places to hunt and research

[cragar21]

Starting to run out of places to hunt any ideas on finding new spots and how to research old sites? Any help would sure be appreciated thanks!

 

[Agseeker]

One of my favorite places is grassy center medians in old parts of town with houses on one side of the street and stores on the other.

 

[Goes4ever]

historicmapworks.com

look for old churches, schools, old homesites and more!!!! and a lot of the maps even have an overlay option

 

[Pastor bob]

Go to your local County Historical Society and ask to look at old maps of county. My county in 1919 had over 30 country schools that I am in process of getting permission for. Have permission for 3 already.

 

[Samuel_Champlain_FTW]

Use the maps that Goes4Ever gave you and use them with an App called Maprika. You can turn those old historic maps into a GPS map. Turn on the software while you're on the go... and if anchored properly, the map's structures and homes will be pretty bang on when you're out there. It works with Android and Ipad. etc....

We tested it out last week and it was pretty cool. Anytime you go off track, you can set another anchor point down. The more you do it, the better the map gets...

At one point, we were driving down an old road, and it had a cemetery listed on the right hand side. I saw nothing but woods. We pulled over and went in to check it out. It was an old graveyard, about 10 stones, all tipped over. A very creepy spot.

We were out of there pretty quickly.

Keep us updated!

 

[khouse]

One place I use a lot is ebay. Type in your town and the towns around you plus key words like postcard and/or historic and/or map. You will be surprised what you'll find. Then you can usually copy and paste the picture to your computer and/or print it out.

 

[Goes4ever]

Use the maps that Goes4Ever gave you and use them with an App called Maprika. You can turn those old historic maps into a GPS map. Turn on the software while you're on the go... and if anchored properly, the map's structures and homes will be pretty bang on when you're out there. It works with Android and Ipad. etc....

We tested it out last week and it was pretty cool. Anytime you go off track, you can set another anchor point down. The more you do it, the better the map gets...

At one point, we were driving down an old road, and it had a cemetery listed on the right hand side. I saw nothing but woods. We pulled over and went in to check it out. It was an old graveyard, about 10 stones, all tipped over. A very creepy spot.

We were out of there pretty quickly.

Keep us updated!

would you care to explain an easy how to on using maprika? looks a lil confusing

 

[cragar21]

Thanks a lot appreciate all the help looking forward to doing some research and checking out some old maps!

 

[ChicagoJohn]

I use google earth to search public park then click for close up then click twice and you can view what outside looks like. If I see any large old trees, old houses, etc! Then I go out there to look for old coins.

 

[ot1138]

Maprika is a bit confusing. I'm a computer guy so not a problem for me, but I imagine it's not going to appeal to most people. If you can use it, it is terrific for smaller maps. The biggest aerial I've been able to into it was a .5 x 1 mile area of my village. Any bigger and Maprika won't accept it.

Unfortunately, that is a deal breaker. So I reluctantly switched to Google Earth. You simply cannot get the maps as accurate as you can on Maprika, but you can get them pretty close and what's more, the file size limits are huge (I was able to get a massive area north of Chicago loaded up). The best feature - which I use constantly - is to overlay 1900, 1929, and 1952 topgraphical maps on top of old aerial photos. Then when I find an area of interest, I can easily swap between them and in under a minute, decide if the lead is worth looking into further or not (I'm looking for undisturbed pre-1900 sites only right now).

Using this method, I was able to identify six high-probability hunting spots last night (pre-1900) and seven pre-1938 ones as well.

BTW If anyone is located near the north shore of Chicago, I'd be interested in meeting up!

 

[shawnIN]

Use your library. Most have an area for state and local history. I spend time in the winter and an occasional rainy day looking through archive and books. That is how I came across the site that has been producing all the seateds, Indians, and shield and V nickels. I have also ran down a village from about 1850 that is no longer there and just a field now. Also leads on a couple more. A wealth of information, just takes time to find it. Good luck!!!

 

[Silver Simon]

Starting to run out of places to hunt any ideas on finding new spots and how to research old sites? Any help would sure be appreciated thanks!

I pulled up my county's historical society web page, and it has tons of locations and dates of areas in my small town. I currently have permission from the two oldest churches in town, and they were both excited for me to scan their property. If you go the church route, make sure your pitch explains that any religious artifacts are to be returned to the church, as that is the right thing to do

 

[Samuel_Champlain_FTW]

I could've sworn one of the maps he loaded into his Ipad for Maprika was a big one. Is the size limitation only on your phone?

Here's a copy of one of the maps he was using. MAP

It took him 3 hours to set that one up.