Ne Nevada 1st Time Ghost Town Detecting (long)

[GB_Amateur]

I was fortunate to be able to attend the 13th Welcome to Hunt Outing (WTHO) in Northeast Nevada (Wells locale) this past month.  A bit of background (from what I know, which may not be totally accurate):  Monte Berry began these in 2015, taking people to ghost towns that he had been detecting for decades.  As you can see from the numbers there have been about two per year, most at a handful of sites in Elko County, NV (the extreme Northeast county of the state), but a couple were other states such as Oregon and Utah.  Unfortunately due to his recent move from Oregon to Texas, Monte was unable to attend but he turned the reigns over to a quite qualified (and I say that now from experience) Oregon Gregg (member here).  This year four ghost towns were on the rotation.  I'm not going to list their names since I don't know if this is public knowledge, nor do I know for sure who owns them, etc.  (I know that one is on private property but not sure about the others.)  The four have several things in common.  GT1 is the oldest and was a railroad town back when the USA and its territories were first tied together by the TransContinental RR in the late 1860's.  GT2 was also built on the RR around the turn of the century.  GT3 was a real estate development (speculation) started around 1910.  GT4 was another RR town which was also established around the same time -- late in the first decade of the 20th Century.  I'll give a bit more info as a go through my itinerary.  One other thing these four towns have in common, and likely in common with thousands of Western ghost towns -- they grew voraciously in their first few years (meaning 5 years or less) and then started declining.  The decline took longer (20-30 years, ballpark) as there always seem to be a few individuals who get comfortable enough they don't want to move on and rebuild.  But "boom and bust" really does a good job of describing these and many others in the Western USA.

Day 1 (Tuesday 8 June).  I arrived a day early compared to the initial start date and Oregon Gregg and Utah Rich (another member here) had been around doing preliminary investigating and detecting since the weekend.  They invited me to meet them just of I-80 at an exit near GT1 and GT2.  I followed Gregg to those while Rich took a different route.  After showing me GT2 Gregg said that he and Rich would be detecting GT1 that day so I followed him there.  I spent 6 consecutive hours in the near Soltice baking sun getting a feel for that site, the oldest and from what I've heard, most productive as far as old coins of the four in this year's rotation.  I was swinging the Fisher F75 w/4"x6" concentric coil and getting lots of non-ferrous (as well as some ferrous) hits.  Most of what I was recovering was in the first 3 inches of the surface which Gregg told me is typical.  I spent most of my time between the foundation of a hotel and the railroad (still in operation), hoping that was a path used frequently by tired, careless travelers.  Here's a photo of my 'finds':

Don't get too excited.  I'm new at this Ghost Town detecting and still learning (at the elementary level).  I've arranged things in five columns.  Leftmost are mostly utilitarian copper & alloy items -- plumbing pieces, electrical fixtures, copper wire.  The top of column 2 are melted "sand cast" lead pieces, most of which were found close to the RR tracks.  Fires were very common back then (just ask San Francisco) and possibly these occurred during one of those.  But I learned that lots of metal (especially raw forms) fell from RR cars so maybe that is their origin.  Lower part of 2nd column are various other misc. metal (unknown composition) pieces.  The third column is the most interesting (note, 'most interesting' is relative ).  Bottom left is what others in the group thought might have come off a cast iron stove.  It has the word 'July' imprinted in block letters.  Above it is a broken rose headed spike.  Directly above that is a leather piece with a circular brass disk embedded in it.  A piece of horse tack or possibly something worn by a human?  Above that is some kind of suspender buckle, I think.  (This gets an asterisk since Gregg noticed it sitting on top of the ground and tossed it to me.)  Top disk appears to be the back of a watch/timepiece.  Fourth column is the usual bullets, casings, and one cartridge.  At the very top is a copper scrap which I think was likely a jacket (of a large bullet!).  Last column is misc. bits that I haven't ID'ed.

Most of the attendees spent nearly their full time at this GT1, hoping for old coins, I guess.  The above was my only day there.  Several of us met at the Iron Skillet restaurant at the Petro Truck Stop in Wells for dinner that evening.  This is the standard meeting spot each dinnertime for anyone who wants to jaw between mouthfulls of chicken fried steak, etc.

Days 2&3 (Wed-Thu).  Utah Rich was kind enough to take a few of us to GT3 on Wednesday morning.  This is the most unique of the four towns since it was a Real Estate development (boondoggle) that didn't make it.  The carrot for attracting residents was the building of a large reservoir which could then be used for irrigation.  Problem is that those living downstream didn't take kindly to their water source being cut off and won in the courts.  Although a town was laid out which was planned to house 25,000 residents (how's that for optimism?), in reality fewer than 1000 ever took up residence, and that number likely included many who lived on farms nearby, not in the town itself.  Still, there was a fancy hotel, historic schoolhouse, "entertainment center", church, and several homes built as well as a railroad spur.  When the downstream residents put a stop to the utopian dam the gig was up and in less than 2 years the population topped out and quickly started declining.  Here's a photo of my finds for those two days (first day with above F75 setup and second day with ML Equinox and 6" DD):

Highlights include the only old coin (Wheatie) I found over the five days in NE Nevada (more on that later), a Model-T hubcap (likely from the 1920's, but I haven't got it dated for sure), and right above it another Ford embossed (but unknown) part.  As you hear about every detecting site (regardless of type of detecting) -- some say this town is hunted out.  The ring shaped item with three mounting holes (near the left edge of the photo) came up a clean 28-30 on the Equinox, which is solid in the silver zone between dime and quarter.  Who rejects digging that?  It's actually a brass closet rod hangar (and, yes, I was disappointed).  Regarding weather, the second of these two days was the windiest day I've ever detected, with sustained wins 20-30 mph and gusts over 40 mph, all day long.  The temp only got up to about 60 F (15 C) and I wore a sweatshirt and denim jacket most of the day.  This was only a week before the Western USA's first heat wave (highs over 100F = 38C in most of Western 1/4 - 1/3 of the Continental USA).  I didn't complain about the cool temps even before I had to deal with that!  Great sleeping weather as I was 'camping' in the back of my Jeep Compass.

Days 4-5 (Friday-Saturday) -- I got in a bit of early morning detecting at GT3 (note: I mentioned in an earlier post here that I successfuly used my magetic rake to clear both dead vegetation and iron bits before detecting a spot I had covered previously).  Then we broke camp and moved to GT4, another railroad town from the early part of the 20th Century.  Here's the haul from that one:

The large chunk at upper left is some kind of RR scrap.  Tiny (jewelry) ring on left and rusty denim button at at bottom will be detailed shortly.  Note the (German) Hohner harmonica housing piece at lower left.  You can't see it in this photo but it had a lot of marking, including dates of awards from the 1920's.  I don't know if the reed in the upper right is from it, but I think I found it several hundred meters away, so likely not.

Now for a closeup of the most interesting finds from GT3 & GT4:

Top two items are from old clothing -- left is a Lee button (likely off blue jeans) with their slogan "can't bust 'em" which an internet search reveals was first used in the 1940's, so this was likely from a railroad worker and not a town resident of GT4.  The small brass/bronze rivet (from GT3) says "L.S. & Co  S.F." for Levi Straus & Company, San Francisco.  Again the internet clued me in that this particular rivet (the saying started earlier, BTW) is from early in the 20th Century.  The middle two items didn't photo as well as I'd liked.  RH is the Ford embossed broken piece of metal from GT3.  Left is my only ghost town coin (not counting a very disappointing Zincoln -- damn railroad workers, or should I blame previous detectoris?).  After hearing and reading so many stories here at detectorprospector.com of -S and -CC (Western mints) mintmarked coins from the 19th and early 20th Century I was optimistic this Wheatie was going to be an early -S minted semi-key.  Imagine my disappointment when I got home and was able to see '1919' (no mintmark).  That happens to be the highest mintage Lincoln cent minted prior to 1940, a span of 31 years!  And it came all the way from Philadelphia!!  What a disappointment.  Lower left is a 45 caliber steel jacketed WCC 42 cartridge from GT4.   Again, an internet search showed that the '42' meant it was made in 1942.  The current mystery is a) whether or not it was military issue, and b) why it is steel jacketed lead.  I doubt this was dropped recently (look at the patina) but as to whether a GI dropped it on his way to fight Hitler or it has a less romantic story (hunter who bought them by the gross at a surplus store) will probably never be known.  Finally, the child's ring found near the train station at GT4.  Rang up a solid, consistent 12 (USA nickel TID) on the Equinox with 11" coil, depth in the 2"-3" range.  I thought I handled it carefully but it broke, showing strong orange interior (copper) so it's silver plated.  The 'stone' looks like glass to me.  Still my best find, and recovered near the most frequently hunted spot in that town -- right next to the train depot (now just a foundation).  Was I really the first person to get my coil over it?

The comaraderie was enjoyable although besides my sister and partner, only Mike from Alaska, Tom from Arizona, and Mike from Utah detected the towns I was in at the times I was in those.  Most everyone (22 was the unofficial count, I think) concentrated on the oldest (GT1) town.  The round-the-dinner-table discussions were the pleasurable social hour.  There were a few old coins found, including a seated dime and a seated quarter.  Oregon Gregg found a beautiful and rare trade token, likely worth in the 3 figures.  I hope there are more of these WTHO's as I'm ready to move on from 'beginner' and I just know there's an early -S mint coin with my name on it.  Thanks to Monte, Gregg, Rich, and all involved.

[F350Platinum]

I can see why this took a while to get together, that must have been a blast, regardless of the lack of coins. Great old jewelry.

The embossed Ford item in your second photo is a model T hubcap - the very one I used for my avatar. No idea what the second one is.

I'd say that was a really successful trip. 👍 Great story and history.

[Raphis]

As much hunting as I have done in nearly 40 years of detecting, I have never hunted a bonafide ghost town site (and never hunted in NV or AZ before). Go figure.  Thanks for sharing your trip out West with us.  👍🏼

[Monte]

Well, GB_Amateur, you gave us all a nice write-up of another eventful and fun WTHO.  I'm pleased that you, your sister and several others were able to make this recent Welcome-to-Hunt Outing.  A  you noted, it was our 13th Outing and we have averaged 15 to 25 people per outing, and this one had 22, if my head-count was correct.

Also as you noted, this was your first 'official' Ghost Town hunt, and while I have searched dozens of old townsites since my first in May of '69 (and it was also a RR townsite), there have only been a small percentage of them that you could call moderately littered with iron debris.  I'm sure you found all of them, especially the oldest RR town to have more than an ample supply of Iron Nails, Rusty Tin, and a good assortment of ferrous junk.

You were using two adequate detectors to take on the challenges of those sites, and I appreciate your photos of objects found.  It lets readers know the reality of hunting those once alive towns where there is a lot to create a detector response other than coins, trade tokens and fine gold and silver jewelry.  In addition to the discarded metal debris, both ferrous and non-ferrous, you get to deal with building rubble, sagebrush and other out-of-control vegetation, and it is wide wo select a detector that can work well, deal with good-target masking, and allow the use of a smaller-size search coil.  Then, work them in a slow and methodical manner to best cover an area.  Ghost town hunting is fun, but sometimes challenging, yet I think everyone ought to give it a try.

If anyone is interested in getting on our Welcome-to-Hunt Outing Contact List, all they need to do is e-mail me with that request and provide their Name, Mailing Address, Phone Number and E-Mail.   Reviewing your post you have the locations correct, their relative age, and the number of participants, which was 22.  The only oversight that caught my eye was the 12½¢ Trade Token which was found by OregonGregg and not UtahRich.

I do regret not being able to make that Outing and meeting up with both new and familiar faces.  I'm glad you enjoyed  the experience and trust you'll be able to make another future WTHO.

Keep up the detecting!

Monte

 

 

[Monte]

44 minutes ago, Raphis said:

As much hunting as I have done in nearly 40 years of detecting, I have never hunted a bonafide ghost town site (and never hunted in NV or AZ before). Go figure.  Thanks for sharing your trip out West with us.  👍🏼

In just over 56 years of hunting, ghost towns and similar Relic Hunting related sites have occupied 95% of my detecting effort since July of '83.  That's 38 years of 'education', having fun, and making a lot of terrific finds.  old townsites I've worked the most have been in Utah, Nevada and Oregon, but i have enjoyed some experiences in Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, California, New Mexico and Arizona.

I think you ought to experience a new adventure!  Get out and work some ghost towns and, if interested, e-mail me contact info to get on the WTHO Contact List and be informed of future Outings.

Monte

[strick]

Thanks for the write up...sounds like it was a ton of fun getting out with other detectorists and having war council every evening over dinner. 

strick

[GB_Amateur]

1 hour ago, Monte said:

The only oversight that caught my eye was the 12½¢ Trade Token which was found by OregonGregg and not UtahRich.

Thanks for catching that, and I've now corrected it.  From what I saw (not everyone displayed their finds), Gregg had the most keepers, by far.  He definitely subscribes to your {small coil, slow sweep, dig all} advice.  (And he swings the N/M CoRe, too, which you know but others may not.)  Mentioning Utah Rich's finds, he did spot a beautiful obsidian arrow head with his keen eyes.  Gregg mentioned more than once that surface finds ("sunbakers") show up in these desert towns and it helps to keep your eyes (as well as ears) open when detecting.  Another technique I need to pick up.

1 hour ago, Monte said:

(Most GT's are extensively) littered with iron debris.  I'm sure you found all of them, especially the oldest RR town to have more than an ample supply of Iron Nails, Rusty Tin, and a good assortment of ferrous junk.

Yes, for sure.  I sorted out most of the iron in the hotel room (not counting what I collected and carefully piled up at the sites themselves).  There are a few iron (/alloy) items in the photos, but I only kept what I found interesting.  Even square nails are super common around the Midwest -- my home base.  Railroad spikes?  How many does a person need in his/her collection? 

 

 

[kac]

Looks like you had a great time. Didn't bring your Vaquero? 🙂

Wouldn't mind giving that a try if I could get the time off and travel out there. Thanks for sharing.

[Valens Legacy]

Great write up and a lot of good artifacts. Glad you had fun and hope that you enjoyed yourself!

Good luck on your next hunt!

[GB_Amateur]

10 hours ago, kac said:

Didn't bring your Vaquero? 🙂

It was on the candidates list.  Since this month-long trip included detecting for natural gold I also brought a PI.  I don't have a trailer nor a roof mount storage container so everything (including a futon mattress for sleeping) has to go inside my Jeep Compass.  Three detectors is already pushing it.

I don't have a small coil for the Vaquero.  (Monte has indicated the stock 8"x9" concentric has good separation, but it still seems like the wrong choice in so much trash, and small coils fit better in and between the vegetation.)  The F75 is a decent backup for the Equinox in gold bearing areas (in case the Equinox conks out, etc.) as well as a decent backup in park hunting, etc.  Besides the 4"x6" conc. I also brought the Mars 5"x10" (Sniper) DD.  Thus the F75 made the cut ahead of the Vaquero.  But, yes, with a small coil it should be a good performer in that trashy ghost town desert environment.