Around here (SE Tennessee) folks hunt Civil War relics with metal detectors.
Now that does sound like a cool thing to do. Not much Civil War stuff to find here in the Pacific Northwest.
I wonder if you could find stuff out on the beach? Folks in Florida find relics on certain beaches, sometimes Spanish gold and such, after big storms churn up the bottom. There might be stuff washing up on the beaches out your way after a big knock down drag out winter storm. With all the whaling that was done out there I would think there would be plenty of wrecks off shore providing stuff to be washed up and found. That would thrill a boy well beyond any video game.....me too, for that matter......