Discovering Forest History

(button slamming and clicking)

- Hi, Sanford Smith here with Penn State Extension.

Today, I'm joined by Travis Blankenbicker, and Travis is a recreation forester for Pennsylvania, DCNR.

Now, Travis, there's a lot we could do and talk about related to recreation forestry.

Today, we're just gonna keep it kind of narrow.

We're gonna talk about discovering history, exploring history on your land.

Many people own forest land or other pieces of land, and they wanna know more about the history.

Travis, you've had a personal interest in this uncovering of history for a long time.

Tell us when it began that you started to take an interest in this.

- Well, ever since I was young, spending time in the woods, hunting, fishing, just playing in the woods.

- Yeah. - I would go through and I would see something that looked out of the ordinary and I would always wonder why was it there?

- [Sanford] So one of those big things might be old foundations and walls and things like that?

- [Travis] Absolutely. - [Sanford] Yeah.

Of course, we're talking about resources, the historical resources on private land today.

And we're not talking about public lands.

We're talking about a forest owner or landowner who discovers some different things and they want to learn more about it.

So what would you do?

How do you learn more about the history of a property?

- [Travis] One great resource would be to go to your local historic society.

What they do is gather this information of their area and they have the resources, they have documents.

They can point you in the right direction to maps.

- [Sanford] And online resources.

Are there any things you use there?

- [Travis] Oh, absolutely.

Online resources are great.

Number one, you can find your own maps and do some research that way from the Pennsylvania State Archives website and also the National Archives website.

- [Sanford] Travis, I understand you use a metal detector sometimes, (metal detector beeping)

and there are different types of metal detectors.

Can you tell us about that?

- [Travis] Sure. The most common metal detector that you can find in the stores would be called a VLF metal detector.

Now, the things you can find with the VLF are down to about a foot in depth at the most.

- [Sanford] Yeah.

- [Travis] The next kind would be a pulse induction metal detector, and those are a little bit more advanced and they go much, much deeper.

- [Sanford] Do these detect all metal objects or only just steel and iron?

- [Travis] These will detect anything metal.

- [Sanford] Can you dial it in to like detect one type of metal versus another?

- [Travis] You can, most of them have a readout on them.

So maybe a number system from zero to 100.

So you can decipher what metal you are detecting by those numbers.

When metal detecting, a short beep is most likely going to be a very small or round target, such as a coin or a button.

A long drawn out tone is more likely going to be a larger piece of metal or a misshapen piece of metal.

- So what are the kinds of things you've discovered when you use a metal detector on forest land or other properties?

- [Travis] You can find anything from cans to very old coins.

- [Sanford] Have you found anything valuable over the years?

- I have found things that are valuable to me because I think it's important to point out, that if you are really into history and metal detecting, whenever you find something, say an old coin that might be worth a lot of money, you're probably just gonna keep it.

- [Sanford] Now, I suspect you find things like buttons or small items.

What about those?

- [Travis] Sure, buttons are great because there's so many different styles and you can really put a date to a site with those buttons.

- [Sanford] Have you ever found anything that was more made out of clay or like that when you're digging down there to get the metal objects?

- [Travis] Oh, sure.

So another great tool to have with you whenever you're doing this is some sort of sifter.

I personally carry a gold pan with a sifter out in the woods with me. - [Sanford] Yeah.

- [Travis] And every once in a while, you'll find something like a piece of pottery or maybe an old clay pipe stem, all of which also help you really put a date and age to the site.

- [Sanford] Yeah. I'm guessing that you really can't go too far back though.

I mean, only to the time of metal objects.

Are you gonna go back with this kind of a metal detector?

- [Travis] That's correct, - [Sanford] Yeah. Travis, is there a best time of the year to do this kind of snooping around or detecting history?

- [Travis] Right now is a great time.

Early spring.

There's no active hunting seasons going on.

You're still not quite ready to get out there fishing yet, and it's not hot summer.

- Yeah, right.

And of course all the plants are died back and you don't have to fight vegetation.

One more thing I want to add is that a good way to find out about your property is by talking to neighbors or other older members of the community.

Sometimes they have a lot of knowledge about that place that you don't even know about.

Well, Travis, thank you very much for joining me today to talk about detecting history under your property.

It's a fascinating topic.

I hope you folks will consider this form of recreation and have a great time at it.

Thank you very much for listening.

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