Another Site Bites The Dust

[Tony Two-Cent]

When I first got my E-Trac and got back into metal detecting in 2011 this was my go to site. It is the grade school in the town where I work. It was a very convenient place for me to hunt on my lunch hour or after work. There was an older school building on this site at one time. It was torn down and a newer grade school was built on the same site. I had found 2 walking liberty halves there, as well as many mercury dimes other old coins and relics.

Sadly, they are going to build on to the school and cover up the existing grass area that remains. I took this photo about a month ago before the snow arrived. I guess the good news is that I got to hunt it thoroughly before the site was covered up.

What bothers me the most is that they cut down ALL of the huge old oak trees that were in the school yard. That's "progress", I guess.

R.I.P. old school yard. I will always remember the good times we had.

[giant056]

I know what you mean Tony, the summer before last a spot I always kept my eyes on for excavating was a grade school spot that's been a school spot since a one room schoolhouse was built in the 1880's, I drove by there one day and there was a tall fence surrounding about a city block in size and the school site was smack dab in the middle if it, that's all it is now is more history with all the old dirt gone somewhere and I don't know where.

[Longhair]

Sadly Tony it's happening everywhere. Old schools torn down, additions being built, new buildings added to make "complexes", old playground areas being scraped off for soccer fields that hardly get used, etc...
Another thing that's been happening around here, is beautiful old schools being sold to developers, that turn them into office buildings that you can't get permission to hunt.

[tanacat]

Lots of additions to the schools here in my city too. It's sad they cut all the big oaks down. I understand the sentimentality of your park.

I recently went to hunt a city park next to a school and was shocked to find the creek bordering the two was bulldozed and rearranged (flood control I guess) and prob 50 trees cut down, all that bordered the creek through the whole park. I was full of anger and a bit teary-eyed over it, didn't help that my 5 yr old was upset about all the critters in the watershed that had probably died. I grew up in the area and used to play in that creek when I was his age. Ironically a man walking his dog stopped to tell me that his wife literally cried when they did this, as she had lived there her whole life. Anyway, we reasoned that it was done for safety of the children (hide-out for perverts/kidnappers?) Rambling on, but I know how you feel.

[freemindstuck]

The killing of 200 hundred year old oak trees would have upset me. Fortunately I live in the poorest county in Iowa and people typically don't have money for a lot of construction. Many of the small towns around me are like time capsules. We are so poor around here that we didn't even notice the recession. And even if we had noticed, we couldn't have paid attention to it anyways. That's how poor we are!

[coinnut]

The killing of 200 hundred year old oak trees would have upset me. Fortunately I live in the poorest county in Iowa and people typically don't have money for a lot of construction. Many of the small towns around me are like time capsules. We are so poor around here that we didn't even notice the recession. And even if we had noticed, we couldn't have paid attention to it anyways. That's how poor we are!

I would rather live there. I don't mind lack of progress Ever notice that the people that control those projects are never the ones that should. I bet if they just didn't take the easy way out, most things could be saved.

[Timewarpdigger]

I had something similar happen to me. When I first started detecting I decided to go detect at two local schools in the town I grew up in. My wife said well you won't be able to go on the fields they have them chained up. I told her I was going to hunt the large front grass areas and that I know they were built in the 1920's. Well was I disappointed when I got there. They had torn up all the grass in the front and made a huge parking lot. I was just devastated. Stood there staring into space for a good 10 minutes in disbelief. Went home totally dejected. At least you had the opportunity to hunt it first. Safe & HH

[Digger Don]

The same thing happened to me. I went back to the grade school that I went to. I figured I knew all spots us old timers used to hang out and play.
WRONG! The old play ground was now a parking lot for busses and probably 2/3 of the remaining grassy areas are now Parking lots or basketball courts.
I also felt sad, wished I never went back. What i can't figure out is why all the parking spaces. I was Boomer. The school was packed back in the early
70s. Today they only fill 1/2 the school. yet 3 times the parking

any way, That quarter that I lost 40 years ago is gone for ever. LOL

[don in ny]

The good news is that once they start moving the soil around you need to go back. A few of my best finds came last year when an old parking lot was torn up to repave. Who knows, maybe they're going to rip up that basketball court in the background during construction. Who knows what might be underneath.

[POKIE73]

the same thing happens all over in the name of progress all we can do is remember when it was in its early days we all feel your pain sooner or later