🥇 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)

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Agony and Death on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade - Grab it through Amazon!

[Hendo0601]

An example of a marked pick piece that I actually found elsewhere in the same camp as the cache. It’s stamped “J WRIGHT”

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Treasure of Victoria Peak - Grab it through Amazon!

[Tesorodeoro]

View attachment 1903458

An example of a marked pick piece that I actually found elsewhere in the same camp as the cache. It’s stamped “J WRIGHT”

That’s a keeper there. Busted pick used as a wedge to bust bedrock. Stamped and everything.

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

I agree that it is a museum-quality collection...!
The stories that stuff can/could tell...!
What-A-Find...!

 

[billb]

Congratulations on your recovery,perhaps a museum or a collector would surely like to have these

 

[Tesorodeoro]

I would strongly suggest not giving or even loaning this to a museum.

It may get displayed for 12 months then sold off to generate funds after the display gets stale.
Or it will get shoved in a box and stored in the basement...or separated to supplement other displays.

No, I’d reserve that for my personal display.
Now you have to dedicate a corner of the house for an elaborate display.
It’s kind of like bagging a huge trophy buck...it’s got to get mounted and saved for future admiration regardless of the unanticipated costs.

I could however envision it being incorporated into a digital display.

 

[cw0909]

wow a fantastic find, looking forward to the clean up and display
as far as a museum a digital display, would be great, as said
museums tend stuff in a box sometimes to make room for other
display
since you know where,& about time frame check glow records
might find who was working the area, would be nice info to go
with the display
again congrats on a fantastic historical find and banner

 

[madmantrapper]

That is an outstanding fine. I would be back there looking gold for sure. You know whoever left it was coming back.

 

[Tnmountains]

Very cool. Came home and clicked in and saw it was voted to the top. What an unusual find and save.

 

[Brian93436]

That's an awesome find! How do you like that coil? Are you using other coils in the Miner's Camps as well?

 

[Hendo0601]

That's an awesome find! How do you like that coil? Are you using other coils in the Miner's Camps as well?

I absolutely LOVE the small coil on the CTX. The stock coil works really really well but it’s heavy, on an already heavy machine. It wears my shoulder out after more than an hour unless I use the shoulder harness thing which is a pain in the butt haha. The small coil makes it the perfect weight for me to be able to swing all day for 7-8 hours without my shoulder being in too bad of shape. Typically when I’m hunting gold rush camps I find the vast majority of my targets are 6” or shallower, and this small coil will definitely sniff out deep targets too. I hunt in really trashy areas so the bigger coil can sometimes send way too much information into my ears and it can mask targets. I like how the small coil is able to really pick between the iron and the good stuff and display both on the screen. For me, I will probably just leave the small coil on this machine indefinitely.

 

[BigWaveDave]

Makes me think of the tin panners in Pale Rider.
Congrats on the banner find

 

[seapro1]

From someone who has been metal detecting for 20 years, all I can say is “WOW NICE” !!!!

 

[Wildcat1750]

Amazing find! It's not every day that a collection of otherwise cheap, rusty metal makes BANNER and you did it! Context Context Context!

 

[Hendo0601]

Amazing find! It's not every day that a collection of otherwise cheap, rusty metal makes BANNER and you did it! Context Context Context!

I still can’t believe it was chosen as a banner find I am extremely honored!! Thank you !!!

 

[Army of 1]

Epic recoveries , Congrats !

 

[pa plateau hiker]

I hope I'm not too late for this. I'd be very cautious about taking a wire wheel to it. If the makers mark is faint, you could remove it entirely. I've done that on a pick with a local mark. It's gone from the pick now.

 

[vpone]

INCREDIBLE FIND - huge congrats, oh the story it could tell - wow!!!

vp

 

[islamoradamark]

WOW thats a discovery and quite the adventure to boot congrats

 

[Tesorodeoro]

Something that many people don’t understand...that pile of cheap rusty tools represented a FORTUNE in the early 1850’s. Likely over $20,000 in today’s prices.

A single shovel cost between $10 to $25 depending where you bought it (San Francisco or in a gold camp).
Gold was going for $18.93/Troy oz.
The average monthly wage for a farm laborer back east was $11 (that included meals as well!).

That pile of tools likely represented the life savings of a miner.
Interesting to ponder what may have happened to cause that to be hidden then lost.

I’d like to date that bottle to verify if it goes back to the early 1850’s
Makes the find all the more amazing and rare.

 

[Trezurehunter]

That is unreal. Congrats on a great dig.