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RichInTheUSA
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# Posted: 26 Dec 2014 06:25pm
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Hi, my wife, daughter and I were on our cabin property today and found a homestead foundation. I have an 1850 map of the area and am aware of two other foundations (one which I've found, and one which I have not). The one we found today is not on the map.
Have any of you found old foundations on your properties?
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Smawgunner
Member
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# Posted: 26 Dec 2014 07:31pm
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Buy a metal detector, you won't be sorry!
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toyota_mdt_tech
Member
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# Posted: 26 Dec 2014 08:10pm
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That is a cool story. Yes, metal detector. I have the "Whites" Coinmaster GT. Loads of fun.
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neb
Member
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# Posted: 26 Dec 2014 09:01pm
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Very interesting I bet there is goods hidden some place.
I have an old cabin that is still standing on my land. If only the walls could talk. LOL
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RichInTheUSA
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# Posted: 26 Dec 2014 10:14pm
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Thanks, yep... I have a metal detector but had only used it to find property boundary pipes. It will be fun to search around.
I'll post back to this thread if I find anything interesting.
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Don_P
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2014 12:19am
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Beautiful stone, looks like the dolomlite from over the mountain here. I'd be reusing that!
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NhLiving
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2014 11:19am
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Great find! Interested to hear your report back about the metal detector sweep of the area.
I have several old stone walls running through my property, which are nothing new and exciting. But in the back corner where the land is mostly rock and probably neglected by the early farmers.. There is a giant pile of field stones about 20 feet x 20 ft and at least 8 feet tall. I guess that is where they chose to dump most of the stones. Nothing close to a cool old foundation, but i will make use of this giant pile of stones in the near future.
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2014 02:21pm
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Rich, with only the foundation left, I read the pioneers would actually burn there cabins if they were moving away, this was to allow them to collect the nails in the ashes. I guess nails were a premium and they wanted to take them with them. I bet the area is full of those old square nails. My mom refurbished an old home built in 1854, all square nails. I wished i have saved a bunch, would love to have some old rusty square nails to put into my mantle to hang my old rusty beaver traps and other pioneer implements I have collected.
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RichInTheUSA
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2014 08:07pm
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Thanks for the info... I will definitely look for these types of nails, as well as other things from the period.
I have the next week off, so will get out there with a metal detector (and a chainsaw to get some of the trees and brush off it).
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hattie
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2014 09:24pm
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In our area people used to burn down cabins and pan the ashes looking for gold nuggets that may have been hidden in the building.
That was a great find on your property. I hope you find something with a metal detector!!! How exciting!!!!
Keep us posted on how you are doing!!!
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2014 09:36pm
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Looks like I can buy my square nails from amazon. They look like these:
http://smile.amazon.com/Standard-Steel-Common-Square-Nails/dp/B005THUEIM/ref=sr_1_7?i e=UTF8&qid=1419734094&sr=8-7&keywords=antique+square+nails
I added a box of 2" version to my basket to use for hanging things at the cabin to keep with the rustic western decor.
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Smawgunner
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2014 09:43pm
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Too funny Toyota, I was just looking at some yesterday on ebay. Couldn't find any new ones that I liked. I'll be buying these,...thanks.
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Just
Member
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2014 09:13pm
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I get these from the local blacksmith " farrier" look much like the old ones ..
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davestreck
Member
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2014 09:38pm - Edited by: davestreck
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Tremont Nail Company here in Massachusetts still makes square cut nails. They've been in business since 1819! Cut nails are still the only way to nail down a wide pine floor, IMO
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neb
Member
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2014 10:20pm
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I have some old cut nails I found from an old building site. I have had them for years. I didn't realize you could still buy them. I thought I had a treasure. LOL They look a lot like the ones Just has but black and some rust.
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toyota_mdt_tech
Member
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2014 10:23pm
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Neb, I will have to add patina to mine for interior hangings. So I will just leave them outside to rust in some salt water to give it the period correct look. 
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neb
Member
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2014 10:46pm
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toyota_mdt_tech>>> Yep and they will look like the original old nails. Lol
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RichInTheUSA
Member
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# Posted: 30 Dec 2014 07:41pm
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Well, I used a chainsaw to get to the foundation... Then got a metal detector out to see what was near.
Unfortunately, most of the hits were pieces of metal, or rocks that must have some metal in them (iron?). I didn't find any nails.
Anyhow, a few hours of searching isn't enough to call it quits yet. I'll have to give it a few more tries over a few more weekends.
RichInTheUSA
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skootamattaschmidty
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# Posted: 30 Dec 2014 08:32pm
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My cabin is built on the old foundation of a building that was part of a power plant for an old gold mine in the area from the 1920's. There is also an old cement building standing made in 1922 that housed the turbines for the electricity. In another area north of my cabin, is an old rock foundation from what I believed to be an old house. I think the base of the chimney is remaining as well as a cold cellar.
I don't have a metal detector but that would be a cool treat sometime to get for myself.
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Flying Wrench
Member
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# Posted: 3 Jan 2015 05:15pm
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I found a roughly 10'x16' (maybe smaller, haven't measured) rectangular hole on my property. I haven't poked around it much, but I plan on investigating it this spring with a shovel and a metal detector.
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RichInTheUSA
Member
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# Posted: 3 Jan 2015 07:45pm
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Flying Wrench... do you have any idea what it could have been used for? Please keep us informed... very curious.
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Flying Wrench
Member
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# Posted: 4 Jan 2015 11:29pm
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I have no idea what it might have been. At first I thought that it might have been a hole left by a large blown down tree, but there aren't any trees nearby that are nearly big enough to leave a hole like that. There are a few small (2" dia.) trees growing in the pit, so it has been there for a while now.
The high ground in the area is mostly uneven, but this pit still seems out of place. The edges are more or less north-south oriented, and it is near a ridge that has a nice view of the swamp and a nearby lake.
I just recently purchased this property, so I have a lot to learn about it.
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Malamute
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# Posted: 4 Jan 2015 11:50pm
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Cool old foundation stack. I wonder how deep they go?
The 10 x 16 hole sounds like a root cellar.
I've heard the stories about burning down a cabin to retreive the nails, but it doesnt make sense, it would ruin the temper in the metal, making them pretty soft and useless. It would seem the cabin would be worth vastly more to sell to a newcomer than the possible (and questionable) value of the nails.
I wonder if those stories were started when someone thought it was a good idea and it became legend, or somebody told it as a tall story and it was accepted as truth?
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bldginsp
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# Posted: 5 Jan 2015 11:25am
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I've heard that old rotten wooden ships were beached and burnt to retrieve the metal, but not cabins.
I found an old square nail in the gravel road that goes through my place. Quite a mystery though, because the hillside was subdivided and the road built in the 1980s. Before that, only loggers, no construction that I know of.
Here's a tantalizing story- just above my property is an old road that used to go to a mine. Rumor is that in the 1850s a man robbed a local bank and then rode his horse on that road toward the mine. He was caught at the mine, but the gold he got was gone and never found. He said he got scared and threw it from his horse on the way to the mine. My property is a stones throw from the road. Maybe I should get a metal detector, or spend the money on lottery tickets instead. Or spend the money on reality- like toward a well pump.
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hueyjazz
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# Posted: 5 Jan 2015 11:42am
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We have an old stone foundation on the property. We are 90% sure it's the ruins of a sugar shack for making maple syrup. Our area is pretty rich in correct sugar maple trees and the property is littered with old galvanized buckets for collecting sap. So far is have only found one bucket in decent shape and use that as a planter.
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