I worked three summers for the Oklahoma Highway Department surveying Interstate 35 near Ardmore. We were renewing the preliminary survey from several years before.
We were looking for a marker when a county survey team stopped to see what we were doing. They offered to have one of their team members ‘witch’ for the marker, just like witching for water but with metal rods. We were skeptical but we weren’t having any luck finding the marker.
Their team member used his rods and the first two ‘hits’ were a bottle cap and an old nail. The third hit was our old marker. We were impressed. The marker was six inches below ground level.
A friend who spent some time in the field in Pakistan tells me that he saw Paki military out witching for landmines. They seemed to have confidence in the method. I wouldn’t want to go along for the demonstration, but it’s something to think about.