“What’s even more interesting is to see often the same old guys witch a lost, buried power line with a copper coathanger.”
Some surveyers witch to find old survey pins. I thought it was a dumb idea till an old county surveyer found a pin we’d been looking for for an hour. When the rods crossed, we lowered a plumbob and it hit the lost pin dead center. May not work everytime, but that time convinced me.
I use coat hangers for witching and have located lost jewelry to underground water pipes.