679 Cannonballs found

This is a find of 679 Milling Balls from a mining and milling operation!

PLEASE, Please, please...............These are NOT cannonballs! :tongue3:

CC Hunter
 

CC Hunter said:
This is a find of 679 Milling Balls from a mining and milling operation!

PLEASE, Please, please...............These are NOT cannonballs! :tongue3:

CC Hunter
Click to expand...

Why bury Milling Balls 8 feet underground next to what would appear to be a depot of some sort. If they were milling balls, wouldn't they just be left laying around on the ground and not lumped altogether. The OP said
they were authenticated, that is good enough for me.
 

FreedomUIC said:
CC Hunter said:
This is a find of 679 Milling Balls from a mining and milling operation!

PLEASE, Please, please...............These are NOT cannonballs! :tongue3:

CC Hunter
Click to expand...

Why bury Milling Balls 8 feet underground next to what would appear to be a depot of some sort. If they were milling balls, wouldn't they just be left laying around on the ground and not lumped altogether. The OP said
they were authenticated, that is good enough for me.
Click to expand...
Why bury cannon balls 8 feet underground?I happen to know the "area",he is talking about and there was never any War of any kind.Second,there would be no reason for the Spanish to ever be carrying 679 cannonballs,in that region,Third,I would love to see a 1700's wood structure still standing(wood structures from the late 19 the century are long gone)Sounds like a mining operation shed,and it isnt uncommon for shovels and such to be buried deep under tailings or dirt around these mines especially after the invent of the dozer
 

Why bury Milling Balls 8 feet underground next to what would appear to be a depot of some sort. If they were milling balls, wouldn't they just be left laying around on the ground and not lumped altogether. The OP said
they were authenticated, that is good enough for me.
Click to expand...

The often perplexing issue with Treasure Stories is how quickly the original facts (assuming they are indeed such), become embellished with each retelling of the story! :tongue3:

Within the first description in the original post, the finder describes digging as deep as three feet into the dirt floor, to excavate the iron balls, inside of a standing building made of stone with some wood details. Now we see another reader recounting an evolution of the story into a description of these "cannonballs" being a stash buried 8' deep outside of a depot.......! :icon_scratch:

Having personally traveled through the mountains of the West in many states, I have yet to encounter or even hear of ANY standing stone structures from the 18th century, much less any ruins that can be attributed to the period in these areas. In the Southwest, the basic early building material was adobe. Adobe can last for a couple centuries, IF the structure is regularly maintained with a good roof and a regular re-plastering of mud. Even the walls of dry stacked or mud mortared stone buildings of the late 19th century rarely hold up unless well maintained with a good roof. Add to that, California's shaky seismic fault history, which has tumbled many a wall over the years, and we once have again decrease probability for an intact yet abandoned 18th century stone structure. Furthermore, Spanish activity in the interior of California was almost nonexistent in the 18th century. During the later half of the 18th century, there certainly is the history pertaining to the establishment of a string of Spanish Missions and a few scattered settlements along the California coastal areas, yet this did not include Yosemite area (Yosemite Beach? :laughing7:).

From what information I've gathered, the Spanish cannonballs of the earlier period, as well as those of the Republic of Mexico (of which California was under rule of from 1821-1848), and these cannonballs which were of smaller caliber used in Northern Mexico as well as the West Coast regions, were predominately in fact made of brass or bronze. Furthermore, there are literally thousands of mining and milling sites, and ruins of operations, in every single area of the West, from Baja California, clear to British Columbia, and all points in between! Beginning in the 1840's, and stretching clear up to WWII, mining was big business all across these regions. All the facts of the find, the context of the site, as well as corresponding features and the finds themselves, lead to this being attributable as a Find of 679 Milling Balls!

Simply having someone's doctor or dentist verify authenticity, or furthermore a university professor (professor in what field of expertise?), is hardly proof of anything other than hearsay. :wink: Fact is, I've personally dug and found (eyeballed once) a few authentic cannonballs myself from sites on the East Coast, that date from pre-Revolutionary War, on up through the Civil War. Not to mention digging a good number of Spanish and Colonial artifacts.

This is in no way an offense intended to any finely educated professors, yet for the most part experts in only one very narrow field of study, are not necessarily experts in military artifacts of Colonial America. Most likely, a professor of English or Political Science (or any other unrelated field for that matter), would hardly know an authentic Spanish cannonball even if it hit them. :read2:

CC Hunter
 

I know its an old post but since I'm new here its the first I have seen it. What a find! What a back breaking find! Awesome
 

if you ever find cannon balls in the western states around mining areas they are likely mill balls.

to find out if they are cannon balls or mill balls check the type of metal.

cannonballs are iron.

mill balls are steel and in many cases hardened AR grade steels

cannon balls are one of a number of weights and do not match mill balls sizes.
Cannon bore, shot, and shell diameters for smoothbore guns
The Manufacturing process for balls, stainless steel balls - precision ball manufacturer | Abbott Ball Company

The real joke is i worked in the mining industry and have buckets of mill ball i use in my black powder cannons and have left many in the calif desert.
 

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I was told about doing the "spark test". Something about the cast iron not sparking nearly as much as the steel mill balls. I have found approx. 50 mill balls and can tell you if you put one to the grind stone....they spark considerably. I do not have an authenticated cannon ball to test, nor would I sacrifice it to satisfy my curiosity.
 

Those are mill balls. A high consumable product in the fine grinding process of rock or ores.
 

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Just found this find on treasure net, that's cool to find so many in one spot
 

Amazing finds ... Thanks for the great post!!!!​
 

I seem to recall a really bad winter in Yosemite, Saw it in an old newsreel, If I am not mistaken. 1930's? They had to truck in Hay?, grain?, to feed the Deer, Elk, Bison? My guess is that was used in breaking down some of the Hay to feed to the animals?

They probably trucked out the mill, and left the mill balls behind in the mud?

Maybe I saw it in another old type of newsreel or documentary.

Yosemite newsreel
 

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A guy in Teller county we used to live by prospected in Az alot.
He once found what he thought was cannonballs in a cave, ended up being balls of silver.
I dont know why they would have made balls with the silver but maybe it was easy for them.
 

Ah, the old 679 cannonball story still lives.

Mill Balls, its not even debatable.
 

Silverfox you did FORGET something !! You forgot to post the GPS COORDINATES to the SPOT LOL
 

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