Curious The George
Hero Member
- Sep 4, 2008
- 655
- 133
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 1
- Detector(s) used
- Metrotech
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
I am just finishing a book called, "Death Valley in '49". Written by William Lewis Manley. This is a biography of Williams travels from Wisconsin to the gold fields in California during the 1849 gold rush. He crossed Death Valley to get out there. Quite a story and hard to imagine people going through what they did in those days.
At any rate he came back to Wisconsin via ship crossed Panama way before there was a canal and then another ship to New Orleans and riverboats and walking from there back to Wisconsin. He was carrying a bag of gold dust he described as weighing 10 lbs. and was wearing a sore spot on his back from toting it.
When he got back to Wisconsin he then made a decision to turn around and go back to California. This time he took the sea route, crossed Panama again on boat, mule and foot back to the Pacific side and then ships to Sacramento.
In that part of the story he describes something of great interest to metal detectorists. He is describing working on the "north fork of the Yuba River about 60 miles above Marysville."
From there I will quote exactly what he says and then put a comment or two after that:
" We now took a little run down to San Francisco, also to Santa Clara where we staid a night or two with Mr. McCloud's friend, Mr. Otterson, and then we went back to our claims again. In taking care of our money we had to be our own bankers, and the usual way was to put the slugs we received for pay into a gallon pickle jar, and bury this in some place known only to our particular selves, and these vaults we conseidered perfectly safe. The slugs were fifty dollar pieces, coined for convenience, and were eight-sided, heavy pieces. In the western counties the people called them "Adobies," but among the miners they were universally known as "Slugs".
In another part of the book he describes using a slug to purchase some pants and complains about having to pay $5 for a $2 pair of pants in order to get a slug cashed.
From the writing and description these "slugs" must have been a cast piece of gold that had enough weight in it to be worth $50. They were apparently used as money in the areas around the gold camps. Perhaps it was more convenient to have them in your pocket instead of a bag with loose gold dust. A bag of gold dust develops a leak and you got a good chance of loosing it on the ground and it would be difficult to recover.
The gallon pickle jug "vault" really caught my attention. There were thousands of miners working the gold areas. Let's say a couple of thousand were moderately to greatly successful in finding enough gold to have to put it in one of these "vaults". Out of a couple of thousand of those vaults being buried there must be several hundred of them that were abandoned for one reason or another. Could be that you told a good friend where you buried yours so if something happened it wouldn't be lost. Could be you didn't, he does say "known only to our particular selves". That would indicate that you didn't tell your buddy where it was or it may mean that if four guys were working a claim all four were, "our particular selves". Don't know.
But there must be some of these vaults still buried around the remote gold camp areas.
I would recommend anyone out that way that is hunting the gold camps to get a copy of this book. William wrote it in or about 1894. It is quite a story if that time and area is of interest to you.
Anyone know if any of these octagon shaped "slugs" have survived? I'd like to see what they looked like. And there may be some of them that got dropped from time to time on the trails leading from the camps to the larger towns.
At any rate he came back to Wisconsin via ship crossed Panama way before there was a canal and then another ship to New Orleans and riverboats and walking from there back to Wisconsin. He was carrying a bag of gold dust he described as weighing 10 lbs. and was wearing a sore spot on his back from toting it.
When he got back to Wisconsin he then made a decision to turn around and go back to California. This time he took the sea route, crossed Panama again on boat, mule and foot back to the Pacific side and then ships to Sacramento.
In that part of the story he describes something of great interest to metal detectorists. He is describing working on the "north fork of the Yuba River about 60 miles above Marysville."
From there I will quote exactly what he says and then put a comment or two after that:
" We now took a little run down to San Francisco, also to Santa Clara where we staid a night or two with Mr. McCloud's friend, Mr. Otterson, and then we went back to our claims again. In taking care of our money we had to be our own bankers, and the usual way was to put the slugs we received for pay into a gallon pickle jar, and bury this in some place known only to our particular selves, and these vaults we conseidered perfectly safe. The slugs were fifty dollar pieces, coined for convenience, and were eight-sided, heavy pieces. In the western counties the people called them "Adobies," but among the miners they were universally known as "Slugs".
In another part of the book he describes using a slug to purchase some pants and complains about having to pay $5 for a $2 pair of pants in order to get a slug cashed.
From the writing and description these "slugs" must have been a cast piece of gold that had enough weight in it to be worth $50. They were apparently used as money in the areas around the gold camps. Perhaps it was more convenient to have them in your pocket instead of a bag with loose gold dust. A bag of gold dust develops a leak and you got a good chance of loosing it on the ground and it would be difficult to recover.
The gallon pickle jug "vault" really caught my attention. There were thousands of miners working the gold areas. Let's say a couple of thousand were moderately to greatly successful in finding enough gold to have to put it in one of these "vaults". Out of a couple of thousand of those vaults being buried there must be several hundred of them that were abandoned for one reason or another. Could be that you told a good friend where you buried yours so if something happened it wouldn't be lost. Could be you didn't, he does say "known only to our particular selves". That would indicate that you didn't tell your buddy where it was or it may mean that if four guys were working a claim all four were, "our particular selves". Don't know.
But there must be some of these vaults still buried around the remote gold camp areas.
I would recommend anyone out that way that is hunting the gold camps to get a copy of this book. William wrote it in or about 1894. It is quite a story if that time and area is of interest to you.
Anyone know if any of these octagon shaped "slugs" have survived? I'd like to see what they looked like. And there may be some of them that got dropped from time to time on the trails leading from the camps to the larger towns.
