Rowdy Gates, have you actually been to this site ? Or did you find it by surfing google satellite ?
I was able to find your site on google-satellite . I've hunted up around Indian Gulch and Bear Valley area, but haven't gone further up into the hills. But I will say this: There are guys up there who have DONE THEIR HOMEWORK. We encountered sites that were worked to smithereens. Particularly the old tent-city camp zones of where the miners would have lived. But that was lower down, as I say. Not sure if whoever's local there is getting every ruin, foundation, site, etc...
Your site does not show up at a black dot (a habitation) on any of the earliest topo maps (which start at 1905 for that area). So that's a good omen that whatever it is you've found, was abandoned very early on. So even if pickens were slim, yet you can bet that ANY target you found would, by definition, be old. So the type of site where even "junk" is "fun junk" .
I'll be a kill-joy and guess that your site is nothing more than a homesteader/miners lone habitation. Not the more highly desired travel stop type places (stage stop, store, saloon, etc...) . Because the north Fork there doesn't necessarily connect to anywhere, as far as cities, for example, further up. Hence not on a "travel route" between 2 populated areas.
That's not to say that I wouldn't detect singular family homesteads (if abandoned very early on). But just saying that the more preferred places to hunt, where your odds at coins are better, will always be commercial/retail places, where $$ exchanged hands, travelers stayed the night, items bought-sold, etc... Or where many folks lived in short-term tent-cities (and perhaps had a camp-store, canteen office, etc...). The coin counts drop way low for singular family concerns, as a ratio to other items.
I would certainly try it though. Since it seems to be a long-hike (5 miles !) from anywhere. And is not showing up as a black dot on the early topos, perhaps no one else has found those to detect.
Do you get up to that area very often to detect ? If so, you want to do a reconn. to a site I researched out ? If so, let me know and I'll turn you on to the info.
ttanner777@aol.com
