How To Hunt Old Farm Sites

Living in the city made me forget how much farmland still exists, even in a state as densely populated as New Jersey. A recent visit with an old friend refreshed my memory. Acres of fields and abandoned farmhouses dot the central New Jersey landscape, and provide the patient relic hunter and coin shooter with endless hours of hunting.

During a brisk, sunny Sunday afternoon, my friend, Mike, and I decided to try our luck detecting around some farm sites in the Cranberry, New Jersey, area. Mike had researched some abandoned farm sites close to his home and learned that three had potential.

The properties were recently purchased by a large corporation and were slated for housing developments that had not yet taken place. On our way to our first site, we passed two fellow treasure hunters working an open field about a quarter mile from our destination. Later in the day they stopped by our site to see how we were doing. We were told they were relic hunters searching for Revolutionary War items. They had received permission to hunt on several farms, and had been rewarded with some uniform buttons.

We were also visited by a friendly couple from a neighboring farm who were curious to know what we were searching for. They explained that the farm was owned by a family that had seven children, and that the property had been there for quite some time. We made an estimation that the home was probably built in the 1800's. The couple also confirmed that other treasure hunters had worked this site before.

Talking to local residents, if possible, is a good idea, since the information can sometimes help in making important decisions. Since we learned the site was home to a large family, Mike and I were pretty confident we would find lost items, even though the site had allegedly been played out.

We began our search at the front doorway of the house, since this seemed to be an obvious starting point. Mike was using a low end Garrett detector, and I was using a low end Tesoro. Mike set his discrimination on five, hoping to avoid most trash. I left my discrimination on two, since I didn't want to miss anything important.

The front of the house yielded only numerous six penny nails. We later learned at one time the house had a wooden porch, which explained the abundant supply of nails. The side entrance wasn't any better and we started to get discouraged. We switched to hunting the dirt driveway along the right side of the house and, about five minutes later, Mike found the first coin of the day. It was a 1910 wheat penny that had been covered by about two inches of soil. I made the next find - an odd-looking square piece of lead with a hole in its center. I asked Mike what it was and he explained it was a hem weight used in women's clothing. We later confirmed this when we found a similar item in Mike's Civil War collectibles book.

A little while later I found an old garter clip, not far from the hem weight, and I surmised that the area I had been searching was probably where the laundry had been hung to dry. Several other coins, as well as several Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars, were found along the driveway. I was surprised to find that the driveway yielded the most finds. I normally hunt the front and rear entrances of homesites and have had good results. This particular site yielded nothing at the entrances. This may be because other hunters picked the obvious areas clean, and missed the items hidden in the driveway area where the soil was a mixture of sandstone and oyster shell. You might want to keep this in mind when someone tells you they already worked a site.

They may have worked the most common areas of the site, but there are always areas they may have missed. Mike and I spent most of our time working the main structure on the farm, but there were several other structures we didn't take the time to search. There was enough interest at the site for Mike and I to make a mental note to return at a later date. It's the kind of old homesite that could provide a patient hunter with a silver coin or two.

Our second site was a larger, abandoned farmhouse just down the road and across the street. It was quite discouraging to find this area had a dense cover of leaves and pine needles, because we hadn't brought a rake with us. Despite the ground cover, after searching for about a minute, my detector sounded and I uncovered a 1982 Roosevelt dime. A few feet from that I found a small, iron belt buckle. Mike searched the driveway and came up with a 1955 penny. The garage area yielded another Lincoln cent, and then we spent a good, long time without any luck. I'm sure we missed items, raking first would have helped, but rather than spend more time at this site, we decided to move to another location.

The third site was a series of small buildings that appeared to be a farmhouse that was later turned into a business. I found one structure that was filled with florescent light valances rusting away with age. There was a large foundation in the middle of the area, which we had hoped would provide us with some silver coins, but the area was strewn with all kinds of metal trash that made it virtually impossible to search without wasting hours digging junk. Whatever treasure lies there may never be found, since the whole area is being leveled for new housing.

When we drove up to the fourth and final site of the day, I had hopes of adding to my day's finds, but after much digging came up with only useless junk. Mike was no better off. He had one good signal and we both dug about a foot-deep hole where we hit an aluminum item. It must have been pretty large since we could not find an edge. I kept thinking it might be a cache inside a metal box, but we could not retrieve the item. We reburied it and made note of its location. Someday we might return to determine if it is something valuable.

As it turns out, our first site seemed to be the most productive and, if we had known that, we probably would have hunted just the one site. It really paid off for us to research the area before hunting, since we learned which sites were open to detecting and the approximate age of the locations. There are many more sites in central Jersey that could lead to good finds, and I am sure there are old, abandoned farmhouses within driving distance in your home state as well.

Remember to do your research, get permission to hunt, and be patient. It has been proven to Mike and I that even in densely populated and over-searched farm areas there are still items to be found.