Rob (B.C.)
Jr. Member
- Apr 14, 2009
- 87
- 9
Come take a walk with me (1860's Chinese gold rush hunt)...56K beware!
First let me say that if you're on dial-up....Go make a sandwich.. LOL
It was a nice fall day here and I decided that even if I had things I should be doing.....I was going on a hike with detector in hand.
I'm lucky enough to have an area only about a mile away from my house that saw a lot of Chinese mining activity from the 1860's until about 1900......This post is more about the outing than the finds I'm afraid, but it was great to be out in the woods!! This is what a "site" looks like for me!
As soon as I parked my truck and got out to start my bush hike, these guys wanted to know what i was all about.
As soon as I got off the pasture area and into the forest, signs of 150 year old Chinese activity were noticable. This trench is an old water ditch used to move water for washing gravel further down the valley.
This is the first cabin site I found. It was easy to find, as I noticed the old stove body still there. I detected around this one, but nothing of note was found.......The iron trash is nasty at these spots.
Here's another one that I have hunted before a couple years ago. The tree that my detector is leaning against is growing in the inside of the cabin square. The mound of dirt behind is all that's left of the walls.
I found lots of pieces of brass opium tins. They are made out of thin plate brass, carefully soldered together. Heres the lid off one with embossed Chinese characters.
Some pottery and glass eyeball finds. The bottles are all early. The pottery is a piece of Chinese "four seasons" pattern bowl.
The only other nonferrous bit was this 44 cal Henry rifle casing. Definitely 1860's and amazing how big these are for a rimfire cartridge.
I decided to put on some more miles and hiked until I found another cabin square that will be a future spot to break out the sifter at. These cabin sites are hard to spot as they have rotted to nothing in the last 150 years. If you look closely at this picture you can see the back wall of the cabin (I know it's hard to see in a photo compared to being there). The whole cabin square is only about 10'x10' and would have been a living quarters for two Chinese miners, likely...... Judging by the mound of dirt inside the cabin square I can tell that it had a sod roof.......I'll be back in the spring to sift this one!!
I was going to do some more searching, but I was in thick brush and stumbled on a black bear......He climbed a tree and I'm sure he was more scared than me, but I high tailed it to put some distance between me and him!!!.....Sorry no bear pics!!
That was my day.........It sure beat digging clad!!
First let me say that if you're on dial-up....Go make a sandwich.. LOL
It was a nice fall day here and I decided that even if I had things I should be doing.....I was going on a hike with detector in hand.
I'm lucky enough to have an area only about a mile away from my house that saw a lot of Chinese mining activity from the 1860's until about 1900......This post is more about the outing than the finds I'm afraid, but it was great to be out in the woods!! This is what a "site" looks like for me!
As soon as I parked my truck and got out to start my bush hike, these guys wanted to know what i was all about.
As soon as I got off the pasture area and into the forest, signs of 150 year old Chinese activity were noticable. This trench is an old water ditch used to move water for washing gravel further down the valley.
This is the first cabin site I found. It was easy to find, as I noticed the old stove body still there. I detected around this one, but nothing of note was found.......The iron trash is nasty at these spots.
Here's another one that I have hunted before a couple years ago. The tree that my detector is leaning against is growing in the inside of the cabin square. The mound of dirt behind is all that's left of the walls.
I found lots of pieces of brass opium tins. They are made out of thin plate brass, carefully soldered together. Heres the lid off one with embossed Chinese characters.
Some pottery and glass eyeball finds. The bottles are all early. The pottery is a piece of Chinese "four seasons" pattern bowl.
The only other nonferrous bit was this 44 cal Henry rifle casing. Definitely 1860's and amazing how big these are for a rimfire cartridge.
I decided to put on some more miles and hiked until I found another cabin square that will be a future spot to break out the sifter at. These cabin sites are hard to spot as they have rotted to nothing in the last 150 years. If you look closely at this picture you can see the back wall of the cabin (I know it's hard to see in a photo compared to being there). The whole cabin square is only about 10'x10' and would have been a living quarters for two Chinese miners, likely...... Judging by the mound of dirt inside the cabin square I can tell that it had a sod roof.......I'll be back in the spring to sift this one!!
I was going to do some more searching, but I was in thick brush and stumbled on a black bear......He climbed a tree and I'm sure he was more scared than me, but I high tailed it to put some distance between me and him!!!.....Sorry no bear pics!!
That was my day.........It sure beat digging clad!!
Upvote
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(or a another bear)
, looks like you had quite the adventure during your hunt but like IP mention get a gun or at least some bear spray!
