Some tips on Site Research

Your Local Historical Society: Visit your local historical society, and tell the people there what you are interested in. Historical societies often have pictures, maps, old diaries, and journals from years gone by and are happy to share them. Try donating a few of your finds to a local museum. This can help get your name known and could lead to others calling you! Donations can be a low cost way of keeping top resources.

Older Citizens: Talk to older citizens in your area, they love to talk about the 'good ol' days' and often give you leads to all those old swimming and fishing holes, picnic areas, church picnic grounds, lovers lanes, businesses and a lot of other useful information. When you talk to them bring a tape recorder so you don't forget something that seems irrelevant at the time, but could add information to a future detecting site.

Local Library:  Browse the old newspaper microfiche files relating to your area. Look in the community news sections for listings of events that were held years ago. Keep alert for articles about rumored treasure, buried caches, robberies and similar material. Look for articles that hint at a cache. Remember there were lots of people that didn't trust banks, so look for articles that hint that 'so and so' the owner of 'such and such' died a pauper, or that 'so and so' was rumored to be with 'such and such' gang. Don't forget that kids like to bury things as well. A few pennies buried a hundred years ago, can be a treasure worth hundreds of dollars now!

School Yearbooks: They have a large number of photos that can give you an insite on where to search.

Look around: While out driving or walking, take a moment to write down a little info about possible sites. A couple of (fictional) examples; 'The old gray and white house on the corner of Main and Center', or 'The old Smith farm on east River Rd.'. When you have a few notes, go to the court house and look up who pays the taxes on the property. Do a little research on that old place before you approach the owner. Often people will be more receptive to someone that shows an interest in the propertys history.

Friends: Let friends know what you are looking for. You may find that they know someone that lives at a site that could give you hours of detecting fun. Don't forget co workers and neighbors in this list as well!