Hey folks. Happy New Year to everyone. I would like to take my daughters out digging and don't mind a pay site but I have three little ones so I am looking for economical digs. Any suggestions? Thanks and God Bless.

Hey Jimmy where ya from?

When my kids were little and I took them to digs, their interest in digging waned very fast then they just walked around and picked up rocks and bothered other diggers. I'd suggest going somewhere with lots of surface hunting potential and just in case bring some stuff to toss out there for them to find. One of my sons is a lefty and found a left handed scraper surface hunting - that is something he has always remembered.

Lenny's right Jimmy, need a hint of where your starting from for a possible credible answer that suits the kids [ other than Disneyland ]

Thanks guys and gals. I live in North San Antonio. We can drive about 1 1/2 -- 2 hours in any direction. Anyway, thanks for the info.
p.s. We are already headed to Disney World in February....maybe we can find some "Mickey Points" out there!

Right Jimmy, now that we got your lat & longs here's my input...
Fred's sure got the straight story with kids...if you have every been on a "serious" dig with them, it's a revelation. . .
"Economy" is a big factor too, you dont want to be tying shoe laces when the money clock is ticking away !!

My official first recomended choice to you. . . .is..

. . .May I have the envelope please. . .

RIO BRAVO pay dig, south of dripping springs.
Not many reports of recent finds but it IS a known camp site.
Ken [ the proprietor] might be open to family rates
[ usually kids free] It's a huge gorgeous property,
PLENTY of almost untouched surface hunting, combined with nature walks/exploring...
IF you actually are able to settle down to serious digging, just expand on where you see the previous diggers left off, If your luck is good [ same story as Las Vegas, only cheaper] you might find something !
There's a big ranch house with dead animal hanging on the walls, sort of a stuffed animal zoo for the kids.

Ken likes to give people short property tours on his mule [ ATV ]
You need to call in advance...See front page, top left, little pic of "RIO BRAVO DIG"

IF you lived further north, Chrisners is very economical and family friendly too.

Thanks SH. I appreciate your taking the time to give so much detail. We may checkout the Rio Bravo thing. You're right about the surface hunting idea....my twin five year olds need to have their interest constantly piqued so I think that walking around on "nature hikes" a.k.a. surface hunting would be the best bet. My 8 year old would do better on a dig but she's still a bit young yet. Anyway, just trying to introduce my three girls to healthy, educational, lifelong advocation. Any time spent with Dad and daughters outside in the Good Lord's creation is time well spent!
Thanks for all the great advice. Happy New Year!

Jimmy, Seems like there is a dig brewing with families. The more kids the merrier ? At least one of the families has to drive as far as you do. . . . see posting. .

CHRISNERS FINDS 1 - 11 - 08

lmao Fred , we went surface hunting last weekend , now my gf is new to this and is already addicted , my daughter lives with me and she is 8 yrs old , she loves to go but looses interest pretty quick , and where we go we stay all weekend , in a tent in the middle of no where , anyway i have a point . i dont even know where it came from or if its even real , but it was perfect for my plan , billie my daughter was about 15 feet from me , so i drop the point , as i did she turned and saw it , i thought she saw me drop it , so i slid my foot over it , i saw her looking at my foot but she said nothing , she turned and walked away , i picked it up and a while later put it on the ground , and sure anough about 10 min later she finds it , oh she was so excited , well anyway , later that nite we were looking at the scrapers and four other points we had found , she starts talking and says daddy i saw one under your foot , but when you left i went back to find it and it was gone , must have been just a rock . it was all i could do to keep from busting out laughing , lil brat thought i had not seen one and was standing on it and was gonna sneak back and claim it for her self lol.

Good story jer, and hopefully an insight for others planning family outings. Gotta break in young folks slowly to the reality of slugging dirt 10 hrs a day !

Here's a plan ahead hint for you . . . The traditional Easter egg hunt is ideal for a "surfacing" " artifact " hunt. . .

Use small, multi colored plastic eggs, just slightly hidden, with a broken flint piece [ maybe bought at a fint show for a buck apiece ] close by.

Depending on your "family", I personally have had rave results from such a hunt last year by substituting a BEER instead of a lousy broken rock !
OR, , , ,REALLY depending on your "family" situation. . . some diamond earings inside of a "surface find" should make your day !

Cute fuzzy little white stuffed animal bunny ,optional !