Spent 3 weeks mapping a creek bank with a metal detector and found one horseshoe nail | Archaeology Discoveries

Anthony Palmer · 2026-10-29T10:50:02.781419+00:00

Last spring I walked a dry creek bed near Athens, Ohio with a cheap detector, mostly looking for old farm junk. I gridded the whole bank in 10 foot lanes and dug every beep for three weekends. Turned out 90 percent of the hits were rusted barbed wire and pull tabs, and the only old thing was a single horseshoe nail about 6 inches down. What I learned is that a creek bank moves a lot of dirt around over 100 years, so context gets scrambled and you can't trust anything without a real survey. Has anyone had better luck in creek beds with a different search pattern, or is it just a waste of a weekend?

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Spent 3 weeks mapping a creek bank with a metal detector and found one horseshoe nail | Archaeology Discoveries - Babble Community