Last year was my first year looking for them with a friend. Here is my experience from last year.
We found quite few in the limestone along a paved driveway, high pH soil, I'd say.
Found a bunch along an old railroad track, rail trail, again, using limestone ballast rock, making the soil higer pH. Interesting to note, along that same RR track, where creek stone was used after a portion was washed out, the morels quit.
Under the autumn olive on that rail trail, we found many more. Autumn olive fixes nitrogen in the soil.
Another place there were a TON, just a TON, was in a friends flower beds. The flower beds looked like potting soil and they had nothing but hostas in those flower beds.
A friend said he knows someone that looks for them in Iowa. Finds tons of them out there. Some of the best soils in the nation. Again, higher pH than mountain soils and rich in nutrients.
A friend finds tons. He won't disclose where, but I now suspect he is hunting the old charcoal "pits" in the local hills. These are places where pioneers burnt timber to create charcoal to run the iron ore furnaces back in the 1700's. These flat spots in the hills have dark black, rich soils. Burning wood creates ashes that are higher in pH than surrounding soils.
Again, it seems to me, pH has something to do with where they grow and thats why I don't think we see them in the northern mountains, very low pH soils.
HOWEVER, I could be wrong about all this. LOL