Donner emigrant trail finds

[oldmxrat]

Changed things up a bit and looked on a permission that the Donner trail went through. I believe the round thing is a bridle rosette. The ox shoe is by far the smallest I've ever seen.

The emigrants didn't seem to lose any coins as I have yet to find any after spending many, many hours looking.

Thanks for looking.

 

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[lenmac65]

Nice finds. Interesting to imagine who lost those items given where they were found. Congrats.

 

[Erik in NJ]

Nice find on the rosette. The Donner party apparently discarded a lot of personal possessions as the horses struggled. Do we know where those events happened? Interesting trail to detect for sure.

 

[Wildcat1750]

Great hunting opportunity and some really nice finds!

 

[DizzyDigger]

That would really be something to find artifacts from the Donner Party..

 

[oldmxrat]

Nice find on the rosette. The Donner party apparently discarded a lot of personal possessions as the horses struggled. Do we know where those events happened? Interesting trail to detect for sure.

They really had a struggle and had to leave a lot behind on the 40 mile desert leg of the journey which is 40-80 miles ENE of Reno. Unfortunately, almost all of that is public lands and taboo for relic collectors. Major bummer, to be sure. I think by the time they made it this far, they were probably dead broke.

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

That key was likely one from the house they called home...! That dinky ox shoe has a cleat, like they used the little guy for labor! Starting them young, huh?
Great Finds!
I love those old trails...!

 

[ToddsPoint]

Coins were found a couple years after the Donner party died. The coins had been stashed in a hollowed out place under a wagon frame but were moved and buried before they perished. A man investigating the site found the coins. I read this info on the net several years ago and have no idea which web site I read it on. Gary

 

[Blak bart]

Very cool finds.....I was expecting some bones with knife marks and scrapes on them !!

 

[PetesPockets55]

Very cool finds.....I was expecting some bones with knife marks and scrapes on them !!

Or teeth with gold fillings?

 

[oldmxrat]

That key was likely one from the house they called home...! That dinky ox shoe has a cleat, like they used the little guy for labor! Starting them young, huh?
Great Finds!
I love those old trails...!

Yeah, I thought the same thing about that shoe, everybody pulled their share I guess.

 

[oldmxrat]

Coins were found a couple years after the Donner party died. The coins had been stashed in a hollowed out place under a wagon frame but were moved and buried before they perished. A man investigating the site found the coins. I read this info on the net several years ago and have no idea which web site I read it on. Gary

They have them in the museum at Donner Lake now with a bunch of other artifacts. A great read is "The indifferent stars above" written by a descendant of the party.

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

Somewhere on YouTube is a video or two on the excavations of the site. The first, I remember that they dug around the tree that was supposed to be one, traditionally, the place where part of the Donner Party lived/survived - with not much success, then metal detectors were used with great success - giving credit, the Forest Service found that these machnes need to be part of their tool bag, in the future...! Yeah!

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

I seem to remember reading a story about buried coins related to the donner party.

 

[WilliamBoyd]

The Donner Party of 1846-1847 were two years ahead of the Gold Rush emigrants but were subject to the same financial constraints.

In 1891 two prospectors near California's Donner Lake found a cache of silver coins which had been buried by a member of the Donner Party in 1847, Mrs. Elizabeth Groves, nee Cooper, prior to her departure with the Second Relief Expedition on March 3, 1847.

She was too weak to carry the money. She died on or about March 7, 1847.

A list of the coins found is in the book Numismatic Finds of the Americas by John M. Kleeberg.
A copy can be found here:
https://www.archive.org/stream/numismaticfindso00klee#page/196/mode/2up

USA 50 cents (72) dated 1810 to 1843
France 5 francs (55) dated 1800 to 1844
Spanish colonies 4 reales Mexico (2) dated 1800 to 1805
Spanish colonies 8 reales Mexico (5) dated 1805 to 1821
Mexico 8 reales (49) dated 1826 to 1845
German States Saxony thaler 1835
Bolivia 8 reales 1835
Argentina La Plata 8 reales 1835
Other dollar sized coins not otherwise identified (9)

These are examples of similar coins:

For some reason Mrs. Groves carried 10 of these dated 1812:

France 5 francs 1812-A Napoleon Emperor (Silver, 37 mm, 24.93 gm)

And she carried only one of these with the date not known:

France 5 francs 1831-D Louis Philippe (Silver, 38 mm, 24.17 gm)

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

William, thanks for the historical update!
I've always been interested in the coinage that traveled the hard way, across to the West...!