Walking in the footsteps of the man who found the worlds biggest gold nugget

[tinpan]

Hi all, Spent most of the week-end out at a small country town called Marong.Richard Oates one of 2 cornish miners found the largest nugget in the world in 1869. "The Welcome Stranger" After selling the nugget to a bank, he decided to take up farming and brought a large farm near the old town of Marong.He was buried in the local graveyard in 1906.Many wouldn,t even know he rest there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_Stranger


I spent most of the week at lunch time researching places where Oates went in Marong. The church , the school and we got real lucky when the present owner of what was his farm gave me premission to search what left of the ruins of the homestead and stock area of the farm.With a large creek below farm i checked it out for relic and bottles. These would be washed out by the resent heavy rain .More a flood -way as little water is left after the rain stops.The farm is located on the edge of the Northern plains and this place is very dry and gets real hot quick in late spring. The temp over the week-end has been about 100 degrees. the ground is real hard. High in clay.Heres a pic of finds clean and in the ground and a heep of sites pics of the places we have to Md over the summer.


tinpan The wax seal was found at the church first site

 

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[tinpan]

site pic

 

[tinpan]

site of the farm stock yards and the creek below

 

[tinpan]

site pics and a tavern for a hard eaned beer

 

[Ricky1601 aka pull tab king]

nice finds and photo's thanks for sharing and hh

 

[goldguru]

Um

retract my Other Comment


Banner vote here

That wax seal MAN U getting it Done

 

[romeo-1]

That is a killer seal...probably Victorian.

 

[Steve in Michigan]

Dip you try any gold panning in that creek?

Your Friend,

Steve in Michigan

 

[WhiteHunter]

Nice pictures, well done

 

[Bavaria Mike]

Awesome post TP! The wax seal is a beauty and really cleaned up nice!!! I am curious how you cleaned it as I would like to clean some of my finds? Great pics and HH, Mike

 

[chappysgold]

Good pics tinpan
And i think this is the place that they found the stranger.

 

[pepperj]

Very cool seal, great pics Tinpan

 

[RiverRat3]

The seal is very nice, first time I have seen one.

 

[gilgar]

Not sure what I like seeing more, your finds or the places you get to hunt.

 

[Rusted_Iron]

Great story and photos, love that wax seal

Looks like the high humidity condensed on your camera lens?