A Month In Western Usa, 5 Of 5 Reports Posted -- Complete (updated)

[GB_Amateur]

Got some time today so I'll finish up the trip report.  A long drive (for me -- ~700 miles) back to the Colorado Rockies on Sunday, getting to camp (my sister and partner had set up) before dark.  And a nice change in weather....

Altitude is such a big factor.  The previous week in NE Nevada, on Friday it was 100 F (38 C) less than an hour's drive East (in Wendover, at 4300 ft = 1.3 km altitude) from where I was camping and detecting yet I don't think it reached 90 F (32 C) at 5600 ft (1.7 km, first campsite) - 5900 ft (1.8 km, second campsite where I was on Friday).  Breeze/wind was appreciated, too.  In Colorado we were camped at 10,600 ft (3.23 km) and the improvement was quite noticeable -- warm (not hot) all day in the thin atmosphere sun, at Summer Solstice, but two nights got down below freezing.  Fortunately in my vehicle (in a sleeping bag) I was toasty warm.

On Monday I headed for the nearest National Forest office only to find it closed for the day.  (Why??)  Not giving up, I found the local library but they didn't have the old maps I was hoping to view but they sent me to someone who did, at the local history center.  That person was off for the day, too.  ?  Given the price of gas at the time I didn't really want to make a second trip so I winged it from there.  Before leaving home I had done the obvious internet searching (including at HistoricAerials.com) plus between my sister and me we had three books on Colorado ghost towns which included the one we were looking for.  But..., OK, I won't go into my usual long-winded experience other than to say such easy searching isn't really what it takes most times (including this time).  I spent the rest of Monday and all day Tuesday on foot trying to find some obvious marker (old foundations would be nice). 

One of the books had a photo from the 1860's with enough visual info (background mountains) to be my main source/hope.  That book also had geo-coordinates, but I think those were determined by interpolation on a USGS map and weren't particularly accurate.  To make matters worse, not having the NF info (thanks again, closed office) I was unsure where the public lands turned private.  There were sporadic fences and "Keep Out!" signs but even my limited amount of hoofing out West has taught me some people are loose with the rules and there usually aren't sufficient federal employees to keep them in line.  "Keep Out" isn't the same as "Private", and furthermore, where are the frigging boundaries??!!  I found a couple cabins but they were unoccupied, likely only used a few days per year for hunting, etc., so no one to ask permission (if it was even their right to give it).  About 50 meters from the book's geo coordinates was an old foundation which I'm almost certain was from the original town but it was very close to a cabin and was being used by the property owners as a storage spot.  I just had to trust that it was off limits.

By late Tuesday afternoon I was 90% sure I had located at least part of the town, and on an open meadow which wasn't fenced off nor held any signage.  Without info to the contrary, and not wanting to head home (1200 miles) without trying, I decided to detect there the following morning.  I don't know if it was good or bad that where I would be detecting was easily seen from a fairly busy county road, but so be it.  BTW, I did find two claim markers that (if I interpreted them correctly) included the area I was detecting, so collecting minerals, etc. was not going to be part of my actions.

Tuesday morning I hiked the 3/8 mile from camp to the meadow.  I was pleased to find a surface food can with a bottom center plug/seal, indicating a 19th Century origin.  I used the detector (ML Equinox w/6" coil) to search for trashy iron signals while occasionally clearing off surface iron (cans in particular) with my magnetic walking stick.  Less than a half hour in I got the more/less frequent hits I was looking for, confirmed by digging some square nails.  This wasn't a guarantee I found the town (which was abandoned prior to 1870).  As with the NW Nevada mining area, just because the town was dead didn't mean the mining stopped.  I had found some hardrock mines nearby (original town was founded due to placer mining) which, although inactive, had deteriorating structures with round cross section nails (interpretation 20th C. activity).

BTW, I had forgotten my handheld pinpointers so recovery was using the ancient method, slowing me down considerably.  But in the next hour I recovered what I think is a miner's tag -- more on that later.  Wanting that pinpointer I headed back for an early lunch, crossing paths with my sister with her White's MXT heading to the hoped to be garden spot (which I indicated the place I thought she should hunt).  When I got back she hadn't found anything other than trash.  I got busy and within 30 minutes a high teens signal, strong and sweet enough sounding, led to the best coin find of the entire trip.  A dark disk the size of a small cent got me interested, and a bit of water spritz revealed the prize -- I could see an Eagle quite clearly!  Besides a bucket-list find, I felt vindicated that I had indeed found part of the original town.  (Justification for that feeling is explained later in this post.)  Despite this quick find, I never recovered another coin in 3 more hours on Wednesday nor another hour on Thursday nor did my sister.  Lucky find?  IMO the evidence is pointing to 'yes'.

After one unsuccessful hour on Thursday morning back at the site of the Flying Eagle cent find, I decided to spend the remainder of the morning at a fallen miner's cabin on a (clearly marked) NF road before heading out a bit after noon.  When my sister and I had happened upon the remains of this cabin earlier in the week I only noticed round cross section nails so I figured it was depression era construction, but after beginning my search this morning I started seeing square nails.  Clearly someone had 'repurposed' a 19th Century dwelling -- a not uncommon practice in gold producing areas of the USA West.  Unfortunately I was unable to recover any goodies in ~1.5 hours of searching.  As typical, the sheet metal trash was plentiful and distracting.

Here are the unexciting targets:

Note the dominance of square nails over round.  That thing on the far right is an open ended cylinder (pipe?).  The tuning fork looking item on the third row center is non-ferrous copper alloy, but soft/bendable.  Any guesses as to its use?  The tag at center of top row wasn't at the ghost town site but rather at what appeared to be a modern (post WWII) horse riders' camp.

If you've been hanging on for the past week, here finally are shown what I consider the best finds of the trip (front and back sides):

The finds are arranged by site:  left three are from the 1900's NE Nevada railroad town, middle five are from the 1860's NE Nevada railroad town, and right two are from the 1860's Colorado mining town.  Here is what I (think I) know about them, from top to bottom and left to right:

1) cheapo ring has some gold plating and a glass or plastic 'stone'.

2) I think this decorative clip is from a woman's clothing, possibly for stockings, but it also could be from a man's suspenders.  It must have been meant to be viewed.  It has a 1907 patent date on the reverse.

3) This brass button has the stylized initials "P D Co", I assume a clothing manufacturer.

4) Saloon (/bar/tavern) token with generic obverse "Good for 5 (cent-sign) in trade" and identifying reverse "Sweeny and Worley - 320 K - Sacramento Cal" (I've taken the liberty to change case on most letters).  320 K is a street address, still in existence but the building is long gone.  A friend with Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com memberships helped me narrow this down.  Best evidence is a newspaper blip about Sweeny and Worley opening a tavern and restaurant at this address in 1901.  By 1904 Sweeny's name is still on the property (with now a hotel on the 2nd floor) but without Worley.

5) 1880 Indian Head cent.

6) strange iron piece for which I have no idea its purpose.  Identification help with this (and any other items) is appreciated.

7) Eagle cuff(?) button.  I haven't been able to discern the lettering on the reverse but very likely this was lost during the Indian Wars (and skirmishes) of the second half of the 19th Century.  It may have its origins earlier (e.g. Civil War) as I think professional soldiers often kept their uniforms as long as they were still wearable.

8 ) Badly worn (dateless) shield nickel.  This series was minted 1866-83.  There are chemicals (e.g. ferric chloride) that can produce a ghost date sometimes -- I haven't tried that yet.

9) Miner's tag?  I know at some mines, when a miner was going underground, he would take a numbered tag off a hook on the wall and record in the logbook the tag number next to his name.  Possibly this is what this item was used for.

10) Saved the best, or at least my favorite, for last.  ?  The condition when lost appears to be Very Fine, but unfortunately the ground/soil has deteriorated the date a bit, particularly the most important right hand digit.  However, there was a small letter variety (obverse) which was only found on 1858 cents and mine exhibits that.  (I can see the top of the last digit so it's not an 1857, consistent with the small lettering evidence.)

Not only was this FE cent a bucket lister, but I think it vindicates me in claiming I found the original townsite.  Consider the following excerpt from Richard Snow's book (p. 65):

Although scarcer today than the 1857 cents, these (1858 dated coins) were distributed much more widely and are found more often in lower grades.  At the time of the Civil War coinage shortage (from the summer of 1862 to early 1863) these were largely removed from circulation, only to reappear after the war.  Any high-grade examples were probably held back from circulation at this time.  By the time of coinage redemption of the 1870's most were called in and melted.  The remaining pieces are either very worn or in very high grade.  Problem-free EF and AU coins are very scarce.  (emphasis mine)

Thus the time window for circulation of Flying Eagle Cents was limited to their mintage dates through the first half of the 1870's decade.  Add the fact that mine is in moderately high condition and my contention that it was dropped during this ghost town's occupation (pre-1866) is supported.  Note that this Snow quote confirms why many coin detectorists have had trouble finding this elusive issue.

The End, and I hope this exposure of the best finds was worth the wait.

[GB_Amateur]

2 hours ago, oneguy said:

Thinking about it I guess I can understand Monte in a lot of ways, he's old school, learns what he uses well and continues to use what has worked for him.

He can (and usually does ?) speak for himself.  But here's a personal experience which might explain at least part of his preference:

In the Spring I was prepping for my trip West with the Tesoro Vaquero and 6" coil.  I went to a well hunted (by me and others) park to train my ear, sweep speed, etc.  I was in front of what looks like a wishing well but was actually an drinking fountain built in the 1930's by a Works Progress Adminstration (WPA) crew.  If you think about it, who with a detector that noticed this landmark would ever not think about searching around it.  (Well, maybe if you figured it had been beaten to death.)  I'm sure I'd been there at least twice with the Minelab Equinox and 11" coil.  The Vaquero pulled out two shallow Wheat pennies among rather thick (but not as bad as out West) trash. 

Monte's Nail Board Perforance Test aparatus, as many know, was simply a copy of a real life situation he encounted -- surface Indian Head penny among several surface nails.  That setup seems to be where the Tesoros are king, particularly his favorite Tesoro models.  No detector is best in every situation and Monte knows that.  But in this modern day of digital detectors he apparently feels he's one of the few who still speaks for the analogs and their concentric coils.  I count myself among those who respect him for that.

[Valens Legacy]

Thanks for sharing such a wonderful adventure with us and showing us your finds. I know it takes a lot of time to put it all in such a short story with the details that you shared.

Good luck on your next trip and hope you get some more nice finds..

[rvpopeye]

Your detective skills on the ground and on the maps makes your detecting skills "come alive".  Congrats on the bird ....

Good read !  THX.

[strick]

Nice write up GB looks like a fun trip....I’ve not been to the desert in 4-5 years miss it over there. The shoe looks to be from a donkey or a mule...

strick

[rvpopeye]

Yeah I miss the desert too ?, but probably the same amount I miss the ocean when I'm in the desert !!? 

[kac]

Thanks for sharing, lucky you made the trip, most of us never have that opportunity.

So next year your only using the Vaquero right?

[GB_Amateur]

13 hours ago, kac said:

So next year your only using the Vaquero right?

Was that tongue-in-cheek?  (If so you forgot the smiley face.  ?)  It's been a fun learning experience with the Tesoro Vaquero but I think I'm better off spending my time with a detector more familiar to me -- the ML Eqx 800.  When I was in Denver at the beginning of the trip, Jeff McClendon made a comment that really stuck with me.  (I'm paraphrasing.)  He said the new IB kids on the block (XP Deus2 and Nokta/Makro Legend) have improved his detecting with the  Equinox -- specifically in regards to listening more carefully to the tones.  That's what the Vaquero has done for me, so it's been worth the lesson.

[kac]

So far none of the SMF's have a concentric coil option, That is where the old Tesoros still prove their usefulness around iron infestation. Granted targets that are not directly under iron can be sniffed out with small dd coils and fast recovery speeds but often a daunting task listenting to stuff that you just don't need to.