Our 1st time hunting at old schoolhouse site

[ccclontz]

I found out a little more about the old school. It was built in 1916 & torn down in 1935. The lumber was used for the agriculture dept at the new school. It was a 2 room school. It did not have an outhouse. The boys went to the woods on the left & the girls went to the woods on the right.His 85 year old uncle who owns the land told us there is an old well near the road & the pipes are still sticking out of the ground. The well was filled in with rocks. We plan to search around the well next time we hunt. It ws a well with a hand pump. I imagine over 19 years alot of people went to the well for water since there was no bathroom or kitchen. It was not trashy at all in the field,Corn had been grown last summer & there is not anything planted yet. When we found something it was unsually old pieces of metal like from farm implements I suppose. There was one piece of chain, 2 old nails, a snap like goes on a chain to fasten it. The nails were found approximately where the old schoolhouse was located which makes sense. I felt my husband was walking too fast. I was wishing we had a second detector so I could be searching too. I have been thinking of buying a compadre as a second detector. He was looking at some used old ones on ebay for about $50.00. We didnt have much time to go around the old store built in 1912. Two targets were just junk. We have lots of ground to cover when we go back. We had it on all metal & dug all the targets which was not that many, maybe 10. Hopefully when we go back it will be more productive! Thanks for all the great tips. Cathy in NC

 

[tabman]

Thanks for telling us your story. It was very interesting. Sharing is really no fun at all. I hope that you get a detector for yourself soon. Then the serious competition starts.

tabman

 

[dixiedigger57]

I have hunted the site of an old one room school with a chimney. Guess what we found--NOTHING! the very old grandfather of my partner said what did you expect to find? they did not even have shoes! so dont give up hunt the old store! tokens! they may look like a washer but dont discard them, a careful inspection my reveal a good for 5 cent in trade or a number that was issued to the store itself. by all means get a good detector like a compadre for a lot of fun good luck and happy hunting

 

[Monte]

I found out a little more about the old school. It was built in 1916 & torn down in 1935. The lumber was used for the agriculture dept at the new school. It was a 2 room school.

I used to drive around out in the country sites just looking for such places. Old schools. Old churches. Old stores. Or, if gone, the sites of those types of places. Remember, too, that while the school building was there for 19 years, it might not have had a lot of use during that time or been in use as a school for each of those years.

It did not have an outhouse. The boys went to the woods on the left & the girls went to the woods on the right.

I have heard that exact description used of making use of the woods perhaps a half-dozen times in the last half-dozen months when discussing old schools. It always makes me wonder how well those kids interpreted directions as given, because the girls might be told to use the woods on the right, but .... was that to the right before they entered the door to the school, or to the right when they needed the woods and went out the door from the school? Obviously one decision might be the right, right one, but the other would be the wrong right direction..

His 85 year old uncle who owns the land told us there is an old well near the road & the pipes are still sticking out of the ground. The well was filled in with rocks. We plan to search around the well next time we hunt. It ws a well with a hand pump. I imagine over 19 years alot of people went to the well for water since there was no bathroom or kitchen.

Next time search around the well, and everywhere you already searched. Usually I hunt old church and school sites from that same era and find nothing like a coin or trade token. They seem to often produce more nails and junk, but now and then a nice old find is made and that satisfies me.

It was not trashy at all in the field,Corn had been grown last summer & there is not anything planted yet. When we found something it was unsually old pieces of metal like from farm implements I suppose. There was one piece of chain, 2 old nails, a snap like goes on a chain to fasten it. The nails were found approximately where the old schoolhouse was located which makes sense.

Many crops fields, unless tear-downs were drug (plowed) into them, usually have few targets, if any, and when they do it's generally farm equipment. However, while that is frequently the case, there are also times when cropland or rangeland will have some hot spots.

Sometimes you can luck onto areas of old fields or range where workers paused to eat or gathered to get things started up. Maybe areas where they gathered for some cattle branding. Also, if the site was truly rural then, or now, those woods near the school where kids relieved themselves might also have been good places for the youngsters to go hunt squirrels or rabbits. Young or old, hunters would often select a site at the base of some trees to sit down and spend a day, .22 rimfire in hand, just waiting for some squirrels to add to the dinner stew or something.

Even here in our nearby large city of Portland, Oregon I have a favorite older park that used to not be in the city limits and this big hill (an extinct volcano) that is a 289 acre park is tree covered and since about 1972 I have hunted on top of it and on the hillsides where an occasional old tree base was surrounded by spent .22 Short, Long or Long Rifle cartridge cases (usually 'shorts'), and around them I have also recovered Indian Heads and very early 'wheat-back' 1