The old mansion in the woods

[GRAY GHOST]

hello all, i had heard about an old mansion in the woods near my house some time ago, but had never had the chance to look for it - until 2 days ago. it took a while, but i found it! expecting to find standing ruins, i looked around a while and spied a whitish box off in the distance, being obscured by trees. i thought at first it was a discarded fridge, it turned out to be a circular hand cast brick well about 20 ft. deep. someone had stuccoed the outside of the well in the past. i was in awe of the simple craftsmanship of the well itself. there are piles of handcast brick everywhere. i knew now i was on it! the area is a bit trashy, being used as a dump by somebody in the past. i found a civil war era reed for a harmonica, a shot 36 cal. ball, a small brass cross about a half in. across [?] an iron belt buckle, a triangular iron piece, [ possibly a gun part ] 3 [!!!] flat buttons, and a civil war era portable candle holder, made of solid brass, unscrews wonderfully, and with a patent date of april 21, 1857 ! yes! i really knew i was onto it now! my heart was a beatin, my friend! i also found some cannon shrapnel pieces and some modern clad, as well as other misc. pieces. i believe the old place to be unhunted, and plan to be back there in the a.m. theres also ball and mason lids everywhere. the wooden piece is my first bullet-in-wood. i will take pics of the old well and hopefully whatever i find tommorow evening. all the signs are there! thanks for reading, what a great adventure our hobby can be, hh,

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[jdstawker]

Does the iron triangle piece have serations on the two side edges?

 

[GRAY GHOST]

n/t

 

[GregM]

n/t

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[GRAY GHOST]

thats a good idea, elton. i have found some depressions in the ground about 6 ft. by 6 ft. round, but i have very little experience in locating privies. i wish i knew more, because i like old bottles too. i hit the spots with the detector, but nothing.[ i know glass doesnt detect! ] maybe i need to build a probe like ive seen on other sites. the two dateless large cents ive found in the past week are certainly from 1808 - 1839 era, by the lines underneath "one cent" on reverse of the pieces. those are the only years a line was present there on the large cents. theres just no telling what i might find there, as evidenced by the finds already made. thanks for the suggestion, and the sky is the limit! yeehaw! hh,

 

[JoanInCreek]

You are sooo lucky to live close to an old place like that! Keep checking it, bet you'll find more cool stuff!

 

[tabdog]

Hay GRAY GHOST,

Using a probe is a good idea. When looking for bottles you must be very careful with the probe.

Over time the hole will be filling in with leaves wood and the soil that washes into the hole.

Unless someone put something in it recently, it is not likely that you will get any responses.

If you think you may have found it, I suggest digging a good size test hole off center of the hole,

but within the area of what would have been the original out house hole.

If the hole is big enough for a small coil you can try that. But the test hole may reveal if the hole

is a stump hole or a dug hole. Stump holes go deep where the tap root was but smaller ( unless

it was a very large tree) and round.

The test dig can remove debris that has filled in the hole and make it easier to probe. As well as

probing for bottles, you can probe in different directions and get some idea where the filled in stuff

stops and the natural soil begins. The natural soil will be more dense.

I learned this while surveying. The original Government Land Office surveys required whitness trees

where available. I have probed many of stump holes and found a couple of holes I thought were old

out house holes. I was not able to investigate because we had a job to do for the owner and I was

sworn to protect the rights of the public.

HH,

 

[coinnut]

So you're the surveyor that took all of the Sanbourn maps with ya?

 

[tabdog]

Thanks Coinnut,

I forgot all about those maps.

I'll be looking them up. The Uof A

libraries have a wealth of thoes

maps. I haven't even thought about it

in years.

There is a lot of opportunities out there.

The keep coming to me one by one.

HH,