Finding Artifacts

[Diatribe]

I will chime in one more time, that if you're looking for some relics along your hike, a lot of AT & blue blazed trails in Shennandoah NP has a lot of relics such as old homesteads, foundations, ruins, corn cribs, spring houses, chimneys, rusted metal farming equipment, graves, and a myriad of vestiges of the past. They are hard to find in the warmer months, and extremely illegal to disturb year-round, but, if you know where to look, SNP has some great history & vestiges.

But along the length of the AT, the most prominent relics are the old roadbeds/wagon routes that you cross. Most easily found in gaps along the trail, these are relics that you can actually walk on, and if you look closely enough you can see some great stone work/abutments near creeks & water sources. Here in VA, most of this wonderful old stone work & road beds were built by (Irish) immigrant labor in the early 1800s.

Howardsville Pike is the first, and best example of an old colonial grade that comes to mind. It is located at the Humpback Rocks parking area, now blazed blue--and links with the AT. A bit east of this junction are great examples of the stone work i speak of.

[topshelf]

I know of an old WW2 plane that crashed on top of a mountain in VA. The plane sits on top of the mountain and the engine sits down in a holler about halfway down the mountain. Most of the entire plane still survives. Its about a quarter of a mile off the trail.

South of Chatfield shelter there is an old armory where guns used to be made back in the day. I don't think much is left anymore, people found it and scavenged it.

Just off the trail in SWVA there are the foundations of an old pre-revolutionary fort/encampment. Also there are cannon emplacements where cannon's were fired and rolled back to be reloaded.

All of these are close to the trail, but not right on the trail. I'm not getting more exact about their locations than I did.

[double d]

Last summer I hiked on the AT/LT in Vermont and some GMC trailbuilders said that they found some really cool Native American artifacts while building a new shelter. The GMC even had some UV professors date the artifacts. It was a cool conversation at the end of a long day of hiking.

[Snowleopard]

The monument to the last battle of Shay's Rebellion is on the AT:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sh...n-monument.jpg

There are iron furnaces pretty close to the AT in NW CT (Salisbury) and SW Mass. that date back to mid 1700s.

I've found old quarries in the woods in Mass and VT, but not on the AT. Friends removed 200+ year old tools from old quarries in Worcester, Mass, but these were scheduled to be obliterated by construction of a school on top of them and they were properly documented.

[YoungMoose]

Found a bear mountain spring bottle. (forgot what its called) it was bottled water. it was a big old heavy glass. it was over 50 years old. I found it when i was helping put in the steps up bear mountain. I took it and brought it to the bear mountain museum.

[Sarcasm the elf]

It was extremely tempting to take some but its almost like you're erasing history. ... Take a picture of them, but leave them where you find them.

Luddite, very well put.

Living in New England, artifacts from earlier settlers abound. I've found many items on local trails that would make a great collection, but if I were to take them then I would be the last person to see them as they were.

As a kid (hiker, boy scout, idiot, etc.) I never bought into the "it's illegal to take items from public land" argument. It wasn't until I grew older that I realized that it was actually immoral to do so (Don't worry, I didn't take anything too interesting.) The more I learn about the history of an area, the more appreciation I have for the evidence that remains.

Also, this post reminds me of Winton Porter's story of the guy who threw his back out trying to carry out the "indian artifact."

[Bronk]

I found an old Budweiser can at the campsite just north of Wayah Bald...it was the kind that you had to use an actual can opener to open. I left this gem right where I found it on the bank of the creek.

[WisconsinHiker2011]

I suggest to everyone that they leave 'artifacts' where they are found, and instead if one is so eager to take something from the trail pack out garbage they find on the trail - even it is not theirs.

[Speakeasy TN]

Speaking of garbage/artifacts I found a pull tab on a Tennessee trail. I was amazed that such a small piece hadn't broken down. And yeah I took it!

[russb]

What is the time threshold which determines whether an object is trash or an artifact? Or is it not time, but another metric?

[The Weasel]

What is the time threshold which determines whether an object is trash or an artifact? Or is it not time, but another metric?

Generally, 50 years.

So a Bud can with no pull tab probably qualifies. Trash, by the way, when found in piles or middens (buried) is one of the greatest sources of artifacts for archeologists.

TW

[russb]

Generally, 50 years.

So a Bud can with no pull tab probably qualifies. Trash, by the way, when found in piles or middens (buried) is one of the greatest sources of artifacts for archeologists.

TW

So in just a few short years I will no longer be considered hiker trash but instead a hiking artifact?

[Furlough]

You can see all kinds of artifacts from the old homesites in the Shenandoah National Park. Everything from glassware to old saws and washbasins to stacks of rough sawn American Chestnut Boards and even the rusted hulls of old cars. I believe I have pictures of most of the above in my gallery. I have taken photos but never removed the artifacts. It just does not seem right to do so, even if it were legal. Mostly, thes artifacts are off of the numerous "side trails" not the AT itself. In my humble opinion the side trails of SNP are the true gems for hiking in the Park, the AT is a convient addiiton to make for some good loops. As an aside some stretches of the side trails use to be older sections of the AT. Not real sure if they were the original section or not. But it is still possible to see some old rusted out AT diamond trail markers both on and off the AT within in the SNP.

Furlough

[sbhikes]

There's a portion of the PCT where I was crunching through obsidion flakes. I know enough about them to know they were all artifacts. I felt bad crushing them with my feet.

[fiddlehead]

I suggest to everyone that they leave 'artifacts' where they are found, and instead if one is so eager to take something from the trail pack out garbage they find on the trail - even it is not theirs.

These are my first thoughts when i saw the headline of this thread.
I am a bit shocked to see only a (very) few posts agreeing with the right thing to do.
Leave them there.
Please!

[hailstones]

Indian artifacts are scattered all over north georgia,small overhang between springer and blood mountian with burnt marks on underside of rock overhang from indian fire pits with what appears to be pottery and quartz chips all over and plenty of old bones from possible hunting parties in the area

[the judge]

the trails at mountwood state park have a few "artifacts" an old hay rake on the haystack trail, a 60's model fast back on the medicine man trail, an old church by the gun range, and the styles mansion ruins (a cross shaped mansion built during the oil boom in volcano, WV)

[Grampie]

If you stop at the Hike Inn near Fontana Dame you can see a great collection of Indian arrow heads that are on display. A good part of them were found in the area.

[atraildreamer]

Not exactly trail related, but interesting none the less! I was invited to have a cup of coffee at the home of a friend who was a commercial fisherman in RI. The coffee was served in cups that he had dredged up in one of his nets from the bottom of Long Island Sound. They had apparently come from an old steam powered commercial ferry that had made the daily run from Boston to Providence to New York City in the 1800's.

[ZeroC]

I figure there should be some sort of refined policy other than 'just leave it'. At least when speaking for the US, United States history is very well documented in the written record, and the last 75-100 years in audio and visual record as well. So when it comes to 'artifacts' from American history the archeological recorded is pretty much going to be useless and provide no new insights. Pre-United States history could always use bolstering so there must by some way of verifying useful artifacts vs those that provide no concern-able information, like the cups JERMM found. Not exactly of any historical significance. But either way, shouldn't there be some type of authority on the matter to verify your finding with them to make a call whether it's a historical artifact, junk, eligible to take, or some other status. Either by alerting of the location of the item(s) or recording the location if the item could be safely removed, brought to said authority to make the call and proceed from there. Say someone found a bone of some creature that we didn't know was on this continent but they just left it, and it covered back up and was lost for another 1000 years. Or I would be mad if i was digging 1000 years from now and found something and what like "oooo, oooo, i think i got something here. Look, it's a... santa coffee mug. crap" Then you have iron objects that if they aren't picked up now, they're just going to be nothing but a pile of unrecognizable rust in 50 years. Especially anywhere that has plenty of rain. There's an old car in the woods at my grandfather's house, it's probably a 1950, or so, Ford. It's been out there as long as i can remember. I checked it out not long ago and it's almost completely gone into a pile of rust. Just random thoughts.