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View Full Version : Great Day Hunting for Info and Permissions Today



MI Detectors
12-12-2015, 05:49 PM
I hope I don't bore everyone with this kind of post, but we had a great day in our town today looking for info and talking to people. I started today by going to our local historical society/Jail Museum to buy a couple books I had seen in a previous visit, and to hopefully talk to a couple of the older folks who volunteer there. I ran into the fella who runs our little museum, asked about the books and told him why I was looking and the ball started rolling from there. He was most helpful and talkative about town and what was going on a hundred years ago. Then asked if I would be interested in coming in sometime in the Spring and talk to people about what we've found, what we've learned, where we've looked, and why. We looked over a bunch of old maps, I now have detailed maps of my town in 1873, 1893, and 1913. And I've already identified several places that I need to check, including a whole residential part of town that's now a completely overgrown peninsula of the Kalamazoo River. And the City Park that is much the same, where there was a pavilion, and a large park is now an overgrown patch of woods.
Then I went out into several neighborhoods and spoke to several homeowners in the historical district of town, using my new tag line about doing research for the historical society. Not a single person I spoke to today said no. In fact, one woman went on to tell me about a house around the corner from hers that used to be a store and she used to find silver dollars in the grass, and another ravine she says her kids used to bring her all sorts of cool relics from where people used to dump.
Actually the books I bought today have these detailed maps of every town, and township in the county. I've already spotted several schools on the map in places where I know there are no schools any longer out in the rural parts of the county. So very excited about the work ahead. The history of our county and town is quite interesting, dating back to the 1830s or so when veterans of the war of 1812 were given land grants to settle this part of the country, and then the lumber barons that stripped it clean so then the farmers could move in and grow Michigan peaches and apples.:) So hopefully very soon I will be hunting some places that will have some great finds. I forgot to mention, the woman in the house that used to be a store gave me permission to come back when they're home, they were just leaving, she wanted to tell me about this big stone in her front yard. I had the pleasure of telling her that the stone is a mounting block that was used to mount horses. She got all giddy and said yippee I have a piece of history in my yard. She told me people stop and have asked to buy it but never said why. So I explained to her what it was and how it was used,and suggested she keep it. There's also a hitching post in her yard. Dave

Digger_O'Dell
12-12-2015, 07:34 PM
Wow, sounds like you have things well in hand with the research and cooperation from the local historical society. Quite unusual from my experience-too often so called "historians" fancy themselves as guardians of lost items and prefer they stay in the ground. At least until they can get a "formal" archaeological dig going, which is the official standpoint of my state who have managed to prohibit or at least impede detecting.
Good luck, and looking forward to seeing photos soon of your digs!

badgers325
12-13-2015, 09:00 AM
That isn't boring. I just got back in the hobby and have found out that the research etc. is just as fun or more fun than swinging the detector.

MI Detectors
12-13-2015, 04:45 PM
That isn't boring. I just got back in the hobby and have found out that the research etc. is just as fun or more fun than swinging the detector.

You're right, it is fun, and I've learned this town was much cooler 100 years ago. Dave