Research In Action

Research In Action

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Battle Of Bushy Run Pennsylvania

As an example of topo map usage, I will document my search for an old town in my area. This site was active in the 1850's and faded away around the 1870's. I came across this possible site online at a genealogy site. It was a brief, two sentence note on the owners start up of a sawmill. Over 100 men were employed at the time and lived at the site. There was no town close to this site, and 100 men would require a few buildings to live in. Today you would think there would be some trace of these buildings. It gave the location as along a creek I knew. The down side was that this creek was over a mile in length.

Once again, I cannot stress enough the importance of research. To find old sites you will have to bite the bullet and DO RESEARCH! There is no other way, unless you are very lucky. Which I'm not.

A thing to note here about research resources, many times I have read accounts of a place or event that conflict on location or other account. Never take for gospel that what you read is true or accurate, always try to get support for a fact before you spend four hours traveling to a site and spend a day looking for something that isn't there.

One of the first things I do when trying to locate a possible site is to scout the site. I hike to the area and look around for what could be the possible site. My metal detector is left at home. I also take a video recorder with me. In fact, that's where the site shots came from.
Reviewing the tape may show items I may have missed. I also take a print out of the topo map of the area. This allows me to mark possible locations and other features that are not on the printed topo map. The winter is a good time to scout possible sites, as there is less ground cover, allowing you to see terrain features more clearly.

Reading terrain features is a skill you will need to learn, especially if the site your are trying to locate is lacking a visible foundation. Often the only thing left as a clue that a structure was there is a sunken spot or a small level area in a sight slope. Look for pieces of pottery or brick on the ground. Other times, the only way is to use you metal detector in all metal mode and search for any metal. This way you can find nails or other iron junk to help pinpoint the site.

Ok, so back to my site search. I started the site search in late December, which maybe not the best choice as it is hunting season. The topo maps I had printed show a gas well road leading close to where I wanted to start my search. Following the road to the stream, I started downstream, looking for possible site locations. I was sure the site was close to the stream, as the stream has steep hills on either side, and nobody would want to climb those hills after a hard day's work to go home.

On my topo map, I noticed areas where the contour lines were not as close together, indicating that the slope was not as steep in these areas. I decided to concentrate on those areas. I saw no indication of any buildings, foundations or roads, but this did not bother me, as I knew buildings such as these were quickly put up. I found a number of likely spots where the ground appeared to have been dug out or leveled and entered these spots on my topo map. This area turned out to be much rougher than the maps appeared to show. But I left confident that I had pinpointed a number of likely sites.

The next weekend I managed to return with my metal detector. Step one was to determine if I was correct in my choice of sites. Using all metal mode to locate anything, I quickly found that something was located here. I recovered a number of square nails, horseshoes and a gold plated button. Even in all metal mode, this area was not that trashy. I then set the descrimation to reject nails and some iron. After locating some spent shells I got a mixed signal near a log. The Garrett said there was something there, but also returned a trash signal. Pinpointing on the good signal, I dug. At four inches I found a piece of iron banding, which was the trash signal.
Running the coil over the hole, it returned a clean bell tone. I scooped up a handful of the loose soil and there it was, a 1842 half dime. This is the oldest coin I have ever found.

A few feet from this spot I dug a 1875 dime. Research does pay!

To Be Continued.............as I get back to this site...

Field Research (The Tough Part of Research)

I am writing this to relate to you a experience of field research.
Last spring while doing research of an area, I came across a mention
of an logging town dating around the 1870's. It gave a stream name and
approximate location from the river. This is to let you know that
research also involves fieldwork, which means legwork. I know of
few places that you can just drive to, take your detector out and
start making finds. As you do research, you will find descriptions
like: "about 3 miles from the Clarion river". Most of us will think
to ourselves: "there it is, let's go detecting". Then we drive to the
place where we believe the site is and find that we have no clue as
to where the site actually is, we have it "narrowed" down to a possible
location 1/2 x 1/2 mile. That, in my mind is a large area to hunt,
with no chance to cover it all in one search. This is why field research
is a must. You have got to narrow down your search.

Ok, back to the story. I was looking for an old lumber mill
site. This one was located along the creek because it was water powered.
Now I was not really interested in the mill site, I knew from experience
that these sites equaled lots of iron junk. I wanted to located the
places where the lumbermen lived near the mill. At the time the mill was
running, the nearest town was about 12 miles away, which is a long walk
after a 10-12 hour day in the forest. I knew that there just had to be
houses and support buildings around the mill.

I parked the car along a back road and started walking. I easily found my
starting point (the place where the creek emptied into the river)
on my topo map with the help of my GPS. So far so good. But as I learned,
the easy part was over. Now anyone who has hiked along a creek or river
knows how difficult this can be. So I followed the creek to the approximate
location given in the history book. The sides of this creek in many places
were very steep, which ruled out the change of any mill, as there were no level
spots. To make a long story shorter, I finally located a likely spot. The
creek opened up into a small valley with some level land on the left.
As I searched the area, I found the remains of some stonewalls. I also
located some small stone lined holes. Was this the right spot? It was along
the creek, but closer to the river than the history described. It was also further
back from the creek. I marked the spot on my GPS and searched the area
further. After further review, I concluded that this was the area, and I
will return in the fall with my detector to check it out. I myself enjoy field
research, I get to combine all my hobbies and interests: hiking, biking and
of course metal detecting, all held together with my GPS.

To sum it all up what I am trying to say here is that before you break out the detector,
break out the hiking boots. Also, do this kind of field research in the
late fall or early spring, when there are no leaves. This will make scanning
the terrain much easier. Remember, if you're tired of detecting hunted out
school yards for clad coinage, try some research, and get out the
hiking boots. Good Luck!!

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