Chinese Relic - CA Gold Rush

[49r Relics]

When detecting out here in the California Gold Rush camps we often stumble upon small campsites, often along creeks in sheltered valleys and usually there is no visual indications other than the rare small pile of stones where they cooked. These small sites are often loaded with opium tins and white tea tins. Other than these, we find Chinese coins and small brass ball buttons. But compared to the 49er camps these Chinese camps have very few metal objects to find with a detector.

As most great find stories go, after a long day of hiking and treasure hunting, the sun went down and we were hiking out to the truck, the guys had their machines off and mine was still on, swinging as I walked, I heard a few targets on a hillside and all of the sudden a high conductor that stopped me right on my tracks. One nice thing about the Minelab CTX3030 is you can enjoy a good signal before you dig it, this sounded like a coin but it was deep. One of my buddies was right there with me, I was exhausted, so I collapsed to the ground to dig this target. And about 6" down, out popped this Relic. In all these years in Gold Country I have only ever seen one of these found before in Calaveras County years ago. And I know another gold rush digger who has one in his collection that he dug in a pit and restored it. Sitting there in the moonlight seeing this I was "over the moon" with excitement as this is the one thing that is missing from my Chinese display case. One of my favorite finds ever!

One more unusual event on the way out, in the dark we saw 3 animals run right up to us, we turned on our flashlights to see a curious mommy skunk and her two kids staring at us 6' away, all three with their tails high up in the air! They followed us for about 40' then went about their business. That could have been a bad deal!

 

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[Garrett424]

Really cool, nice find.
So is this an opium pipe??

 

[trapperart]

Congrats on a nice find

 

[dirtlooter]

like it or not, this is part of the history of the area, hidden for who knows how long. finds such as this serves as a reminder of the past. no telling the hardships endured by those who left this evidence for you to find. pretty cool find, congrats

 

[49r Relics]

like it or not, this is part of the history of the area, hidden for who knows how long. finds such as this serves as a reminder of the past. no telling the hardships endured by those who left this evidence for you to find. pretty cool find, congrats

It is a major piece of history to the Chinese immigrants who came here to work the fields in the gold rush. In 1850-1860 Opium brought the entire country of China to it's knees and nearly bankrupt them. Look up the history of the "Opium Wars". We find their smashed, flattened and broken up containers that used to have opium in them, we call them "Opium Tins" and the have stamps on them that when translated say things like "Intense Happiness" or "Happy Dreams". There was also a whole other issue with smuggling in Opium from other countries such as India and using counterfeit containers that were exactly the same as the premium Chinese brands. The difference in quality of the thin brass containers is evident today as the counterfeit containers were actually built better and last better when dug from the ground than the legit ones. No good display of Gold Rush Relics can be complete without some Chinese artifacts/pottery. There are some others here on the forums with much more to say on this topic such as CC Hunter and Caprock, but I for one am very happy to have this in my display.

 

[49r Relics]

Really cool, nice find.
So is this an opium pipe??

Hi Bob, I'm actually not 100% sure but it does fit the ceramic dampers I have perfectly and I have seen one just like it at the museum in Sacramento. It would have had a long skinny piece of bone, glass or bamboo stem and a plug in the front. I need to have a couple guys I know take a look at it fro their opinions. But I know I found it on a hillside with lots of other Chinese relics in the immediate area.

 

[against the wind]

I haven't heard of too many of those being found on the East Coast.
Congratulations

 

[The_Piratess]

Hi Bob, I'm actually not 100% sure but it does fit the ceramic dampers I have perfectly and I have seen one just like it at the museum in Sacramento. It would have had a long skinny piece of bone, glass or bamboo stem and a plug in the front. I need to have a couple guys I know take a look at it fro their opinions. But I know I found it on a hillside with lots of other Chinese relics in the immediate area.

It sure looks like one to me. Great find and history posted too!

 

[Old Pueblo]

You ought to show us a picture pf your display case. Thanks

 

[vpnavy]

..: NICE FIND 49r Relics :..
Thanks for sharing!​

 

[CMDiamonddawg]

Awesome , big time Wild West history there !!! Congrats ,

CMd

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

VERY Cool Find!
Good job!
That skunk near-incident sounds like you'll remember that hunt, for sure...!

 

[ravensnest]

Old post but interesting and an Excellent find.

A coolie (labor working Chinese man) would normally use this for tobacco. If the collar of a damper fits in the bowl could he use it for opium with no opium pipe about and in a pinch? Of course. But it couldn't be used for long as the metal would get too hot because of the short length. Plus the metal would taint the taste of the opium. The more elaborate period correct metal pipes the rich owned usually had a bamboo sleeve inside as new pipes were broke in overtime (seasoned) for flavor.

I would definitely like to see a picture of the Chinese collection you've created over the years 49r Relics if you're still active here.

thanks

 

[Coinstar magnet]

I'm guessing your relic has been cleaned up...it looks pristine. I'm out of my league here but I'm curious if you found coins similar to this at the camps. Thanks for sharing this.

 

[washingtonian]

Amazing to see the whole pipe intact. Nicely done!!