Tom_in_CA

Great play-by-play. Good to see some CA action. Congratz on the seateds !

Great post. Love the landscape shots !

3 gold coins in one day ?? How many gold coins do you have for your career so far ?

I love the md'r saves the day rescue reunion posse stories. Good on you !

Hardcore md'r relic hunters understand perfectly. It's like if you're a fisherman: No one ever taxidermied a fish they got from the supermarket. But lots of persons taxidermy the wily evasive trophy lunker they caught on-their-own. Same logic for md'ing : The thrill of the chase is most of the fun. And ........ yes ...... sometimes one of us *does* get the big-ticket-$$ item.

I do not think it's worthwhile to just wander any old "historic wagon train trail". Instead, you want to hunt where they stopped at nights. Eg.: The recurring stopping spots (since each passing wagon/group would tend to re-use the same spots, over and over). Eg.: Like stage stops, springs, trading posts, etc......

good report. Like an archaeologist' journal ! 🧐

Some sort of chalice or candlestick base ?

And , with the the tune of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly playing on a Spaghetti western, and Clint Eastwood comes riding in from stage right, here's the obligatory modern junk. Some of these shotgun butts were from zones where hardly ANY new stuff is found. Ie.: most everything is "interesting". So you can imagine the heart-stopper signals, in an area where it's *supposed* to be a button or a coin, haha The rest of the junk was where we knew full well we'd have to tolerate some clad and tabs.

And here's some age indicators, which we don't mind . Green copper slag, pistol ball, etc....

Great to get out for a hunt Saturday. Expanding the picture of history at the site. Are you sure those buckles are silver ? And as for the British navy button : There's been plenty of British Navy 1-piece buttons found in CA. But I don't recall that exact one (with the crown on both sides). Very interesting. And good sleuthing ID work. Here's my buttons. 11 total, of which 2 were phoenix buttons.

thanx for the link Steve !

Interesting. Thanx for posting. Ok, who's up for a road trip ? 🤪

Great post ! I love those type of hunts !

Great photography !

Ditto

Our friend Dave got a keeper. A #4 small phoenix button. Type 1 style 1. Also two dropped pistol balls. Touching the Spanish/Mexican period of CA history. Nice going Dave !

"Collected" ? As in not-dug ? If so, how many of those were found via metal detecting ?

Utterly stunning ! You are touching the earliest history of your area. Congratz !

I got three small PBs. #6, #8, and # 14 . All are common. But I'll take 'em. These little boogers are fun to find . I also got one of those bird-cage ball type ball buttons. But mine was crushed, and lacked the connector cross-bar. Leave it to Cal Cobra to rain on my parade, eh ? Fun Hunt Brian. Glad we could get out. Nice way to start the year. You skipped over clad, barbers, seateds, etc.... And went straight to touching the earliest era of CA history. Love the preview of signals/audio. The live reveals, etc.... Good job.

Probably says "London Fine", "extra fine" or "Sure Fine" , or some such gilt button markings. I also got one of those bird-cage cuff-link buttons . But mine was crushed. And didn't have that little cross-bar cufflink connector. That mean old Brian always has to one-up me, eh ? Tsk tsk

KS1652, zincoln is right : That lasted all of a few months. Perhaps all of a few dozen persons. And it post-dated the massive emigrant traffic (gold rush). So don't be fooled by its proximity to the east/west emigrant traffic. I don't think it had much traffic for travel-purposes (which is what you want if you're angling for coins). Don't be fooled by the term "town". That was a loose term in those days to just mean any cross-roads or wherever a few structures were thrown up. Not like in the sense of how we think of "town" or "village" today. Ie.: With laid out streets, etc... Also don't be fooled by the Paher mention of "2 hotels" : Back then anyone who let-out the rear bedroom of a shack, that was considered a "hotel". Not like we think of "hotel" in today's terms, with multiple rooms for set-aside purpose in a set-aside building, etc... My buddies and I passed by there, looked at the foundations, but elected to not even bother stopping. We were on our way elsewhere, that had actual traveler-purpose and longer-run-history. But seeing as how you're only a few hours from there : By all means, work the snot out of it. Even though it's no secret (and has no doubt been md'd before), yet .... ya never know. If you find anything worthwhile there, let us know.

I never get tired of rim-fire shells (henries, etc...). When you're finding those, then the seated coins can't be far behind 🤪

We see lots of each other's show & tell finds, but I always love to see landscape location hunt-site pix too. It puts the finds in context !

ahh, ok. I always heard the "urban legend" to never have metal inside the microwave oven. I didn't know that metal inside a liquid is a different scenario. Very interesting. Thanx !