn't know what to look for. a friend explained it to me, and set the record straight.
any main road built up until the 1960's probably had gravel or sand or even dirt mined from the sides of the road. young trees and little plantlife are a dead giveaway, as are multiple hills of dirt like you see piled up at modern construction sites. the finds are mostly very modern, nothing old at all. i've seen bricks from an old demolished house strewn out for nearly a mile. if your're in an area that you suspect has disturbed soil, do some random spot checks to determine if any coins or relics are there at all. might save you some time and grief later on.
just imagine all the coins and relics that lie below our roadbeds! it boggles the imagination. it gives me goosebumps just to think about it! thanks for reading, and hh,
