old stuff

[Dirt Dobber]

I grew up in Baltimore, MD. When I was a kid I saved my money and bought a White's Coin Master TR series 2 metal detector. I wanted to find stuff from the Battle of North Point (1812), the Revolutionary war, and the Civil war. I ended up here in TX since 1990. Got interested in detecting again several years ago and bought a MineLab Exterra 70 and then last year I bought the CTX3030. I bought the 6 inch coil a couple weeks ago.

My oldest coin is a Mexican Centavo from 1874.

The worst part about living here in North Texas is we don't have a lot of really old stuff. It is hard to find much older than 1870's. I know that's old, but not compared to the history in Maryland and the north east. The research my friends and I have done has paid off in some neat finds, but watching the posts on the forums makes me wonder if there is anything left to find sometimes. I guess what I'm saying is....we are getting beat down...lol. Hope this spring changes things. We have been hitting vacant lots lately...ton of clad....few rings....2 silver dimes so far this year.

HH,
Billy

 

[Mike MD]

Billy,
Your introduction sounds similar to mine except I

 

[gitterdug]

Billy

I live just west of Fort Worth. I hunt private property mainly. Ask permission is my advice. Knock doors. Pop me a private email and maybe we can do a hunt or two.

Dennis

 

[Dirt Dobber]

Mike,
If you go down towards Fort Howard, there are several fields that get plowed and planted every year. My brother lives down there and you might find some of those folks will let you detect there. Can you metal detect in Blackmarsh area? Its wooded and the road down to Millers Island passes through it.

 

[Mike MD]

Mike,
If you go down towards Fort Howard, there are several fields that get plowed and planted every year. My brother lives down there and you might find some of those folks will let you detect there. Can you metal detect in Blackmarsh area? Its wooded and the road down to Millers Island passes through it.

Most of the farms are now property of the state and detecting is off limits the same is true for Blackmarsh. The one farm on the left just before Millers Island Rd was going to be a new development, but they ran into some problems with the heirs. Also the historical society has been involved with keeping the original farm house since it was there during the War of 1812. If I could find an area to detect there I would be all over it even if it was just to donate all the finds.

Mike

 

[GateKeeper]

I hear people in this hobby telling me all the time that their is NO good places to hunt. Yet there is thousands of places to metal detect. All one has to do is sit down in front of their computer and research. Find old maps, talk to older people and you will succeed. Dirt Dobber, it took me 2 minutes to find the following article which shows me that the history of Texas goes way back to the Spanish conquistador's first visiting Texas in 1519. Look and you will find.

History of Texas

Texas Library of maps

Now with this information, you should be able to find whatever you need to find as much as you want.

 

[JamesM]

I hear people in this hobby telling me all the time that their is NO good places to hunt. Yet there is thousands of places to metal detect. All one has to do is sit down in front of their computer and research. Find old maps, talk to older people and you will succeed. Dirt Dobber, it took me 2 minutes to find the following article which shows me that the history of Texas goes way back to the Spanish conquistador's first visiting Texas in 1519. Look and you will find.

History of Texas

Yup, I hear it all the time "can't find anything really old, except on the east coat". South Texas has some of the oldest known settlements in the US. After all, 1519, is not long after Columbus made his first trip, in 1492.

If you want old, a good place to start is around Goliad (settled early/mid 1700's). Do some research on the rivers around that location (the Guadalupe). If you can locate some of the old river crossings, you'll hit the jackpot. There are also some crossings on the Red River (North of Bonham) that date before, during, and after the Civil War. Evan (Gone Hunting) researched and found one of those, and some of the finds are posted on his website.

 

[Dirt Dobber]

Thanks for the information Gatekeeper and JamesM. I got out today for 3 hrs and found a bunch of clad.