High Traffic Areas

In this blog, I will talk about where to search for old coins and relics once you’ve found a site worth searching.  There is a lot to think about once you arrive at a new location.  You should take a look at the lay of the land and try to figure out who lived there, and why.  Knowing some of these simple things along with taking a look at some basic human needs and habits will help put you on the treasure instead of wondering around aimlessly, hoping to hit a good target.

I’m not calling you out when I say this, but humans in general are among the laziest creatures to have ever inhabited the earth.  Like my buddy Ty says, “…people are like electricity, we follow the path of least resistance...”.

When you set out looking for items that people have lost, you have to search for two things: places where large numbers of people have gathered; and places where small numbers of people have frequented.  We humans are not only lazy, we’re also creatures of habit.  Taking a simple assessment of our minimum physiological survival requirements (air, water, food, shelter, clothing, sanitation, touch, sleep, and personal space), and knowing that we’re lazy and habitual can make the tracing of human activity extremely predictable.

For the purpose of this discussion, let’s pretend that you’re looking for coins and relics at an 1850’s homestead located in rural America.  You know that in order to find lost items you need to look in probable locations.  Looking at the basic needs of a person you can make assumptions as to where the inhabitants of this homestead would have frequented.  Homes in the 1850’s in rural America didn’t have indoor plumbing, which meant that these occupants would have had to fetch water from an outside source.  Since water is one of our most important necessities, this is where I would start.

Water wasn’t just used for drinking, it was also used for washing things like clothes and dishes.  Ask yourself, “…where is the closest clean source of water?”.  Remember, we’re lazy, so water probably wasn’t too far off.  Sometimes in dry, desert environments water, beer, and whiskey would have been shipped in wooden barrels.  These wooden barrels were held together by metal straps called barrel bands.  Once the wood was burned, salvaged, or rotted away, all that’s left is the metal barrel bands.  Keep an eye out for those.  Once you find the water source, walk from the homestead directly to it using the easiest possible route.  The line that you just walked is what I would refer to as a ‘high traffic area’ and should be the first place that you detect.

Second, look for a probable location for an outhouse/privy.  These were separate structures from the house, close enough to be easily accessible but far enough away to distance the smell.  They would have been built both down wind and downhill, and at a reasonable distance from the source of drinking water.  Look for slight depressions in the ground, lilacs (which masked the smell), and bare spots or discoloration of vegetation.  Once you’ve found a couple probable privies, focus on detecting the high-traffic area between the house and the outhouse.

Third, take a look around for where people would have stored their modes of transportation.  Since the folks in this example are from the 1850’s, we will go out on a limb and assume that they had horses instead of cars.  That means that they would have had to keep the horses somewhere like a barn or a stable, therefore investigate the path between the suspected barn/stable and the house.  Keeping horses requires lots of work in the form of feeding, watering, and cleaning, so you can bet that the path between the house and barn/stable would’ve been an area of high traffic.

Fourth, look for a place that would have been conducive to hanging a clothesline.  This may be a set of trees that are spaced 20 feet or so apart, or remnants of posts in the ground.  Not only would this have been a place that was frequented, it’s also an excellent place to find coins.  It’s easy to forget you’ve got some loose change in your pockets - before you know it you’re hanging your pants out to dry while simultaneously dumping out your change in the yard.  Anyone who has ever listened to a load of pocket change on tumble dry knows exactly how easy it is to forget to empty your pockets before washing your clothes!

Other areas of high traffic to be on the lookout for are fruit trees, berry bushes, and any other renewable food source - be it a fishing hole or a chicken coup.

Please take a look at this video which I have put together on searching high traffic areas around old homesteads:

I hope these high traffic areas produce some nice finds for you.  If you’re interested in learning more about human behaviour and basic needs as it applies to treasure hunting, check out my book “The Metal Detecting Bible” https://www.amazon.com/Metal-Detecting-Bible-Helpful-Treasures/dp/1612435270.  And don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel www.youtube.com/DrTones24k.

Best of luck!

Brandon Neice (AKA Dr.Tones)