Detectorists Find More Than What’s Underground

These hunts are fundraisers for the Boyertown Area Historical Society, which documents past activities in an area where the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War were once fought. In the South, hunts on former war-related land are usually for-profit, where the organizing host splits profits with the property owner.

Volunteers from the historical society in Boyertown, Pennsylvania (population 4,200), conceived of the first fundraiser in November 2020 to help pay for structural building repairs for the historical society’s museum.

Its popularity led to the founding of the Boyertown Relic Recovery Club the following year. The most recent two-day Come Out Swingin’ event, held in April 2024, hosted over 100 detectorists and guests from surrounding states as well as Texas, Utah and California.

Teresa Kay flew from Dallas, Texas, for a recent relic hunt. “I love history!” she says. “I watch videos and documentaries almost every day on YouTube, usually about the early wars in New England or Civil War accounts in the South. Anytime I’m planning a trip, I study the history there.”

She has attended three Come Out Swingin’ events so far and has her own YouTube channel, Teresa The Treasure Hunter.

Rob Theisen is a board member of the Boyertown Area Historical Society and a founding member of its Relic Recovery Club. “I’ve asked that the club not have titles and be more like a roundtable,” says Theisen. He has been a featured guest on several podcasts, including Jersey History Hunter and Quarter Hoarder on YouTube and Relics Radio on Spreaker, a popular podcast platform, to promote the events nationally.

Over the years, these detectorists have uncovered centuries-old artifacts hidden just beneath the surface, often in unassuming locations. Theisen recalls finding a Spanish silver coin on the banks of the Delaware River and a New York State copper coin in the middle of a Berks and Montgomery-counties area’s cornfield, both dating back to the 1700s.

“Our target range is from the 1600s to the early 1900s. Old farm fields, farmhouses, barns and homesteads are ideal locations,” Theisen says. “But through research, we can often identify trading posts, remote bars, brothels and hotels that are lost to time.”

The nearby area of Gilbertsville and Fagleysville in Montgomery County is known for having had a Revolutionary War encampment sprawling across hundreds of acres. The still-active New Hanover Evangelical Lutheran Church served as a temporary hospital for George Washington’s Continental Army. Several dozen soldiers from the war are buried in the church’s cemetery.

Theisen says that the settlement would have functioned as its own community in the region, with a blacksmith and butcher and the families of soldiers who sometimes traveled with them. One of the club’s recent hunts highlighted how relic discovery juxtaposes the old with the modern: 16 musket balls, all discovered within a 20-foot radius, were found on the property of a house built in the 1960s, adjacent to a modern-day golf course.

For many, metal detecting is a way to deepen connections to a local area by uncovering its hidden history. Club member Jessica Buck from Green Lane in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, began metal detecting as a hobby during the Covid-19 pandemic. Her finds have included pocket watches, a skeleton key, antique coins and more.

At a past club event, Buck found a small, unfired cannonball on a farm in the neighboring town of Oley in Berks County. “Troops likely would have traveled with wagons to pick those up,” Buck says, noting that there were foundries producing artillery in this area. While researching the cannonball to locate the former foundry of origin Buck found indications of an old road through the field where she discovered the relic.

Buck is far from alone in her newfound interest in metal detecting. Advances in technology, the rise of social media and a growing interest in outdoor activities have contributed to the growth of the hobby and the metal detecting industry. (Metal detecting has also been popularized recently in the British comedy series Detectorists.) Quality detectors can range in price from $350 to $1,500, catering to different styles of detecting and varying experience levels.

Andrew Waholek of Relic Recoverist, a popular metal detector distributor, blog and YouTube channel, was instrumental in helping launch Come Out Swingin’ in 2020. Waholek travels 100 miles east to Berks County from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, twice annually for Come Out Swingin’.

With nearly two decades of experience in metal detecting, he often acts as the onsite repair mechanic, keeping spare and replacement parts in a box in his truck to help fix sudden problems others encounter with their equipment before and during hunts.

“Being able to touch something that somebody lost more than 100 years ago,” is what Waholek says he values most. “You’re the first person to touch it, hold it, feel it, and experience it, and see it since it was lost. I prefer the personal items like buttons and jewelry, things people would have touched or used daily. It makes me feel like I have a real connection with the past.”

Mechanical failures are not the only challenge facing metal detecting events. One common obstacle is getting property owners to agree and feel comfortable with detectors surveying their land.

Christina Fink is the owner of 78-acre Magnolia Meadows Farm LLC, based in Barto, Pennsylvania, where she raises grass-fed beef through a heritage Scottish breed called Belted Galloway; in crop rotations she grows corn, beans and winter rye.

In April 2022, she hosted Come Out Swingin’ on her land, allowing access to about 70 acres. She recalls participants recovering musket balls and coins from before the United States minted its own, as well as U.S.-minted coins from the 1700s and 1800s.

“One of the gentlemen repairing my barn is a part of the Boyertown Area Historical Society and approached me, asking if I’d consider doing this, and I said, ‘Let me think about it,’ ” she says.

The club encourages property owners to host the fundraiser hunts by demonstrating the techniques used, thoroughly explaining what to expect, communicating regularly and donating to a charity of the property owner’s choice. (Fink, for example, chose the Lower Merion Historical Society in Bala Cynwyd, Berks County, to which she belongs.)

As a property owner, Fink says the biggest issue for farmers and other landowners today is liability: what if a detectorist accidentally walks into a field where her bull is and gets trampled? To assuage such fears and concerns, Theisen handles liability insurance naming the properties and their owners as additional insured(s) on the Society’s event insurance. Theisen also goes as far as working with landowners and local farmers to prevent any potential biosecurity issues for livestock.

The club has recently connected with Chapter 21 of the Society for Pennsylvania Archeology and hopes to do joint work to identify target areas for digs with archeologist Rachael Smith in an effort to mutually expand their work.

But what continues to make metal detecting compelling is its sense of community. Joe Setti travels almost four hours from Brookfield, Connecticut, to attend Come Out Swingin’. At one of the events, he found a 1908 Barber half dollar minted in Philadelphia.

“History was never a big thing in my life until I started metal detecting, and now it’s an addiction,” Setti says. “No matter what I find—like buttons with maker’s marks—I sit at home and read, researching.”

For Setti, the process is about more than solitary discovery and study. “I served in the U.S. Marine Corps for three years, and I traveled everywhere,” he says. “I have PTSD, and this really helps me. Believe it or not, a lot of guys do this because it takes our minds to a different space.”

If you’re keen on uncovering the lost history of your property, Rob Theisen, with his extensive network spanning clubs, historical societies and detectorists nationwide, stands ready to assist. For more information reach out to him at bahsrelicrecovery@outlook.com.

Jennifer Hetrick

Jennifer Hetrick is a freelance writer in Southeastern Pennsylvania. She is the creator of The labors of our fingertips: poems from manufacturing history in berks county, a three-year project that includes three books of poetry crafted from interviews with seniors who used to work in the now obsolete factories and mills of Berks County, Pennsylvania.