California Ghost town hunts

[Tom_in_CA]

Did a 4 day ghost town trip to various Calif. spots with co-hunter Brian from Sunnyvale "Cal Cobra".

The term "ghost town" used loosely to mean: Various stage stops, trading posts, emigrant camp spots, village sites, forts, etc.... On previous trips to these areas has yielded a few gold coins, bust coins, reales, seateds, etc... This trip was no exception. These are a random collection of pix from 5 of the destinations on this trip:

 

[pepperj]

Lots of digging going on, congrats on the silvers & coppers. Great assortment of relics, liking the key.

 

[Scrappy]

What a great hunt. There must have been some early activity in that town. Although Spanish and Mexican reales were circulated right up to 1857, those are quite old. What's the age of the town?

Either way what a spectacular site and happy hunting!

Steve

 

[Mackaydon]

Great haul, Tom.
I especially like your 'una quartilla' of 184X and the toasted 1R from Zacatecas (both with 0.9030 silver !)
Don...

 

[DW Dirt Whisperer]

looks like it was an awesome hunt or hunts. great finds.

 

[RichieRich]

Great finds. Sounds like an awesome trip

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.....What's the age of the town? .....

Steve, re-read the post text, and you'll see I'm using the term "ghost town" to generally mean stage stop, trading post, village site, etc... It was 5 different locations, of varying ages. From as early as supposedly 1805-ish at one of the sites, to the 1840s origination at another. And lasting up till the 1910s at one, while another was said to be abandonded by the 1860s. So it was a mis-match hodge-podge of sites, that all sort of have a "ghost town" flavor of hunt technique/methods.

 

[Trezurehunter]

Wow, what a hunt !

 

[texjim]

Looks like a lot of fun hunting. Awesome digs..

 

[wheatfinder13]

Wow. Those are some really cool finds!

 

[sutphin]

NICE MUSKET BUTTTT PLATE AND OTHER INTERESTING FINDS.

 

[winslow]

Wow .. that was a heck of a lot of fun to look at. I appreciate that you included the bits and pieces!

 

[perdidogringo]

Awesome relics and coins, Tom! I love that half dime. Reminds me of a lot of the stuff that I find at a gold rush 49er campsite/settlement in Panama.

 

[G.I.B.]

I love the coins... great finds.

 

[treblehunter]

Cool beans. 1/4 reale awesome!

 

[Loco-Digger]

WTG Tom. Looks like those hunts yielded plenty of great targets. You two sure have some nice areas to hunt. Awesome digs for the left coast.

 

[TheRingFinder]

Great job Tom!!! Looks like a blast and some really cool finds!!

 

[kenstein]

Great pictures and some great finds. Thanks for including the pull-tab, so we can all relate.

 

[49r Relics]

Some fantastic finds but I am sure the adventure of these hunts was priceless. The key is really cool. Any ID on that butt plate?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

49'r, a cursory study of antique rifle websites and Google images seems to indicate that ornate design dates from 1770's to 1800-ish . I'll float the pix of this past some vintage firearm buffs to find out for sure though .