Relic Hunting; Gold Prospecting - Teknetics T2 Operating Manual And Manual

TEKNETICS
Comprehensive Operating Manual & Guide to Metal Detecting
Detecting Activities (continued)

Relic Hunting

(continued)
Before you go relic hunting, obtain permission from the property owner. If you intend to hunt
on public land, check first with the administrator to make sure it's not illegal. Certain kinds of
sites, on both public and private land, are protected by law from relic hunting. If there is a
metal detecting club in your area, some of the members will probably know what the laws are
in that area and which sites are, and are not off, limits.
Relic hunting is most rewarding if you have an avid interest in history. In many cases, the
value of a relic is not the object itself, but the story it's a part of — what historians call context
and archeologists call provenance. A few pieces of rusty metal can tell the story of life in a
specific place, or that of a specific family or person from hundreds of years ago. They can
capture our imagination and help to give context to our lives today.
The value and context of a find can be readily lost without proper documentation and storage.
Add finds to your collection with care. Take the trouble to understand the site you are
searching and keep track of where you find things. Describe exactly how and where items
where found. Consider including a sketch of the site with your finds. Organization techniques
might include storing together all finds from the same site. Alternatively, if you have an interest
in specific items, like buttons, make a button collection, and within that collection, document
the circumstances surrounding each button found. If your finds are mixed together, without
categorization or documentation, their context will be lost.
The ground cancellation and Fe3O4 bar graph features of the T 2 can be used to map the soils
of a site. In this way you might determine which areas have been dug, backfilled, or subjected
to fire. This information in turn helps to reveal the history of the site.
To find promising sites to hunt, conduct research at your local library, look for clues in old
newspapers, and seek information on the internet. Where did buildings used to be? Which
have since been torn down? Where did people gather for public events like dances and county
fairs? Where did train and stage lines run? Where were the swimming holes? In almost
every town there is a historical society and museum of local history. Most museums are
grateful for anything they can put on display, and when you dig something you cannot identify,
the curator can often identify it for you. If you work closely with the local historical society or
museum, landowners will be more willing to grant you permission to search their property.
Some of the most promising sites for relic hunting are places being cleared for development.
After the site is built on, whatever is in the ground will become inaccessible. The property owner
can often be persuaded that the site should be searched immediately while it is still searchable.

Gold Prospecting

In the United States, gold is found in many places in the western states, Alaska, and in a few
localities in the Appalachians. The old saying "Gold is where you find it", means that to find
gold, you should look in areas where the yellow metal is known to be present.
32