Why nobody talks about using ground-penetrating radar on old homestead sites

Last month I was out near an abandoned farmhouse in eastern Oregon. I had been digging test pits for 3 days and barely found a single nail or piece of glass. Then a buddy who works with utility locators offered to run his GPR unit over the property for an afternoon. Man, it was a game changer. We found an old well shaft, a buried trash pit, and what looks like a forgotten root cellar in about 2 hours. I pulled out three early 1900s bottles and a rusted horseshoe from that trash pit the next day. The unit cost him around $15,000 but I bet you could rent one for a weekend. Has anyone else tried using geophysics on their dig sites? I'm thinking about buying a used unit for my next project.

2 comments

2 Comments

troy8322d ago

I rented a GPR unit for a weekend last fall and the power lines buried under the yard lit up like Christmas trees but it missed a buried 55-gallon drum that was only 2 feet down. The problem is the operator matters more than the machine. If you buy one used, plan on spending a solid week just learning how to read the scans or you will dig a lot of holes for nothing.

mia7482d ago

Yeah that part about operator mattering more than the machine hit me hard. I used to think you just plug these things in and they magically show you everything underground but your story about the drum proves its way more complicated than that. Definitely changed my mind about them being some kind of x-ray vision tool.