Date 1-6-07 Location Type Old Site Detecting Time 5 hours 10 minutes Detecting Distance .31 miles Detector Minelab Explorer SE

Aerial View of The Hill

Mike (Will.Dig.For.Food), Steve (ssehunter) and I decided to get together to hunt a forested area near downtown Houston. There were a few homes there long ago. Only the slabs are left now. This area was/is a haunt for the homeless and, judging from the number of screwcaps we found, alcoholics. The area rises above the surrounding neighborhood and you can see that it was probably a very nice little place in it's day. I arrived about 7:45AM with the new SE in tow and Steve showed up shortly after with his DFX. Mike sauntered over about 15 minutes later with his trusty Bounty Hunter.

Steve, Mike and I at The Hill

After we finished the introductions and the jawin', we branched off to different areas and began to hunt. This was my first time using the SE in a trashy environment. Starting out with no discrimination I quickly realized I would go crazy with non-stop signals bombarding my ears. I selected the coin pattern and things quieted down a bit, but there were still a huge number of signals. I started cherry picking the high tones and interesting solid signals. Most of them were screwcaps. This went on for a couple of hours as I roamed about.

Looking southwest

I found a few things during this time, but nothing that great. Mike had dug an Indian from the 1880's and a nice .58 calibre bullet. Steve was pulling clad, a wheat and a strip joint token out of another corner of the area. I had wandered down to the low lying area to the south where a lot of hobo campgrounds were located. I was not finding much and was wondering what I should do differently. I decided to park myself in a small area near a slab where the old driveway was. I was going to only discriminate iron and dig everything. Shortly afterwards I pulled out the Thomas Jefferson token. I don't know much about it yet, or how old it is.

One of the slabs

After finding a few other trivial items I said my goodbyes and hit the road. I learned, or re-learned, a few things about the SE and detecting in general on The Hill. If you cannot go two feet without getting a ton of signals, then why go two feet? Stay in a small area and work it hard. Your chances increase as you remove the top layer of junk. The proverbial pot of gold is not over the hill, it may be right under your feet.

HH! The Beep Goes On

Thomas Jefferson token and finds from The Hill

Thomas Jefferson token

Thomas Jefferson Born Apr 13, 1743 A Great Intellectual; Author of the Declaration of Independence; Defender of Religous Freedom; Founder of U. of VA. Died July 4, 1826

Inhaler...hmmm, white powder came out of it...

Cool toy car