Recently I had mentioned that I was buying a metal detector and maybe I could get lucky and find some Georgia Gold, or anything numismatic related. Surprisingly my metal detector arrived earlier than I had anticipated.

I have spent the entire night researching my county history, as well as the history of my particular area in the county that I live. I have found maps dated far back, and one in particular, dated 1884, that looks very promising. I also uncovered some very interesting information from cemetery records such as the following which is right in my neck of the woods:

"I counted 45 unmarked graves of the slaves. The cemetery is on the

land of C. L. Bond. He lives in the house that Joab Collins built in

1886. Joab was the son of Elba [Elbe?] Collins. According to Mr. Bond,

he knew Joab, Collins, Jr. He said he was a deaf mute and very big and

strong. Joab, Jr. was always looking for his fathers money that he

believed to be hidden somewhere on the vast property. It was said that

Joab, Sr. had withdrawn all of his money from the bank and no one knew

what he did with it. He died without revealing the whereabouts of his

money.

Joab, Sr. rented out his land to share cropers. He had a store on the

road in front of his house from which he sold goods on credit to the

share cropers and settled up with them when the crops came in."

Very interesting and very close to my property. Of course this is more of a pipe dream than anything even close to promising. However, just the thought of my property being where someone decided to bury their cache is very exciting and I am now awaiting sunrise to hit the woods.

I know just where I am going to focus my attention as well. I do not own very much acreage, however the majority of it is all wooded. There is one particular oak tree that is very, very old. I have always been attracted to that tree since it is so unique amongst all the other various hardwoods and sparse pines. I figure that this tree maybe a good choice for a marker if someone were to want to bury their treasure.

So in a few hours I will be heading out for my first try at working this overly complicated gadget and see what I can come up with. It is doubtful I will find much more than a few bullets from hunters and possibly some old military relics. But it is worth a try as far as I am concerned. If I found a mercury dime I would be excited. If I found a 16 star Bust Half I would go crazy. If I find a Templeton Reid gold coin .... well, I may just have a heart attack!

I will follow up and also describe how I am using Google Earth to find possible sites to search. They are on private property but if I can get the permission to hit some of these old home sites dated back to 1850's then I might come up with a few good finds.

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