Metal Detecting in "Large-Cent Land" Again (Story 6), page 1
Revisiting Taconic Mountains in Upstate New York for More "Coppers"
In the mid-November, a friend of mine Alexander came from Montana to visit me in Upstate New York for a few days.
He brought a brand new Minelab Explorer SE with him so we could go treasure hunting together.
Alexander had just started metal detecting and needed much help in understanding the basic "know-how" of the process. I was glad to provide him with a rare opportunity of getting the taste of real treasure hunting right off the start.
Having been busy with my trips abroad and not detected in the Upstate New York for a couple of years, I myself was excited about locating and detecting a colonial cellar hole again.
I had missed the difficult treasure hunting in the North East where one has to go through a lot of hardship to dig up just one colonial copper or relic. I had missed metal detecting on my "turf" - hard terrain with stone walls and cellar holes scattered in the woods.
General Map of New York State
Two years had passed since I searched for the large cents in the Taconic Mountains on the border of New York and Massachusetts - you might have already read That Story. But I had not forgotten about one cellar hole, the last one on the trail, to which I did not get at that time.
Now, I had an opportunity to carry out my old plan. Most likely, my story had brought a few treasure hunters to that location (it would not take a rocket science to figure out its whereabouts), and the site might have been hit many times, but no site ever would be depleted of "goodies" as we all know that.
So I dug up the old map and explained Alexander how we would proceed with our search for that remote cellar hole (or whatever remained of it). Alexander read my story about "large cents country" in that area and could not wait to find one for the first time! On the Beer's Map issued in 1875, I showed him the locations of the houses that had been long gone, now cellar holes, marked by pink dots.
Fragment of 1875 Map
Fortunately we had relatively warm (+34F) and full of sunshine Sunday for metal detecting.
We packed all necessary treasure hunting gear into my truck, left my house, but only 15 miles later we remembered that we did not have digging gloves. The last Stewart's shop on the way to the mountains saved our day.
We were rolling through the area which is full of old American history, and Alexander could not hide his excitement every time we passed an old colonial house or barn. I myself saw everything with his eyes and realized how Upstate New Yorkers are fortunate living in the oldest part of the country. Historically, when the first towns were established in Montana, there were already ghost-towns in New York.
