Hendo0601
Sr. Member
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2014
- Messages
- 257
- Reaction score
- 457
- Golden Thread
- 1
- Location
- California
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 1
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab CTX 3030
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
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)
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)
