A follow-up…

After the comments on the last post I thought I would share the following excerpt from the “Coin Hunting” page…. I would also love to hear from anyone who has hunted for or found a cache. 

CACHES

Dictionary.com defines cache as “a hiding place, especially one in the ground, for ammunition, food, treasures, etc..” 

Always consider the possibility of a cache! Homesteaders, early settlers and landowners did not have easily accessible banks in which to deposit their money and frankly did not trust them anyway. Giving your life savings to someone else was unsettling and not at all an action that provided comfort or relief. As a result many old timers concealed their money, their life savings, their pin-money, their stashes, their drinking money or their incomes from illegal gambling.

It’s also been said that many times the man of the house seldom shared the location of his buried treasure with his wife or family. Why? Because he assumed he would outlive everyone, and it was simply the manly thing to do. He was the head of the household, and his wife the housekeeper and childbearer. Like it or not, that was the way things were.

Locating a cache is indeed a challenge, and requires lots of thought, and patience. The premise I go on with every OLD home site I search is that a cache is hidden somewhere on the property. Finding it will be up to me and while the end result may be that I leave empty-handed it could also mean that it was there and I just didn’t find it!

Where to Look for a Cache

Fireplaces(loose bricks), under front porches, root cellars, under large trees, under fence posts, hollow window and doorsills….

Under floorboards, abandoned autos, barns/outbuildings, out houses, planters, attics, cellars, canned food containers, under woodpiles, chicken coops, hollowed stairs, pipes, old tree stumps, under sidewalk stones and farm equipment.

A big head start in finding a money cache is to put your self in the place of the individual who hid it. In other words, if you had a thousand dollars, where would you hide it? Would you hide it inside the house? Outside? If so, where? If you buried it would you bury it deeply? Would you hide it somewhere where you could put your hands on it quickly? The questions are important, because these are indeed the same thoughts the original owner must have had, and they will surely help you narrow your focus.

If it were me I would bury it outside. Hiding it inside makes it subject to fire and that’s never a good outcome. Next, when I did bury it I would make sure I could get to it quickly if needed, and I would make sure I could keep any eye on it from inside the house. Lastly I would bury it in a container that would keep the money safe from the elements. Now I know all this doesn’t mean a great deal but by putting yourself in the place of the individual secreting the money you will more than likely hit the most promising places first.

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