In my area of northern Penna, it's common to find a couple apple trees deep in the hardwood forest. There weren't any homesteads in these hollows or valleys. The apple trees most likely sprouted from a lumberman tossing seeds out after eating an apple. Or a camp cook dumping seeds out after peeling. The apples on these trees are small and gnarled.
Good call on the isolated trees coming from temporary camps or logger lunches. Those can be worth a look around too, but not as target rich as a more permanent settlement. Where abouts are you in Pa? This is great country.
Enjoyed the vid cheif. Great search info on old properties! I worked 3 different orchards for 10 years. 2 of the 3 orchards had a good creek very near. 1860 farm & other farm was 1910. Both orchards were well sprayed every spring, healthy trees, some trees were 70 years old. Most were younger. I miss my appletrees that we picked & Pruned. There was 4000 trees. Yes 4k!
Wow, Richard…that’s a BUNCH of trees to prune! It looked like there were around 70 trees in this little orchard. But that would have produced a ton of fruit on a good year. can’t wait to get back in there next spring, with detector in hand!
Enjoyed the video, you're spot on with your observations. Love finding those old out of the way places using maps and old images...makes it that much more satisfying when you find something. We are in the same neighborhood, I live in Luzerne County and my detecting partner lives in Susquehanna County. We usually hunt Northern PA and Southern NY. Maybe one day we'll bump into one another. Take care and good luck 👍
Thanks for watching! Can’t wait to get in there next spring! And I hope today’s wet snow put some of that Goldenrod down flat, too. I'm north of Williamsport, in the Wellsboro-Mansfield area. If you ever get a couple counties west of your stomping grounds…maybe I could come over and join you? Perhaps we could find someplace in the Towanda area to search…lots of history there… Have a great winter!
@@HistoryintheHandMetalDetecting Definitely..We've been over your way before. Once the weather breaks and we start getting out again in the spring, I'll get in touch with you, maybe be can plan a hunt..👍 Stay safe and good luck!
I love these type of videos as much as metal detecting ones. Goes good with the one you had on using lidar the other day. Never knew about the old orchards. Going to go back and look for those.
Glad you enjoyed it Darin! The orchards appear as a grid of very slight mounds, whether there are still trees there or not. I sometimes search old aerial photos too, and the old orchards really show up on the earliest photos, which are from 1938 for my area. The grids of trees pop out very clearly…even if a few of the trees are missing. Once I spot the trees, I zoom in and look for foundations. It’s amazing to see the changes over the last 75 years!
@@HistoryintheHandMetalDetecting yes it is. I have 1938 aerials of my area also. What is all woods today was all field back then. Noticed a road or trail going through a block of woods it goes right by what I thought were cellar holes but its a good 100 to 150 yards away from the home site.
Old maps are the best. We had a plantation home where confederates camped one winter. While renovating the house we found a wall with maps of where the camps were. Well, lets just say we found a TON of everything you can imagine from the war.
That wall of maps was an INCREDIBLY fortunate one! My problem is that every map I can get my hands on…have been available to everybody else around here, too. It’s still fun, but I’m only picking up leftovers.
Thanks very much, and I’m glad you came along for the ride! Lots of country history to be recovered around here. Join me next time, and we’ll see what else we can find. I put out a hunt video each week…found a gold wedding band in this week's video of another old foundation!
These old homesteads are interesting- I have to wonder if the Apple orchards were more common in your area then they were around here in MN. I can’t think of ever seeing surviving apple trees near homesteads in this state.
That’s interesting, Steve. Our soil/temperature/elevation combo is ideal for orchards here in Pa, and central NY where I grew up. The large area photos literally dot the landscape in 1938. Sadly, there are very few left that haven’t been eaten by hardwood forest and/or removed for tillable acreage. But now that I think outside this part of the country, orchards might not be as much of a possibility? I may have been a little "nearsighted" with my use of the word ALWAYS, without a disclaimer! Thanks for the broadened perspective! Merry Christmas to you
Awesome video I learned something if I may ask why did every homestead have a apple orchard I kinda figure for food source and even cider as you mentioned but is there any other reason God Bless and happy dirt fishin…Virgil
From what it seems, once an orchard was established, it provided high calorie cider, apple sauce, apple butter, canned apples, and half a winters worth of apples for no more labor but some time pruning (in the early spring). Not to mention the pies, fritters, pancakes, muffins and more. It was a low labor harvest crop…and the rain, sun, and bees did most of the work!