Looking for some approximate dates for this camp

[SnakeEater]

Below are a few pics of evidence for a mountain top camp (mid 20th century?) at the approximate location that I have researched where a 19th century cache was buried. Other than evidence for this more recent encampment, there are no other signs of man that I know of for a 4 mile radius. I suspect that treasure hunters came up with the same location that I did and have searched for this treasure but I'm looking to date some of the evidence to see if it is pre or post metal detector. The cache search area is wide and without a metal detector, I suspect the length of the search may offset the effort to resupply the camp of the treasure hunter(s). Otherwise, it was probably recovered.

Can anyone help me to date what I found? Thanks.

1st pic - 5 gal tin?
2nd pic - small canned food.

 

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[creskol]

There is a dump on my ranch in Texas that dates from the late 1940's until the mid 1950's that is littered with ortegas chiles pepper tin cans. I don't think it has anything to do with the modern Ortegas Brand foods, but rather just the name of the pepper.

 

[SnakeEater]

Interesting.

Also the underside of that 'chili' can is 'domed out' like an oil filter. I wouldn't think it was manufactured that way as it would prohibit stacking. Maybe someone was practicing their metal shaping skills after it was empty?

 

[BosnMate]

Except for the nails, which I can't tell if they are round or square, the square tin and the tin can can go back to pre-1900. Kerosene was packed in the square 5 gallon tins, two tins to the box, one box on each side of the mule. Tin cans were used by the mid 1800's for preserving, I think I read someplace that in the 1830's, Jim Bridger ate all the canned sardines a British nobleman (Stewart?) brought west with him. If the nails are round, then odds are it dates after 1900. I remember playing with a war surplus mine detector after WWII, and to the best of my knowledge, those were the first metal detectors.

 

[SnakeEater]

The nails are round.

Would you know what that L-bracket bolted into the stump might have been used for?

 

[SnakeEater]

Here's my girl too. I'll let you guess who got the light pack

 

[DCMatt]

There is a dump on my ranch in Texas that dates from the late 1940's until the mid 1950's that is littered with ortegas chiles pepper tin cans. I don't think it has anything to do with the modern Ortegas Brand foods, but rather just the name of the pepper.

I search for "ortega's chiles" and only got 2 hits on Google.



From a 1951 Albuquerque newspaper. So I would say creskol is on the mark as usual.

DCMatt

 

[SnakeEater]

Found this regarding the "LM&L" food can.

From Wikipedia, search Libby's

Libby's is a U.S.-based food company known for its canned food.

The company was founded as Libby, McNeill & Libby in Chicago, Illinois, by Archibald McNeill and the brothers Arthur and Charles Libby. The business began with a canned meat product, beef in brine, or corned beef. It became well-known when it began to package the meat in a trapezoid-shaped can starting in 1875.

By 1880, it had 1,500 employees in Chicago, and by the turn of the century there were about 2,000 employed, by which time it had expanded to the canning of fruits and vegetables. Libby's came under the control of Swift & Company in the 1920s.

 

[Havilah_Springs]

Hello SnakeEater.

Ortega Chillies were canned at first in Ventura, Ca., in 1897 and started out as "Pioneer Ortega Chili." Since your can just has Ortega's Chiles, it seems as if this was a latter date.

http://www.placesearth.com/usa/california/ventura/ortega/ortega.shtml
http://www.ventura.com/points_of_interest/ortegaadobe/

H_S

 

[SnakeEater]

Thanks H_L

I guess I should searched for the general trash site/hole and gathered some more evidence for dating purposes. I was just so shocked to see that someone got there before me in the first place.

 

[SnakeEater]

Kerosene was packed in the square 5 gallon tins, two tins to the box, one box on each side of the mule.

I found this today, from 1944. "ELAINE" kerosene - good call.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v154/n3902/abs/154211a0.html

"A Rapid Method of Estimating Moisture in Dehydrated Fish

THE determination of moisture in foods by extraction with alcohol has been limited by the lack of a rapid and accurate method of estimation of the resulting alcohol–water mixtures. Robertson1 has recently shown that both dicyclohexyl and a mixture of seven volumes of `Elaine’ kerosene and one volume of Standard White Oil No. 7 (both products of the Standard Oil Co. of California) possess very critical temperatures of solution with water–alcohol mixtures. The critical temperature of solution is clearly demarcated by loss or appearance of turbidity with the paraffin mixture, but this is preceded by a hazy appearance with dicyclohexyl. As the method can be adjusted to give a range of up to 20° C. for a water content of 1 per cent in water–alcohol mixtures, the method appeared to be sufficiently critical for food analyses."

Could the wood have been the crates for the kerosene tins?

 

[mikusek]

An early camp for illegal alien invaders perhaps? Early 20th Century outlaws? Or as you suspect, maybe treasure hunters, or those who placed the treasure coming back to reclaim it.

 

[Havilah_Springs]

An early camp for illegal alien invaders perhaps? Early 20th Century outlaws? Or as you suspect, maybe treasure hunters, or those who placed the treasure coming back to reclaim it.

During the Great Depression, there were many camps that sprang up in and around old mining areas and all through the wilderness of California. Your spot just might be a depression camp or an old hunting camp.

H_S