Where to Find Real Treasure..

Metal Detecting is just like fishing... if you don't know WHERE to fish, I hope you enjoy the outdoors... because that's probably the only enjoyment you're going to get....

Oh.. you can probably find something of value almost anywhere. I'm not trying to be a killjoy. But a little research can go a long ways.

Although I've made a comparison between Metal Detecting and Fishing, I think you'll find metal detecting much easier. Fish move. I have a friend who does some serious striper (Bass) fishing. He lives about an hour and a half from the closest major striper lake. If he knows that he'll be on the lake the next morning, he will call several landings and get a heads up on where schools of striper are located. Then, he'll call a couple of friends who live on the lake and see what they have to say.   The point is... he does his research. Last time I went fishing with him, we caught our limit of striper, 10 each, that weighed out at 212 pounds. That's an average of almost 11 pounds each. As soon as we got the boat on the lake, he took off to a certain cove that was a solid 30 minute ride from where we put in. I didn't ask questions, because I knew he knew where to go to locate the fish. 

Have you been to the library to research local history books? They'll give you a great idea where businesses stood a hundred years ago. With a little research, you can discover where banks stood, where mercantile stores stood, and where people gathered to socialize, worship, work, and play. 

Here's an example of what a little 'extra' research will uncover...   

I'm lucky to live in a city that housed cantonments in both WWI and WWII. If you are into relic hunting, one of these locations would seem ideal. A quick search online will find you maps and detailed information about both camps.  One of the camps, Camp Wadsworth, served as one of America's primary army mobilization centers. Over 100,000 soldiers trained there from 1917 to 1919. In addition to the infrastructure necessary to support a vast number of soldiers, over 1000 wooden buildings, there were rows and rows of barracks (walled tents) and over eight miles of trenches for training purposes.

Aside from the infantrymen, who trained with the M1903 Springfield bolt action rifle, The 27th Division's 52nd Artillery Brigade was armed with three principle weapons; the French 75mm field gun, 155mm Schneider howitzers, and the British Stokes mortar. The French field gun in particular fired a shell that burst over the enemy and covered the immediate area with shrapnel.

Anyone currently searching this encampment with hopes of finding artillery shells will probably leave disappointed. Although they trained with live ammo, it was entirely too dangerous to train in the general location of Camp Wadsworth. 

They overcame the problem by building Camp Wadsworth's primary artillery and rifle range some 26 miles away, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Artillery weapons were stored at the range, located some 5 miles from Glassy Mountain, now home to Cliffs of Glassy golf course (consistently rated one of top 5 Most Beautiful Golf Courses in America). Soldiers routinely had to hike the twenty-six miles to the range, effectively killing two birds with one stone.  The Artillery crews fired their rounds at Glassy Mountain and Hogback Mountain, while the infantrymen took aim on a rifle range constructed in the same area. 

A little research disclosed the church near where the artillery and rifle ranges were located. ( Oak Grove Baptist Church in Gowensville SC) The church is active to this day, so, it was easy to discern the exact location of the two ranges. Since it took the soldiers a full day to reach the range, it stands to reason that they had to continually pitch camp in the immediate area. This is where you search. Not Camp Wadsworth itself, but the secondary locations where soldiers actually ate outdoors, slept outdoors, and discharged their weapons. If the US military is good at one thing, aside from fighting, it's erasing any trace of their footprints at training  and data centers.

Again, all it took was a little research.

Like my friend with the boat, I want to hit the ground running. You can too, with a smidgen of insight...