Metal Detecting Old Picnic Groves
Old picnic groves are great metal detecting sites. They are hard to find but well worth the effort. You can find them by doing some research. Talk to the older residents of an area. Ask them where they used to picnic with their families when they were children. Also, visit the local town historian. Sometimes they will know where the old groves were located. Search through old newspapers that most libraries have. Sometimes these files are stored on microfilm for easier research. Look for articles that mention churches having a bazaar or picnic in a certain area. Often the article will name the grove where the function was held.
Old books that give the history of areas sometimes mention an old grove where family and community events were held. You can find these books in bookstores that sell old, and antiquarian books.
What follows is a story of how my detecting partner John who was also the co-host of my TV series, (R.I.P. Buddy), located an old grove that produced many years of exciting finds.
An Old Book Leads To Years of Metal Detecting Success
“The sounds of the picnickers could be heard as they frolicked in the stream deep within the ravine.”
The above sentence appeared inside an old local history book that my metal-detecting partner John had been reading.
As he read that sentence curiosity and excitement pulsed through his body. Within minutes, he was on the phone telling me what he hoped he had just found.
John like me, loved to research areas to metal detect. We both understand that research is very important to the success you will have when detecting. If you want to get out of those parks that everyone else has detected for years, then you need to look for other areas of metal-detecting opportunities. Research and reading the history of your area are vital components to being successful with the hobby.
John purchased the old local history book in a used bookstore. He was reading for interest as well as for research. The book told a story about a Ravine that was located an hour’s drive from his home. This Ravine, the book mentioned, was also the home to an old ghost town from the early 1800’s. It was also an area that was used as a boy scout camp in the early twentieth century.
Before reading this book, John had not been aware of the old town, or the boy scout camp. As he read the above passage, he became aware of a possible old picnic grove as well as the boy scout camp.
We knew from experience those old picnic groves were a great opportunity to find old coins and jewelry. In addition, the boy scout camps we searched in the past produced old coins and boy scout items like knives, buttons, and cooking utensils. And if an old ghost town was there, it could be an added bonus for finding relics.
John and I drove to the area where the old grove, the ghost town, and the boy scout camp might be located.
Little did we know at that time that we were about to embark on a metal detecting adventure that took us three years and miles of walking through thick scrub brush, climbing up and down hills, and wading through knee-deep water looking for the old locations. Years of vegetation had covered all signs of the once-upon-a-time hideaways.
Our first three or four trips to what we thought were the correct locations left us feeling tired, frustrated, and empty. Empty because we had been metal detecting the entire time as we hiked through the rugged terrain, looking for anything that would help us locate either the grove, boy scout camp, or ghost town. Each time we came up empty-handed with no finds for our exhausting efforts.
The unproductive searches kept forcing us to go back to our topographic maps and re-evaluate our approach.
We kept asking each other.
“Are we in the correct area?”
“Did we miss signs, like the plant myrtle, fallen dead old maple trees, or pottery shards, all sure signs of old, ghost towns? If we could find the ghost town we would find the picnic grove.
You may be wondering why we put so much effort into finding this area. The simple answer is, if it’s difficult for us to find then others hoping to metal detect the area would also have the same difficulty and would most likely give up searching for it. Which would mean, more goodies for us to dig up.
After three years and miles of hiking through dense forest, thick scrub brush, climbing hills, and wading through knee-deep streams John and I located, the old ghost town, boy scout camp, and the old picnic grove.
Was it worth the effort? Yes, it was!
We had a super time digging up heaps of items. The majority of the finds came from the old picnic grove.
The two of us found hundreds of silver coins, old jewelry, rings both gold and silver, boy scout items, and a beautiful silver woman's compact case.
Every time we ventured back to that area produced exciting finds.
Once again, research those old picnic groves, and reap the benefits of time well spent searching for them.
And here’s a tip for locating the old groves.
Swimming was a big part of picnicking. So just like the old grove John and I found, many of them were situated near streams, creeks, and rivers.