Jungle 2

[JC99328]

We only had a little over an hour but we hit jungle 2. I didn't now this house existed but the land owner told me about it. From all appearances, it burned in the late 40's or 50's. It had electric appliances and power. REA power only got to this area in the late 40's. The house must have burned as everything in it was where it fell. Stove, heater, fridge, and other misc stuff. I only worked the perimeter of the foundation and will go back to clear and hunt inside the rock foundation. There was a basement of sorts, a root cellar in the hill nearby and a lot of iron which I mostly bypassed.

I was digging in one area and pulling up huge chunks of ceramic type stuff and told my partner this must have been a big crock. Later driving home it hit me... I was digging up the sh**tter !!

I hit 3 high tones and all turned out to be copper. The meter, meter base, and the cover panel. I dug nearly 5# of copper !!.

Photo show the area (just down the road from the other jungle) and the appliances including a very old ringer washer which must not have been in the fire.

 

[Nancy-IL]

Great story and pictures. Love that old bathtub.

 

[JC99328]

We had a short window of nice weather yesterday so we went back for a quick afternoon hunt (3" of snow now). Tons of iron and bits of sheet metal that gave high readings. Pulled a bunch out of the place and made quite a pile. Everything from a roll away bed to an ash shovel. The odd thing was the shovel. It's been buried for 50+ years like everything else but is in great shape and it's by my wood stove now ! I hunted a very small basement and got a good reading. I started pulling out electric train tracks. 3 rail stuff like maybe made in the 50's. Tons of it too. I looked for over an hour and dug up about half the floor area looking for the engine or cars and did not find them. I found track, some switch plates and a small signal stand, one wheel from a car and a very toasted transformer. Looking at the transformer, there was not much left which made me think there wasn't much left of the cars either. I did find some scraps of tin which might have been them but no shape or color to them.

This hit me as odd. At the end of the day, I figured I'd hunt the kitchen area. Mostly out of curiosity, but to see if I could find any silverware. None... Found one small pot with the lid still on it. It makes me think someone came in after the fire and recovered anything they could. All the stuff we dug was at least 4-8 inches deep. This was inside the foundation.

Keepers: the ash shovel and I did find a lump of about 10 lbs of melted lead. The lead will become fishing sinkers or bullets for my black powder rifle !!

 

[Nancy-IL]

Interesting that there was only one pot with a lid in the kitchen area. They must have come and cleaned it out. I think that's so neat to have found the coal shovel and be able to use t with your own wood stove. Wondering what the lump of lead use to be. Thanks for sharing and stay warm!

 

[JC99328]

The lead was in the bath area and about where the toilet was, so, probably the drain pipe. I hit drain tile below that. The lead was about 12" deep and I kept getting tones but below that was just nails. Another odd thing, I never found a sink (kitchen). In the bath area was a lot of heavy, thick wall porcelain which could have been a sink or toilet or both ??

I found door knobs with the lock still attached, bed frames, a table leaf lock, hinges and other misc stuff. No square nails ! The house must have been fairly new construction and burned in the 50's. 50's is a guess looking at what was still there in appliances and heaters and the toy electric train.

 

[Nancy-IL]

That is odd that you never came across the sink. Lots of interesting things found after the fire. As for the lead, that makes total sense. Hopefully you'll get to go back there again and see what else can be found.

 

[JC99328]

Next time in, I will use the shooter coil. I've been running the stock big DD figuring deep targets but I think this time I'll go for better separation. I really need to spend some time trying to toss the huge iron out of the hole to see what's under it too. I picked up the ash shovel right next to a big oil heater.

This is what I've found so far. I did not haul out the many pieces of iron. It's all stacked by the hole, actually several small stacks around the hole. The tide jug is full of train track parts.

 

[Nancy-IL]

I love that little ash shovel. Oh if it could tell some stories...... That's a big chunk of lead, good job! I think you're smart to put a small coil on now and see what you can find. Thanks for sharing with us and HH, Nancy