Gold Rush Artifacts From California

[Tom_in_CA]

1 hour ago, matt said:

Will do. I live in Sacramento, but need to start going down that way more to deal with family business. That would be great to get together some time. Most likely my Mom would know Gary. I guarantee he would have known my family. The old homestead farm is actually on Blanco Road. Also have a ranch on West side of Cooper Road (Blanco area) and then out in Alisal at Old Stage Road. My family were big lettuce farmers.

Sorry to hijack your thread CVISChris!

 

Well, at the risk of further angering Chris, for us hi-jacking his thread :  That area west of Cooper Rd, was exactly the where the El Tucho rancho was located.  Unless you mean the northern stretch of Cooper Rd, up closer to Hwy. 183.  Then that's different.  Although I've wandered the fields up there too, because of hints at old diseno maps.  And found midden in the field of locations (ceramic shards, tile, etc...).  And then we break out the detectors 🙂

 

El Tucho is shown on certain topo maps .  Since rancho boundaries system was the infancy of the current mapping system of CA land, after all.    And you can google "El Tucho" aka "Las Salinas", to get more info.  

 

And as for Old stage Rd, we've pinned down multiple adobe sites along there, and bagged reales and early seateds, buttons, etc....    Stop by next time you're down this way on "urgent business", and we'll pour over maps, names, dates, etc.... I grew up here.  And hunt with a guy who knows all the old-time names as well (his family is multi-generational ranching/construction).

 

[Tom_in_CA]

1 hour ago, Dances With Doves said:

 Do you guys  ever find Jesuit rings in California in your old spots that you hunt?

We've found mission era rings.  But they're just copper rings.  With various design, or icon on them.   After looking at a google images page of "Jesuit ring", I would say that I/we have not found *exactly* like those. 

 

But if I change the image search to "Jesuit fur trade ring", then yes:  We find those type varieties.   I just always assumed they were Indian trade trinkets.   But sure:  Since the missions, and their outposts, were the first European toe-hold here, then naturally a lot of the items we found have a connection to the church.  Since, at the time, the crown and the church were co-mingled, and the churches (the missions) administered the lands on-behalf of the crown.  So go figure, we'll find super early crude crucifixes and medallions, from time to time, at sites that pre-date CA statehood.

 

[CVISChris]

I’m good with this.  It’s very interesting.  

[Dances With Doves]

The rings I found were  lost  before 1687 when the  French  burnt the village and the Jesuits were now long gone who gave them those rings. 

[geof_junk]

15 hours ago, Tom_in_CA said:

The one location that has always eluded me, was "El Tucho".   That was several square miles of land, that was a Spanish , then Mexican land grant rancho area.  And historical citations hint that there was a community of people living there at various mission-era times.   But as for exactly WHERE, on the vast acreage, that this location was, we've never been able to pin down.   You can see the boundaries of El Tucho on maps, no problems (topo maps, etc....).  But that doesn't tell us where the actual homestead/habitation (adobes, or whatever) were.    It was somewhere out @ what is now the Blanco store/ Cooper Rd. area.    Do you have any clues ?

Have you looked the area with google earth it might give you a different view.

[Tom_in_CA]

7 hours ago, geof_junk said:

Have you looked the area with google earth it might give you a different view.

thanx.  But it won't help.  The area has been under agriculture (furrowed row crop , leaf veggies) since the turn-of-century.   

[WesD]

This was a fascinating read on early California trade days: Two Years Before The Mast, by Dana