always_late
Newbie
- Oct 2, 2018
- 1
- 9
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Five years ago I was hiking in a canyon of the San Gabriel mountains. This is a short 5 mile round trip hike that I do about once a week. It is close to my house and easy to get to. Much of the hike follows a blacktopped road that was built in the early 1920’s. While I was walking, I noticed a coin on the ground. I picked it up, initially thinking it was a penny, and found that it was an 1854 one dollar gold piece. I spent the next hour searching the area a found nothing else. My best guess was that someone else hiking had lost it.
About a year later, I walked past a man metal detecting an area about 50 yards from where I found the coin. I asked him if he had found anything and he said “just a few bottle tops”. That got me thinking about the coin. I passed this man about 30 minutes later on my way back. This time I asked, “finding any gold?” He stopped dead and took off his head set and stared at me for a minute. He asked me if I had found any gold. I had nothing to lose and I wanted as much information as he would tell me so I told him about my coin. He smiled and told me that I should keep quiet about it. He said that he too had found “a coin or two” along this stretch of road. But he wouldn’t tell me anything more. That same year I found a two and half dollar gold piece within 10 feet of where I found my first coin.
I have seen the man a few times over the last 4 years. Up until recently, we have shared a little small talk but he never tells me if has found anything. This last meeting was different, he explained that his health was failing and he was going to move to Arizona to be closer to his family. He said that he might as well tell someone everything he knew about the area and the gold. He told me that over the past 10 years that he had found 12 gold coins. All of these were either one dollar, two and half dollar or five dollar gold pieces. The newest coin was 1856. All coins were found after a heavy rain. His theory was that a cache of coins were buried or hidden and that they were disturbed during the building of the road. He thought that rain uncovered the coins. Five of coins that he found were in plain sight and the others were metal detected and found in less than an inch of dirt.
I don’t know if his theory is correct. It seems to me that these coins would be buried deeper and would not be uncovered by rain on level ground. This road was cut into the side of hill. There is a seasonal stream in the valley 50 feet below on one side of the road and a very steep hill going up for about 200 feet on the other side. My guess is that the coins are being washed down to the road from someplace above. The slope of the hills on both sides of the road are too steep and heavily covered with brush to easily climb. There is a trail on the hilltop but I cannot see anything from that trail and the hill gets progressively steeper as you start going down the hill; too steep to easily walk. If my theory is correct, then I suppose that more coins might be present in the valley at the bottom of the hill.
The old man shared one last piece of information. He showed me a spot on the road where he claims his metal detector is showing something big that he believes is gold. The problem of course is that this is an asphalt road and I cannot just dig it up.
Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
About a year later, I walked past a man metal detecting an area about 50 yards from where I found the coin. I asked him if he had found anything and he said “just a few bottle tops”. That got me thinking about the coin. I passed this man about 30 minutes later on my way back. This time I asked, “finding any gold?” He stopped dead and took off his head set and stared at me for a minute. He asked me if I had found any gold. I had nothing to lose and I wanted as much information as he would tell me so I told him about my coin. He smiled and told me that I should keep quiet about it. He said that he too had found “a coin or two” along this stretch of road. But he wouldn’t tell me anything more. That same year I found a two and half dollar gold piece within 10 feet of where I found my first coin.
I have seen the man a few times over the last 4 years. Up until recently, we have shared a little small talk but he never tells me if has found anything. This last meeting was different, he explained that his health was failing and he was going to move to Arizona to be closer to his family. He said that he might as well tell someone everything he knew about the area and the gold. He told me that over the past 10 years that he had found 12 gold coins. All of these were either one dollar, two and half dollar or five dollar gold pieces. The newest coin was 1856. All coins were found after a heavy rain. His theory was that a cache of coins were buried or hidden and that they were disturbed during the building of the road. He thought that rain uncovered the coins. Five of coins that he found were in plain sight and the others were metal detected and found in less than an inch of dirt.
I don’t know if his theory is correct. It seems to me that these coins would be buried deeper and would not be uncovered by rain on level ground. This road was cut into the side of hill. There is a seasonal stream in the valley 50 feet below on one side of the road and a very steep hill going up for about 200 feet on the other side. My guess is that the coins are being washed down to the road from someplace above. The slope of the hills on both sides of the road are too steep and heavily covered with brush to easily climb. There is a trail on the hilltop but I cannot see anything from that trail and the hill gets progressively steeper as you start going down the hill; too steep to easily walk. If my theory is correct, then I suppose that more coins might be present in the valley at the bottom of the hill.
The old man shared one last piece of information. He showed me a spot on the road where he claims his metal detector is showing something big that he believes is gold. The problem of course is that this is an asphalt road and I cannot just dig it up.
Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Of course not.
