Old Button, Play Nickel and a Cache . . . .

[49r Relics]

Sorry to leave everyone hanging on the word "Cache" but bear with me . . . I went to the Ishi Wilderness which is outside of Red Bluff, CA and hunted and old campsite that dates back to the 1800's. With my brand new Minelab Explorer SE with X1 Sunray Probe in hand, I went out and after being completely overwhelmed with so much audio and visual information coming in, I somehow managed to find a pocket full of clad and an old button at around 5" in the roots of a large tree. It looks like it has the year "1780" on it . . . anyone have any ideas on this?

I also found this "1953" Play Nickel at 6"

Here is my "Cache". I found traces of some old foundations off of Hogback Rd. and had my detector go crazy, after digging around 3" down, I found a large cache of about 45 old square nails. They were all in a pocket in the ground where they were probaly in a bag that has since rotted away. I know that these old nails were extremely valuable in the days gone by because they were all hand made by blacksmiths and were often removed by settlers when they moved and used on their next home. Gave a bunch away to my buddies that were with me as this was actually a multi-vehicle 4x4 trip and I snuck in some detecting while they were shooting targets. Also found a few lengths of 2 different kinds of very old barbed wire. What an amazing off-road trip! I highly recommend a trip down Ishi Rd and Hogback Rd, into the canyon, some outstanding Jeep trails and semi-difficult rock crawling trails and river crossings.

HH, Mark

 

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[49r Relics]

Howdy BeachBumm, got some questions and comments for you.

Were you near the lower reaches of Deer Creek?

Are you sure it's legal to detect in Ishi Wilderness? Perhaps you were NEAR Ishi Wilderness and not actually detecting in it?

Could those neat old nails be the newer cut nails? Mass produced, not handmade. Still nice to find, but more typical to find in Northern California.

My guess is that's a button from the blazer worn by the kid who played with the play money. Probably 1950's vintage reproduction. I say this because I found a button that is similar and it was IDed as a repro from mid-20th century. Still a heart-stopper when found, though, huh?!!!

Do you know about Ishi and his life? He was an interesting man, there is a documentary shown on TV occasionally about him. It's worth seeing IMHO. If you studied Kroeber's writings about Ishi, you might be able to find the EXACT site where he and Ishi and a couple other men camped when they took Ishi back home for a while in order to see him live in the old ways. To me, that would be a very exciting place to find.

I bet there are many old hunters' campsites in that area that would produce some older coins and some good old beer cans. Must have been fun to go 4 wheeling in that area. Lucky guy!!

If you get back up to that area, please post more photos and stories. That is very interesting country. Cool finds!!

Hello Mary,

We crossed Dear Creek 3 times. I had seen the documentary on TV before and knew of Ishi, it is one of the main reasons we went there for sure. The video clip is fantastic, Thank You!

The only area where I detected at the campground was the Tehama Ridge Campground and an area at the North East end of Hogback Rd., Land is partitioned up there in a very awkward way. There is a Natioanal Park, a National Forest, BLM and Private Land all in a jigsaw. Best just to ask and make sure. There were 2 rangers on ATV's that were tracking a Mountain Lion with radio equipment and they talked to us for a while. They said we could detect outside the gate in the Lassen National Forest and gave us directions to where we could go shoot targets and detect. It was up in the North east corner of the wilderness area. I don't know for sure if we were "Allowed" to treasure hunt in the Ishi Wilderness, because I did not sepecifically ask that question, just asked where an old campground or homestead might be to detect at and was given directions to the campground, the rangers were absolutely fascinated with the technology of modern metal detectors. The other guys on the trip were up in a little canyon shooting targets about 1/2 mile above me to the North.

I have no idea about the nails whatsoever. They look to all have different heads so I assumed they were handmade which dates them back to pre-1930. The Play Nickel was found at the bathrooms and the Button was found down at one of the campsites near a huge tree that looked like people might have tried to climb. I know it is hard to believe it is anything other than a reproduction but it sure shows nice When I first saw it, I thought it was a large cent, then when I wiped it off I thought colonial until I realized it was hollowed out on the back and light weight. Hoping someone will know about that company.

The best rock crawling pictures of our trip were taken by others of me in action, I will PM you some tommorrow when I get them. Here are a few pictures that I took to show you all how nice it was there (The white truck was mine).

Hope you enjoy these photos! (Plenty more, just ask and I can PM them to you)

HH, Mark

 

[DANGLANGLEY]

Very fascinating post and great pictures too. I would love to visit that place. Thank you for sharing the great experience with us.

DANGLANGLEY