✅ SOLVED What Era were hand made lead net weights used?

[USNFLYR]

All,

I have found over 60 hand made lead weights along shallow river water. Previous queries yielded many responses. My search area is near a tributary into the Columbia River. (No, I am not on Tribal lands.). They make a great display on my shelf, and are a blast to find as often the same signal yields a lead bullet.

I really don’t need help on what they are. After finding many with rope impressions on the inside, I know that they were once affixed to nets. I now believe they were used in seine fishing. Seining required boats or horses in shallow water to sweep a net back to the shoreline. I believe the area had a sizable fish camp with a large salmon operation. That’s why I find both pried open lead and closed weights. Some slipped of the rope, while some were thrown away in net repair process.

My research shows where I am (near Portland) commercial seining operations begun in 1877. Native Americans were recorded seining in as early as 1852. I am not sure if they would have used lead? A fellow forum reader from near Astoria found these as well.

My question.... what date were the hand made versions made? I can assume more modern "sinkers" were mass produced and used cheaper low grade lead? This lead has the appearance of older, non machine molded type. It seems with some many knife strikes, variations and non standard sizes, these were made in camp vs factory, etc. The lead seems to be identical to civil war (era) bullets.



Can any expert help with the age of these hand made fish net weights?

Thanks!

 

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[unclemac]

i find those a lot on the Willapa. We were still using them in the 50's and 60's. I never questioned their age since we all had them. But to have a guess I would say they had their heyday along with the cedar floats, and those were still being made in Astoria up to the 1950's i seem to remember. Remember too all those pier piles you see in the bays and rivers are remnants of canneries, big and small...you can still find a lot of blacksmithing tools associated with those.

 

[USNFLYR]

unclemac,

Thanks for chiming in! Yes. I find a lot of tools around the pilings! The lead net weights are fun to find. I was hoping they were older...but I will keep displaying them proudly. Every time I think I picked the area clean, poof, I'll eyeball or detect another one in the sand!

Stay well...

 

[unclemac]

i prefer eyeball detecting. you can walk the same beach every tide and find something new if you know where to look...I pick up an arrowhead about every 2-3 weeks