Old One Room School House in N. Alabama

[Canewrap]

I've got a chance to hunt the site of an old one room school house that was in operation for only 20 years, from late 1800's to early 1900's. Has anyone ever had any luck hunting around a site like this?

 

[coinnut]

I'd be there day and night!!!! Schools are excellent places for coins. As long as you are the first one there, you should gets lots of coins!!! Tell us how you do.

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

At one I got a lot of wheat's. The other one I got nothing. I think it was a two room school though.

 

[jim tn]

I have hunted a few of those old country school houses over the year's and some were good and others weren't. Remember, kids didn't have and carry much, if any, money back then. The schools that were the best for hunting were the ones that had picnics, gatherings, and so on, taking place on them. Any, though, are worth a difinate shot. Good luck and HH jim tn

 

[Canewrap]

I don't think anybody has hunted it. I've hunted a couple of sites in the area and even the newer schools hadn't been picked over. I know its a long shot, because the populace was not real well off and kids didn't buy lunch back then, guess ya never know though. Its going to be a couple weeks before I can do it, but if it works out I promise to post photos.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Tom_in_CA]

The fact that "even the newer schools haven't been picked over" doesn't mean that older spots like the one room school house haven't been hit. Because quite frankly, more serious hunters skip new schools & clad. Hardcore hunters go out of their way to avoid clad, even to the point that if they're hunting old turf, they'll pass the shallow clad, trying to hone in only on deeper turf targets. That leaves a lot of clad, and the impression to some "hmmm, no one's ever hunted here before" So if there are any number of serious hunters in your area, and if the school's location is no secret to the history books, then odds are, it's been hit. I'd still try it though!

In my area, most of the one room school houses that had short life spans in the 1800s, are not that good for hunting. Jim in TN is right: Only if they served multiple purposes, like acting also as a grange hall, community room, gatherings, etc.... then the odds go up. But if it was strictly a school, the country kids had little need to carry coins in those years. I've hunted many that were virgin in my area. We knew they were virgin because the source info we got their locations from were from sources that had just been made known (original source history book just published). We'd slueth out the spots, find a foundation in the middle of nowhere, and go at it. Judging from the "woulda-couldas" (harmonica reeds, henry shells, shoe buckles, etc...) we'd know we were the first ones there. But coins were always scarce, if any, unless they had been used for other commercial concerns.

I noticed something else when we'd hit these virgin one room school houses: If, let's say, the school operated from 1895 to 1945, invariably, if a few coins were found, they'd always be at the later end of the date spectrum (20s to 40s wheats, etc...). We'd always assume "aha, then a barber or IH can't be far behind!". But usually, we'd end up with only the later dated coins. It began to be clear that the demographics of the United States economy changed drastically in the post WWII era. You know, like starting in the 1950s and up till today, EVERY kid has a few coins in their pocket (and perhaps dozens today) because we now had school lunch programs, affluent economies, etc... But in earlier times, things were different. I notice this phenomenom even at inner city schools. Having started detecting in the 1970s, we noticed that there was no shortage back in those virgin times, of '40s/50s loss silver at the schools. Even schools that were built in the teens and '20s we still found primarily '40s/50s loss stuff. At first, we just assumed it was because we weren't reaching deep enough. But when an occasional teens or 20s loss coins did get found, we could see that depth wasn't the issue (as they were still in easy depth grasp range). And newer deeper seeking technology in the '80s and '90s still did not produce the massive amounts of older silver, even though depth was doubled from earlier years. This shows that the post depression/post war economy greatly changed the amount of money that people carelessly carried around, especially for young children.

 

[Canewrap]

Wow, nicely written up. I was wondering if the time period, rural nature and poor nature of a lot of these areas would mean not much to find. What I didn't mention was that there is also the remains of a 1920s-1930s homesite nearby and its at a crossroads that existed during the Civil War (picket post??). So, there's actually a couple of reasons to hunt this field. You're right that it might have been hit before, but I talked to the caretaker of the church, which is right across from this field and his family actually has owned this land for a long time and no one has gotten permission to hunt that he knows. The reason I associated the school yard with activity in that area is because in areas that I know there is a lot of metal detectors, the schools have all been hit hard. We've been travelling out of our area to explore and my assertion is as much wishful thinking as anything else. You know if you're into metal detecting you better have a little optimism or what's the point?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

yup, gotta have optimism. That's why I said "still try it" As for people saying "no one's ever hit it before", I too have heard that when I've been in casual conversation with some current landowner, renter, worker, etc... You'll often hear people say that, simply because they've never seen anyone there, or don't remember the topic having come up, so they assume it's never been hit. But what's funny is, I'll often know for a fact that the place they're talking about has been hammered to a frazzle. Either previous owners gave the ok, or other family members or ranch-hand gave the ok - but simply never mentioned it to other family, or quite frankly, people helped themselves. I have seen this phenomenom, for example, at a large old yard in my town: I worked it as a little kid, with my first detector: I approached the elderly couple sitting on the porch, and they said "sure, help yourself". Then... 15 yrs. later in the 1980s, I had a newer deeper seeking detector, and was looking for a place to try it out, to see how it compared to the dinasours of the 1970s. So I knocked on the door of that same house, and a middle aged lady answers the door. She says "sure, help yourself. I'm watching the house for my parents who just entered a convelescent home. And oh ... by the way ... no one's ever md'd this yard" (I didn't bother to tell her I had). Flash forward to 15 yrs. later, I had the latest greatest Minelab deepseeker, and wanted a place to compare it to the 1980s dinasours. So I knocked on the SAME door. This time a young couple answers the door. They'd apparently bought it only a few years earlier. They too gave me permission to hit the yard. As they wished me luck, they added "and your the first person who's ever worked this yard" Doh!

You can see how, in each example, the person would be quite insistent that their facts are true. Afterall, they own the place, right? Certainly other family members or previous owners would've passed on info as critical as this, right?

 

[echostar61]

I have hunted a few one room school houses here in Indiana. I found a
few wheaties and 2/3 rds. of a plaque I assume came from the school.
I searched for the remaining 1/3 all day with no luck, Love finding relics

 

[I a thr]

I have hunted many of the one room school houses here in Iowa and have had luck at about all. Some were better than others due to the fact of having celebrations for the 4th of July etc., as jim tn, noted. For the most part the old country schools were closed in about 1959 in my part of the country. I have found many IH's and barber dimes. Only hunted one this past summer and had hunted it before but did get a 1886 Seated dime. Last summer I hunted one the when I asked for permission the landowner told me it had been hunted before about 20 years ago. Well guess what, they missed a bunch as I dug 8, one centers and 7 were IH's. Went back again and got another IH and 2 old wheaties and a 1901 Barber dime. Heck I have hit one particular country school many times and have found 2 Seated dimes 5 Barber dimes many IH's, a silver thimble and even a 1901 Morgan. So by all means if you have the opportunity, look it over. You never know what you may pop out.
Bill

 

[coinhog]

Well writen about the kids and lack of coins to lose, most were lucky to have shoes let alone coins to just drop,, and your right about the machines from the 80;s,, when I got my compass in 1980,, silver was just about everywhere,, but NOTHING really old,, except for the ocassional Large cent and a few seated dimes,, Come to think of it,, teh 80;s were the heyday of metal detecting,, better machines,, people werent so suspicious of what you were doing,, in fact most stopped and gave you tips on other places to hit,, Oh how I long for the good old days,,

 

[JB(MS)]

I hunted three one room school sites here in northeast MS in the 1990's and only found three coins total. Two early wheaties at one, an indian head penny at one and nothing at the other but a few overall buttons and a rusty pocket knife. Mississippi and Alabama were very poor states then, and most of the students at the one room schools were sharecroppers kids which meant little to no money was available to them. Lunch was whatever a student took to school. In many, if not most, cases it was just a biscuit left from breakfast or a piece of hard corn bread from the previous nights meal. There were no lunch rooms or snacks, and no need to take money to school as there was nothing there to spend it on. For many sharecroppers there was no money period, everything was on credit until the crops were gathered. They were locked into an endless cycle of debt, the little money from the crops was used to pay off those debt and then they were on credit again until the next years crops came in. The one room schools in northeast MS and northwest AL were consolidated in the early 1920's. The school I started first grade at in 1949 was built in 1921 to replace several of the one room schools in the area. That generation of schools were consolidated again in 1958, mostly with schools at the nearest towns. I found a fair amount of coins at the schools that were built in 1921, mostly just pennies, nickels and a few dimes as rural areas in MS and AL were still very poor with little money to spend. You should hunt the school though, as it's possible there's a few coins there. Maybe even a 1914d wheatie or 1916d Mercury dime.

 

[ellis]

canewrap,hunted one,once but no luck..my grandfather back about late 1800's donated a place for a schoolhouse and church,one room only.it's located about 6 miles west of greenville al. i never hunted it.the devil worshippers went in,knocked out windows,had a large circle in the middle of the floor,and left candle wax all over where they burned candles.those were gold coin days but its hard to find any good coins at these places is what i have heard.i think about those old folks back then. maybe they had those little coin purse's thad had the snaps to close them.my 3 pennys.lol

 

[weston]

n/t