Getting started

Five tabs, one map. Here’s where everything lives and the fastest way to your first hunt.

OldGround puts old maps, LiDAR and satellite imagery on top of each other so you can find where people used to live and work, then keeps track of where you hunted and what you found.

The five tabs

• Map: the one live map. Every “show on map” in the app brings you here, and it keeps your place when you switch tabs.
• Sites: the fields, yards and parks you detect, each with its finds and visits.
• Finds: every find, grouped by site, plus your other pins.
• Community: finds and detecting videos shared by other detectorists.
• Old maps: the scans you’ve imported and lined up.

Settings is the cog at the top of the Sites, Finds, Community and Old maps tabs.

Your first ten minutes

1. Open the Map tab and allow location so the blue dot shows where you are.
2. Look at the LiDAR (the map starts with LiDAR over satellite). Old house sites, roads and cellar holes often stand out as bumps and lines.
3. Import an old plat map or atlas page on the Old maps tab and line it up (see “Old maps”).
4. When you find a promising spot, outline it on the Sites tab with + New site.
5. Get there, tap Start visit, and log finds with + Add pin.

Tip Everything you make, from maps and sites to finds and paths, is stored on your phone and works without signal. Only posts you choose to share in the Community go online.