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Opinions on age of site??

D

darrenb

Member
I have gotten permission to hunt this site, but probably won't be able to get there until the weekend. I did walk around it once, and there is a lot of roof tin on the ground, so it will be tricky. My 2 questions are, what should I expect to find here, if I do manage to find anything other than trash, and second, what do you think this building was? There is no evidence of there ever being a porch on the front of it, but it does have the overhang. The only windows with glass are in the front, and the windows along the sides and on the back have just wooden planks nailed together on hinges to close. One large front room and the rear half of the building is divided by a center wall. No signs of plumbing or electricity ever being used. I was thinking that it was some type of old general store, but the wife says it's just an old barn. What do you guys think?
 
First, WHat type of are is this located in? Are there any other old structures near here? Have you been inside the building, and were there any things left behind to indicate what the function of the building might have been?
 
By all means check it out. People find the oddest things in the oddest places. Perhaps someone during the first great depression buried their gold coins there to keep FDR from getting them. Maybe some outlaws stashed some loot there and planned to return for it and got imprisoned or killed prior to that happening. Take a brush hook or heavy duty week whacker so that you can get to all areas. Check every nook and cranny including up in the ceiling and rafters etc. If it has a dirt floor, check inside the building also. Check the floor for who knows if someone lifted a floorboard and stashed something. Take a powerful flashlight and heavy leather gloves too. As long as it is worth doing, it is worth doing properly and I certainly believe that building is worth doing.

Mark
Elite 2200
WA St.
 
This is just off the road, in the middle of nowhere. Totally surrounded by farmland, except for the 2 acres of woods that it is on. There is an old farmhouse that looks like about the same vintage that is about 1/4 mile away. Someone else owns that land, so I haven't had a chance to look at it closely. Inside the building is a mess. It has been used for storage, and there are old pieces of galvanized pipe, old cardboard boxes, and lots of trash. There are no fixtures or anything in the building that I can see, so I can't determine what it could have been used for. I haven't been inside the building, because it looks like it is ready to fall, and I have that kind of luck! I just don't see a storage barn when I look at it. Possibly an old farmhouse, but it doesn't exactly look right for that either. It's down in south GA, in an area that has been farmland since the area was settled.
 
If the doorways are standard width, like they are in your house I would rule out barn, as a cow or horse would be wider. The front window isn't typical of a barn either. What type of country is it located in? It could be a miner's shack, or a small hunting lodge. Is there a fireplace? The tin roof if original means it wouldn't be too terribly old. If it were a general store then where are the counter and bins and shelves? I would think a general store or trading post would be very close to at least a few homes and other businesses.

Maybe the local library would have some old plat books that would help date the site and give you the name of the owner of the place way back when. That may shed some light on the purpose of the building.
 
The more I think about it, I doubt it was a store. I just can't figure out why it has the front overhang. The slave's quarters idea crossed my mind as well. There is no fireplace inside. It's just the four walls, with one wall down the center from left to right dividing the house in half, and then at the rear there is a wall from the dividing wall to the rear wall, splitting that section into two rooms. The doors (front and rear) are actually a little narrower than a standard door. I really don't know how to tell if the tin roof was original or not, but the roof on the inside is planked. I know that now, most tin roofs have just the trusses with the tin attached. I suppose it could have had wood shingles at one time, but I see no evidence of it. I'm excited about digging into it, and seeing what I might find. I'll keep everybody posted!
 
:usmc: It is interesting for sure. If just off the road, I suppose it could have been a house but I'm thinking more a small Gas station and or Post office if it's some distance from any existing town. In Georgia, I guess it could date late 1930's but I would think more into the 40's-50's. If an old gas station, there was a time when gas was hand pumped into a glass holding tank about or above head level to visually measure it and then it was gravity drained through a hose to your fuel tank. No electric power required. I'd look for signs of an outhouse, no water required, and scattered piles of old cans and bottles or drainage's full of the same. The outhouse by now may not even exist but maybe a hole or a depression in the ground. I know what you dig will tell you the story of this place. Looks fun so keep us up to date.
 
My in-laws have 3 houses similar to that still in use as rental house. Wife's great-grandfather had 24 of them until a tornado came through in the forty's. The 3 that are left of course has been up graded with electric and indoor plumbing. I'll ask mom-in-law and her dad ( 84, Navy, Normandy Vet) about how the houses was first lived in..
I have found mercury dimes around them, but I haven't been serious about dirt fishing around them.
 
Well, I made it out for about an hour of beeping today at the mystery shack, and I must say, it was a letdown. There is so much trash in the ground that I'm having a hard time figuring things out, and to make matters worse, it is wet. Standing water everywhere, and the ground feels like peat moss. I did dig a broken shovel blade that had been there for a long time, and a pull tab. The pull tab was interesting in that the pull ring was perfectly round, and I had never seen one like that before. I gave up pretty quickly after being attacked by mosquitoes and fire ants... I'll be more prepared next time. I did order a 4" coil for my QDII today. Anybody have an opinion on whether that will help in the trashy dirt?
 
Well my opinion is if it's old, hunt it on old site's you may find most any thing, an relics are fun to find,
 
You can ask some older people around there someone should know what was there.
 
I'd knock on the door, and if nobody is home then whip out a detector fast :unsure:

You never know what you can find until you detect and dig. Besides the inside and immediate area outside, any big old trees nearby, maybe a path to a creek/stream, other trails, you never know.
I have one spot that there wasn't much but junk at the remains of some dwelling, but the creek swim hole about 150 yards away netted me enough for a few trips back. After I was done and figured I wasn't going back anymore, a friend of mind found a bottle/trash dump not far away afterward.
If it's okay, I'd go for it. Just give it a fair chance if the finds don't pan out at the start. If it' really trashy, a small coil can be an asset along with proper detector settings to try and minimize masking. Stock & larger coils for cleaner ground. Always keep critters in mind.
 
Actually the house is empty and the weeds are grown up quite a bit, so nobody has lived there for many years. There aren't any other houses in the area, so I think I probably will just slip over and see what I can find. The small building is looking less promising. I finally ventured inside, and the walls are open. By that I mean that the upright studs are exposed, and only the outside wood is attached to them. I'm thinking now that it was only a storage shed of sorts. Doesn't look like it was ever a dwelling of any type. I went down to the public library and looked up info on the area, and have located several spots that I am very interested in hunting. I'm also going to have to start looking into my family tree. Turns out that the first school in the county was built by my great-grandfather, who also donated the land on which it was built. Seems that he owned a large portion of the county in the early 1800's. As far as keeping critters in mind, that's very good advice. I stopped off at a small roadside park that had been closed for many years, and while searching through a large clump of dirt for a penny, realized that I had in my hand a rather large centipede. I'm in no way a fan of those... almost needed a change of pants! Maybe gloves are a good idea after all!
 
lol - I was kidding about knocking on the door.
Yeah - go ahead and detect and see what turns up - if you have more than one coil, I'd take what you have.
I usually take my dogs with me when I go to places similar to that. I keep an eye on them although they stick close to me. I was out at one place where mountain lion & bear frequent the are. While I was digging a target, something was crunching through the brush toward me. I was on my feet paying close attention then. As it came out of the brush line about 30-40 yards in front of me, it was a lone cow :veryangry:
In the hot weather, add rattlesnakes to the list although they normally don't bother anyone. Usually it's the mosquito's that attack - so skeeter sprays are important then.

Good luck hunting that area - they always look interesting. Myself, all metal and dig to find and get what the area has to offer. If it becomes so trashy, then a smaller coil and may have to resort to some discrimination.
 
My best guess is it's an old sharecroppers' shack. Probably post Civil War - 1930s.
 
perhaps someone will convince me other wise, I M now living in a very very back woods, Ky. hill country. Where most had very little to start with thus very little to lose. So if money change is your hope, more likely to discover tool type relics.

I see hundreds of these structures, very typical of the pre an post depression era, any of you ever see the old Sears an Roebuck mail order houses?

So maybe the home owner didn't lose a silver dollar, but his rich nephew might have look for it, keep us posted.
 
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