Deft Tones

A Park Selection Primer for the aspiring Jewelry Detectorist – My Method

Image:  Urban prospecting for refined gold

The jewelry detectorist is a different breed. They tend to like a challenge, a challenge to both their selves and their skills. The jewelry detectorist may also be creative, a bit stubborn, and generally think outside the box due to the elusive nature of their quarry. Certainly they have little fear of work. Compared to the average butterfly, the jewelry detectorist accepts more digging and more trash as part of the game and they often enjoy it. When a choice patch is discovered they will happily work the same park for many years by working smartly in layers. Some patches might even merit a more serious approach; dig it all to get it all – nails and up get it all! Nobody except avid historic relic hunters tend to get so extreme on a site. There is no doubt many other detectorists find jewelry, but to the jewelry detectorist that targets gold jewelry those other detectorist’s recoveries are quite often incidental in their searches and they tend to fall mostly into the large and/or high conductive range. One can verify this by (assuming the reports are truthful) looking at hundreds of annual “Best finds of the year” and “Wrap-up Annual Totals” type forum posts on any metal detecting forum – heavy on the silver; light on gold. An avid gold jewelry detectorist often targets only the low to upper middle conductivity and will find gold items regularly and lesser valued “trash” jewelry almost every trip to a patch in working progress.

This primer is meant to address jewelry hunting in general and gold jewelry hunting specifically and how I’ve discovered to locate patches time and again. The intent is to help any detectorist find more gold jewelry by placing them into a “patch”. I liken it to one more piece to the Au puzzle. (Credit to Mr. Mike Hillis for inspiring me to write something hobby related and introducing to me through his writing, the term ‘patch’, which I’m adopting. Thank you.)

Image 1: 14K designer wedding band recovered from a city park.

Let’s get to it then.

Assumption one – Generally the more quantity of jewelry a site holds the more gold that site also tends to hold.

Assumption two – Gold can be found anywhere but it tends to be found more frequently in certain locations and conditions. Just like people gold is predictable, and just like people gold can surprise you.

Assumption three – Adults lose the most and most valuable gold. Follow where they play, entertain, socialize. Follow the money.

I also use a simple 5 stars or 5 point rating system on parks. Each factor that positively applies to a park equals one point. At 3 points a half point scheme kicks in and allows some wiggle room when filtering the best from the best. A half point is generally reserved for multiple features, special features, community events, etc. This rating system is meant to assist in field time management.

In selecting a site in search of gold jewelry there are several factors that contribute to specific sites being better prospects for gold than others. These “better” parks possess several of the factors and features that positively contribute to increased loss thus increased productivity. The scope of this work will be limited in the main to those contributing factors that make one park better than another. Features within a park will be considered outside the scope of this work except when related.

The four primary factors in summary: U.T.H.H.

1. Usage – All the various kinds of use currently allowed and permitted in a given park.

2. Topography – All the facts about the park’s property- size, type, elevation, grade, vegetation, layout, etc.

3. Habitat – The physical surroundings immediately adjacent to the park. This can include the perimeter of a park property.

4. History – all the past details of a park prior to establishment to present. This builds a park profile to assist in detection strategy.

Usage - The current usage and allowed activities in any park is the primary consideration. The more opportunities a park has for strenuous physical exercise and/or athletic contact between groups of people the better. Parks that support large open fields favored for athletics often double as community event locations. Pay attention to your local event calendars to increase the chances of finding a prime site. A new use of parks I’m seeing more communities adopt is the summer outdoor viewing of a featured “Movie in the park” on Friday or Saturday nights complete with vendors. These events are perfect for losing stuff in the dark. Another common event in parks in my area are those community fundraising “After Five” events with live bands, alcohol, and lots of people overdressed and milling about. Often they are so packed people stand shoulder to shoulder rubbing and bumping even when not dancing. The more varied uses a park sees the better the prospects for gold.

Topography -The type of terrain in a park is important. For turf hunting at least, gold tends to be found in the flats more than the hills. The land’s grade is important. Nobody is playing team sports in the hills. Large groups of people do not usually congregate in the hills either, and have less incentive to do so in the woods. Focus primarily on flat open terrain. One exception to this: hilly parks with trees and disc golf courses - gold could literally be anywhere on a disc golf course. Also, don’t get too hung up on total park size. While a large park is great for accommodating large crowds for events, many smaller parks are often better prospects when they contain a greater percentage of level open surface areas. In discussing city parks I consider small parks to be 10 acres or less. Parks around 60+ acres I consider large.

Habitat – If a park were a living organism then the surrounding community is the natural habitat. In locations with few public parks the surrounding habitat becomes a more important aspect of site selection. There are certain surrounding features that positively impact a park. Any school or church that shares a property boundary with a park is notable. Any apartments, condos, or townhomes sharing a boundary with a park is notable. Single family homes sharing a property boundary are more common and are less notable than the other types of surrounding habitat except for county parks and rest-stop parks. Don’t discount the remote county parks completely though. Keep in mind the first two factors when evaluating them as a potential prospect. Other things we want to consider in our evaluation of surrounding habitat include adjacent streets, off-street parking, ease of pedestrian access, demographics, population density, and proximity of other parks, or park density. Find a park that rates highly in these aspects and one might more easily forgive a deficiency in factor one or two.

History - It’s important to know as much history on a park as possible.  The age, past use, past detecting pressure, current use, current detecting pressure and any historic images and maps all interest us in evaluating a park’s best potential to hold gold. Some history must be inferred, such as detecting pressure, but these days many county governments and city Park and Recreation departments list all the other facts online. In my area select parks are even provided good historical information with images and descriptions of past use. Don’t put too much weight on age of a park. The reason being is that it is possible when a park has the best of the first three factors that a 10, or even 5 year old park in the suburbs will produce more gold than a 60, or even a 100 year old park elsewhere. You gold-a think outside the box!

Example Search:

I have visited St. Louis for events but never been detecting there. I’ve never visited a park in St. Louis other than the Zoo. I randomly chose a city to illustrate a typical search and actually located a very promising park for anyone in the area. I’d be working it regularly if I lived within 5 miles and it was not prohibited.

Image 2: Tilles Park, St. Louis potential area of interest

Using Google maps I examine the city first with the map view for likely prospects. A typical search would be entered into the map search bar as: St. Louis school, or St. Louis church. These are not the only parks under consideration, but the locations of these indicators hold a promise of greater success. I generally start from the Downtown area and work outwards in pie segments looking for green shaded parks. Nearby large bodies of water always interest me so I’ll give those areas extra attention.  Continuing outwards working in pie segments we note park density, park sizes, and adjacent streets and structures as the initial focus. Major roads that run along a park boundary are notable. Once a promising prospect is located I’ll switch to satellite view and zoom in, examining first images of the park itself looking for clues to the current use, and then the surrounding habitat, structures, and streets afterwards. Just this simple browsing of parks in Google Maps is a huge asset in quickly locating the best potential sites if you use a formula. With this single tool one can quickly cut out a lot of lesser quality parks with occasional random drops and hone in on the likely patches with regular or frequent drops.

Image 3: Tilles Park, St. Louis aerial showing a two park comparison.

Quickly my eye was drawn by the moderate size of the park, a major road, the dense single family homes, and preliminary usage estimates I infer from experience. I liked the size and especially the two larger streets adjoining the park, Hampton Ave. and Fyler Ave. The nearest park seems to be around a mile away which is close but not too close considering the density of housing. There is a lot of single-family homes between them. Zooming in a bit closer, the positive surrounding features I immediately notice (in addition to the housing densely packed on 3 sides) - two residential streets terminating at the park boundary. That’s a history flag! At this point I strongly suspect this park has some age and the land was used for something else in the relatively recent past. This park warrants a closer inspection and historical research but at this point I wouldn’t rate it any higher than a 3 at best. It has good potential but further research is needed.

Image 4: Tilles Park, St. Louis showing an arieal in map view.

The Parks department’s website gives an overview. Ordinance Year: 1957 Size: 29.00 Acres. It also lists basketball courts, racquetball Courts, tennis courts, 3 softball fields, one baseball field, a soccer field, a pavilion, a playground, and a skate hockey rink. Outstanding!

Features in multiples and a few unique features earn one more point! We’re now a 4 star prospect and I’ve never been there.

Image 5: Tilles Park, St. Louis topography map showing elevation

Another site like Historic Aerials will assist with confirmation on topography ID and possible past uses. Unfortunately it only goes back to 1958 in St. Louis, but we still can glean information that can inform our actual hunting strategy.

Image 6a and 6b: Tilles Park, St. Louis aerial showing park feature history

A couple out buildings have been lost near the main structure prior to 1971 (red), and the pavilion had been established by 1958 (green).The park’s vegetation looks stark in 1958. Cycling through the available years trees don’t show up with any size until around the mid-1990. That’s about 40 years of wide-open park land, which means the whole park has good potential to be a nice patch. The walking paths have not been altered.  Another important note is the streets have not been widened as of 1996, so plan to extend your coil all the way to the parking. So far I’d have to rate this particular park a solid 4 at this time. If further research reveals regular community events, and/or positive demographics in the surrounding habitat, and/or some historical significance then it might turn this particular park from a 4 into a 4+ and possibly a 5.

Tilles Park is one public park I’d spend some serious time getting to know if I lived in St. Louis. It was good fortune in locating such a promising prospect so easily. It doesn’t always go that way. Some locations take hours and others have so few parks there are not any real options. You may have to settle for 2 and 3 star parks in your area, in which case my 3 star becomes your 5 star. Don’t let me box you in - think outside of it!

I estimate thousands of parks have very nice undiscovered gold patches and 10,000 more will have at least one gold item lost in them. Locate those patches and you’ll regularly locate the gold.

This information comes from my own personal experience and observations gained through thousands of hour’s field time. My methods are fluid and something I’ve developed along the way while working towards my own personal challenge to master this game. Please feel free to critique, make suggestions, add to, question, and challenge what I’ve presented here. This is the first time I’ve put it down in writing…and if you made it this far, thank you for your time.

Best of hunting to you!