🥇 BANNER Gold Miner’s Starter Kit

[Hendo0601]

I live in and detect mostly in El Dorado County, California in search of early Gold Rush camps and settlements. The other day I was detecting a new area down on a creek and it was clear that no other detectorists had ever been there before me, great success!! Period 1850s targets began coming out of the ground and then I got a MONSTROUS overload signal on my CTX...I figured it was a cast iron stove door or something similar. I dug down and about 8” down I began unearthing a sluice rake, and next to it was an upside-down gold pan! Those who detect in the mother lode know how hard it is to find an intact gold pan as they are extremely brittle and disintegrate in the ground. I got these out of the hole and underneath the gold pan was ANOTHER gold pan! Two intact gold pans in one hole doesn’t happen...it just doesn’t...but there was still more. Underneath the gold pans were three intact pick heads, a sledge hammer, and two axe heads. In the same hole next to the gold pans was two intact period shovels, and underneath those was what I thought was another gold pan, but it turned out to be an upside-down long handled skillet. Underneath the skillet was two intact 3 prong forks and two spreader knives....and yet there was still more! Beneath the silverware was a small cooking pot with lid, a coffee pot with lid (sadly destroyed during the trip home), a broken pewter or Britannia metal spoon, 2 metal dinner plates, a fully intact JW Hunnewell condiment bottle, and the extremely brittle remains of what I can only assume was a rubberized tarp or tent material all folded up at the bottom of the hole. It took several hours to dig it all and 2 trips (2.4 miles each way) to carry it all out. It is literally a gold miner’s starter kit all in one hole! Truly one of the most epic finds of my life and I will never forget what it was like unearthing all of this at once!
Total contents of the cache:
1 sluice rake
2 gold pans
3 picks
2 shovels
2 axes
1 sledge hammer
2 forks
2 spreaders
1 spoon
1 skillet
1 small cooking pot with lid
1 coffee pot with lid (Destroyed)
2 metal plates
1 JW Hunnewell condiment bottle
1 folded up tarp/tent (destroyed)

 

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[PaleIO]

This is really cool! Only thing missing was a sack of gold nuggets

 

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[FallColors]

Surely not what one expects in Today's Finds. Well done!

 

[Tnmountains]

Although it's a hoard of rust, it's a pretty cool one. Would make a nice display in a local mining related Museum!

I agree there is more history in that pile then in many single items. This tells a story.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Congratulations on your research paying off with those amazingly historical California finds Hendo.

Kudos to you for achieving your first Tnet BANNER as well.

Dave

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

Now, THAT is going to be hard to beat...!
Wow!
I'm sure this one became a Immediate Success...!
"Banner", for SURE...!!!

 

[Hendo0601]

Congratulations on your research paying off with those amazingly historical California finds Hendo.

Kudos to you for achieving your first Tnet BANNER as well.

Dave

Thank you so much!!! I’m still buzzing from the high of finding all of this stuff and now this?!?! Someone pinch me...

 

[Tesorodeoro]

Wow!

Just wow!

Carefully preserve the contents. What you found is likely more valuable than a pouch of nuggets.

You are right on about not finding gold pans. I’ve got 13 years straight detecting gold...covered more ground than most. Only found a single gold pan (I gave it to my brother as a house warming gift). But that’s not what’s amazing. Find of a lifetime. I’d vote banner if it were not already up there.

The pick will likely have a makers mark that will allow you to track it down to the exact street address in San Francisco.
Could you take a look? It should be 1/3 of the way along the pick..closer to the eyelet...on the side or bottom.
The intention was if the tip broke off (which was not uncommon) they could warranty the pick or not.

EDIT: the sledge and axe head will likely have makers marks as well.

I’m staring at a pick that is stamped “Nelson & Baker” on both ends of the pick (bottom). Sometimes it was just a brand...but they were proud of their stuff in the first gold rush.

 

[Coinstar magnet]

Great recoveries that lead to more questions!

 

[Hendo0601]

Wow!

Just wow!

Carefully preserve the contents. What you found is likely more valuable than a pouch of nuggets.

You are right on about not finding gold pans. I’ve got 13 years straight detecting gold...covered more ground than most. Only found a single gold pan (I gave it to my brother as a house warming gift). But that’s not what’s amazing. Find of a lifetime. I’d vote banner if it were not already up there.

The pick will likely have a makers mark that will allow you to track it down to the exact street address in San Francisco.
Could you take a look? It should be 1/3 of the way along the pick..closer to the eyelet...on the side or bottom.
The intention was if the tip broke off (which was not uncommon) they could warranty the pick or not.

First of all thank you! I never imagined this pile of iron actually making banner I’m beyond over the moon! I do agree with you about this collection of items being found together being more valuable than a sack of nuggets! This tells a story, and I’m glad to be telling it! I’ve been detecting in the MotherLode for about 5 years now and I’ve only ever seen one other gold pan dug and it was thrashed! The remarkable state of preservation of all of these artifacts is incredible. The knives and forks still have the wood on the handles!!! I have personally recovered easily over 20 intact picks and probably twice as many or more broken pick pieces, and of them only 2 or 3 are marked at all. Many of the early hand forged picks weren’t marked because it simply took time and the blacksmith didn’t want/need to take time to punch his name into a pick when he could already be making another one. Some smithees did in fact mark their picks, however, they are incredibly rare. Some miners would stamp their name into their own pick as well, to help identify it especially if working with others or you move around a lot. They broke a LOT of picks, so taking the time to punch your name into something you’re just going to break didn’t seem to make much sense so these are rare as well. The casting process came onto the scene in the 1860s which allowed the foundries to make picks much more quickly and since it was cast in a mold they could easily include a name or makers mark as a part of the mold. This came into practice more into the mid-late 1860s and on into the reconstruction/Victorian era. I have inspected 2 of the 3 picks and so far one of them is marked with a capital H, the other is blank. The third is soaking in apple cider vinegar to remove all of the surface corrosion. Once I get it out of the tank and hit it with the wire wheel I will know more, but I didn’t see any obvious markings. Marked shovels are equally as rare, if not more so.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

First of all thank you! I never imagined this pile of iron actually making banner I’m beyond over the moon! I do agree with you about this collection of items being found together being more valuable than a sack of nuggets! This tells a story, and I’m glad to be telling it! I’ve been detecting in the MotherLode for about 5 years now and I’ve only ever seen one other gold pan dug and it was thrashed! The remarkable state of preservation of all of these artifacts is incredible. The knives and forks still have the wood on the handles!!! I have personally recovered easily over 20 intact picks and probably twice as many or more broken pick pieces, and of them only 2 or 3 are marked at all. Many of the early hand forged picks weren’t marked because it simply took time and the blacksmith didn’t want/need to take time to punch his name into a pick when he could already be making another one. Some smithees did in fact mark their picks, however, they are incredibly rare. Some miners would stamp their name into their own pick as well, to help identify it especially if working with others or you move around a lot. They broke a LOT of picks, so taking the time to punch your name into something you’re just going to break didn’t seem to make much sense so these are rare as well. The casting process came onto the scene in the 1860s which allowed the foundries to make picks much more quickly and since it was cast in a mold they could easily include a name or makers mark as a part of the mold. This came into practice more into the mid-late 1860s and on into the reconstruction/Victorian era. I have inspected 2 of the 3 picks and so far one of them is marked with a capital H, the other is blank. The third is soaking in apple cider vinegar to remove all of the surface corrosion. Once I get it out of the tank and hit it with the wire wheel I will know more, but I didn’t see any obvious markings. Marked shovels are equally as rare, if not more so.

That bottle was likely pontil marked...1860’s. My younger brother found one many years ago while we were poking around early camps. If I remember correctly it had “whittle” marks on the panels. That was 20 years ago or more I bet. Dad says they probably had pickles or olives in them.

Could you take a picture with all of it together at once after you get things cleaned up?
Was it near a camp?

 

[Hendo0601]

That bottle was likely pontil marked...1860’s likely. My younger brother found one many years ago while we were poking around early camps. That was 20 years ago or more I bet. Dad says they probably had pickles or olives in them.

Could you take a picture with all of it together at once after you get things cleaned up?
Was it near a camp?

This shape bottle was a condiment bottle popular in the 1850s and 60s used for holding ground dry spices or herbs. Pickle bottles were typically square or rectangular. This bottle most likely had ground pepper, mace, or perhaps cinnamon but I would bet pepper. Of course once I get everything cleaned up I will take some cool pictures of it all! I found this cache amongst a handful of small camps along a creek.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

All I can say is I totally get it. Hopefully that’s enough said.

Man!

 

[pepperj]

Congrats on your cache and banner, very interesting recovery thread.

 

[sandchip]

Fantastic find!

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Thank you so much!!! I’m still buzzing from the high of finding all of this stuff and now this?!?! Someone pinch me...

As Tesorodeoro mentioned, I too would love to see a pic of the bottle you found.
The iron relics may have been used for years by the person who left them here for you to find.
But if we could see a cleaned-up pic of the bottle, maybe we could help you with a date on that.

I visited the California Historical Society Museum in August 2019 and was hoping to see actual mining relics on display, but all they were showing was ephemera.
Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful museum set in an old building, but I was a little disappointed with the lack of 'hard relics' on display.

Dave

 

[birdman]

So you pretty much found a whole display and a snap shot of a miners life from the mid to late 1800s ...man that is one of the neatest things I have seen on tnet.
Congrats,hard work does pay off and well done!

 

[delnorter]

What a great find. Could the moderators more a copy of this thread into the gold prospecting section? Many there would like to read about this as well.

Mike

 

[brianc053]

....
I visited the California Historical Society Museum in August 2019 and was hoping to see actual mining relics on display, but all they were showing was ephemera.
Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful museum set in an old building, but I was a little disappointed with the lack of 'hard relics' on display.

Dave

So you pretty much found a whole display and a snap shot of a miners life from the mid to late 1800s ...man that is one of the neatest things I have seen on tnet.
Congrats,hard work does pay off and well done!

Hendo, congratulations on your find and your banner!
I'll agree with others that have basically said that you found a museum display's worth of items in a single hole - that's amazing.
And if you ask me, which you didn't, I'd suggest that they belong in a museum somewhere. There are many people like Dave that visit the museums of California hoping to see exactly what you've found. I hope you'll consider contacting some of the museums out there to see if they could be conserved by a professional (no disrespect intended to you personally) and then displayed for all to see.

I don't know about others, but I know I'd love to have something I found in a museum with "on loan from the Brianc053 collection" or something like that on it.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

You are probably aware already, but there may be some additional parts that go with the smaller of those picks.
I typically only find these around the early 1850 to late 1860’s mining areas.
I suppose there is a peened pin that would likely be holding the two pieces together so you probably would have recognized it if you found it.



I’d bring back everything from the hole. Nails and everything.

 

[Silvermonkey]

Talk about finding the mother lode! What an amazing collection of gold rush goodies!!! Congratulations!