I vividly recall the moment when I turned in my Makro Racer for the Summer. As a matter of fact, I caught that moment on video for your viewing pleasure:
[embedyt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rLTX46_Jxg[/embedyt]
I’m pretty sure I almost passed out from heat exhaustion that day, but anyone who digs with me knows that I’m a bit relentless.
You haven’t heard from me in a while. I’ve been laying low this Summer–fixing up the house, enjoying time with the kiddos, chugging through an online course, and focusing on my big-kid obligations. But the truth is, I miss sharing my relic hunting adventures with you. These past couple weeks, I’ve been meaning to get out and get dirty at some abandoned homesite in the backwoods of PA–but then I find myself lounging by the pool, falling victim to an unrelenting four-year-old with a water pistol. (Who’s idea was it to give that kid a water gun, anyway? Daddy’s–that’s who.)
I’ve been patiently waiting to bring you my next adventure, but Autumn is taking his sweet time getting here and killing off all that blasted PA vegetation–that’s actually a thing. The woods here are nothing like the woods in New England–they are thick and prickly with invasive vines and brambles. Unless you’re armed with a chainsaw and a commercial-grade weed wacker, you aren’t going anywhere until the frost. I’m currently sitting on two dilapidated homesites… waiting patiently for Autumn to do his thing.
It won’t be long until pumpkin spice lattes, chili on the stove, leaves piled in the yard, and football on the TV. But then again, Fall just so happens to be my favorite season–so my apologies to all you summer-loving folks trying to squeeze these last few weeks out of the season before September arrives in all her glory.
So… enough about that. Let’s talk maps. Everyone loves a good map–especially the hobbyists who do their homework. Sure, parks and beaches are fun–but there is nothing like a virgin homesite sprinkled with bits of history.
One of my favorite methods for finding these dilapidated homesites–the Fickel House, the Bushey House, the Witmer House–is scouring back roads and just simply looking. Of course, then you get sites like the Wright House–which is inaccessible by road. We actually had to walk half a mile across a cornfield and through the woods to reach this pile of rubble.
In cases such as the Wright House–an old map comes in handy.
One of the easiest and most talked about websites among metal detecting hobbyists is Historical Aerials. This is a great website to get started, but the topography maps only date back to the early 1900s. For someone looking for really old homesites–such as myself–Historical Aerials falls short. For finding really old homesites, I suggest scouring the internet with loaded keywords or–even easier–taking a trip to the historical society. The historical society usually has a whole slew of dusty atlases available for public research. Heck, the historians might even point you towards an old site.
So… once you’ve found a homesite on an old map that peaks your interest, you should do some google earth detective work to pinpoint the exact location–those old maps aren’t always accurate. (Instead of google earth, I prefer using bing’s bird’s eye view. Most of the satellite images on bing were taken when the trees are bare.)
Now you’ve found your site but hold those horses, cowboy. Now you need to get permission from the property owner. The old-old-fashioned way of finding the property owner is by knocking on neighboring doors and asking. The old-fashioned way of finding the property owner is by calling the county and giving the address. Now… the new fashioned way of finding the property owner is GIS–Geographic Information Systems . Not every county has online GIS, but a simple search on google with “county name GIS” usually gives you an answer. Once you drill down on the GIS map enough to see the property lines, you can click on any plot and get the owner’s name.
So until Autumn decides to show his handsome face, this is my gift to you: GIS.