I've found hundreds of these type places. There are a few common items I'd like to mention. 1) You're right, there must be water nearby. Usually a "spring" is more desirable than a creek or river. 2) If you look around the spring you'll usually see what is known as a "spring house" which was their refrigerator to keep things cold. Any stacked stone around/in the spring is a sign. 3) The creek is where most artifacts end up so look for bottles, pieces of old machinery, and other artifacts. 4) Since there were no way to take things to a dump, somewhere on the property is a place where the threw their junk. 5) In almost every case there were some sort of additional buildings or structures around(outhouse, barn, corn crib, smokehouse, etc). 6) In my humble opinion that place was probably from the late 1800's to early 1900's.
