Ghost town group hunt

Met up with 16 other hunters in Wendover, Utah . a couple of weeks ago to hunt 3 ghost town sites (Cobre, Tecoma & Toano ) which are located in Elko County, Nevada. It was a great time.

The hunt, an open invitation was arranged and put together by Monte Berry.

Of the 17 hunters that attended, 7 came from the Portland/Vancouver metro area, 1 from the Oregon/Idaho border area, 1 from California, 2 from Colorado, 3 from Nevada and 3 from Utah.

In addition to the 21 coins recovered (not including 4 memorial pennies) there were many excellent relic finds. The coins recovered are as follows but the list still not complete pending updates.

1854 Seated half dime
1858 Seated half dime
1858 Seated Quarter
1854 Seated Quarter
1905 Barber half dollar
1912 Barber half dollar
4 Chinese cash coins
1 Barber dime
1 V nickel
4 Indian Head Pennies,1860,1873,1880,1903
1899 Barber quarter
1854 Large cent

According to Monte Berry, the coin take was quite good considering the sites had been hunted for decades and considered by some as hunted out.

Attached are pictures of travel conditions, site locations and finds. Not all of the pictures were taken by me but are copies from those taken by other hunters.



Thanks for looking.

El

Loaded up and ready to pull out--11 hour drive


Day break- I hate driving in the dark the older I get (75)


I-80 near Donner Pass -snow


I-80 near Truckee-fog,rain & hail


Clearing up-Truckee River


Nevada


Looking down at Toano from cemetery hill


Toano cemetery-


Toano-Foundation rocks for the hotel,train station and other buildings


Toano group picture-other hunters at different sites


1 of 4 guards


Relics


Coins, sheep tag


Coin- the ground was not to kind to some coins


More relics


Coins,sheep tag,key


The above finds were by hunters other than myself. The following are my finds.

Thomas A. Edison Battery oil bottle--eye ball


Hutchinson bottle stopper-Thanks for the I.D. Keith


Rail road coveralls button


Group picture of some of my finds


Relics


Barber half


Barber half




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/2015 02:39AM by Elbert.

For some "some hunted out spots" looks like y'all did pretty good . Congrats...

Hunted out my arse. Nice looking at the pics, thanks.

Excellent digs Elbert

you guys did good!

Love that little bottle and the lock -- and -- that barber 1/2 is in outstanding cond. for being dug!

Congrats and HH

El,
Great story and pics. Thanks for sharing. That big Barber Half is awesome...Congrats.

Wow, I've never been on a solid group hunt. I like all the finds. Some real history uncovered. Congrats!

Looks like a great time with some very good finds! Congrats

Cadman-Thank you. Appreciate it.

ozzie-Thanks and glad you enjoyed the pictures.

MichiganRelicHunter-Thank you. That is my first railroad lock.

tnduke- Thank you. Glad you like the post.

tnsharpshooter- That was my first group hunt. Great bunch of guys and one gal. Thanks for looking.

Fletch-Thank you, it was a lot of fun even with the weather turning bad on us.

El

Hi Elbert...

The AHRPS group hunt looks like it was successful and you guys made some great finds! I was planning on going but doctor appointments interrupted and complicated my plans. The guy I was going to share a motel room with had to drop out also. Monte has written about hunting these old ghost towns for decades and still it was a worthwhile adventure as you all found some history with plenty to go around. I'm sorry to have missed it, maybe next year I'll get to go if he puts on another hunt.

Hombre Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Elbert...
>
> The AHRPS group hunt looks like it was successful
> and you guys made some great finds! I was planning
> on going but doctor appointments interrupted and
> complicated my plans. The guy I was going to share
> a motel room with had to drop out also. Monte has
> written about hunting these old ghost towns for
> decades and still it was a worthwhile adventure as
> you all found some history with plenty to go
> around. I'm sorry to have missed it, maybe next
> year I'll get to go if he puts on another hunt.

It would have been nice to meet you. Maybe next year. Thanks you.

El

El that's an amazing amount of keepers!

Every year a group of us gather up on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends and head to Nevada to go "ghost towning" as I like to call it, and we just don't get those kind of numbers of coins. Especially that kind of big silver!

I wish I'd been able to go on this trip, but that darn honeymoon got in the way I suspect it would've been education as much as it would've been fun!

Was there any trend as to who was making the good finds (machine they were using, small coil, raking debris to get to the goods, etc?).

Congrats
Brian

PS - BTW that 1912S Barber half is about a $300'ish dollar coin - very nice find!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2015 03:53PM by Cal_cobra.

Love seeing this thread wherever it pops up El!!

While not as lucky as some others with regards to the coins, we still had a great time on the trip and enjoyed meeting everyone. We really appreciate the invitation from Monte and the others. Any time I hear about XYX location being hunted out it always makes me want to take a stab at it rather than walk away. The results from this trip are the reason why. Thanks El for posting it.

Nice finds El! Looks like a good time. I used to go on Montes forum. Btw, hunted out?? Did anyone prior put batteries in their detector??

Great hunt. And those pics, especially of the Barber are outstanding quality.

Well Im very Envious/Jealous of your hunting locale..

What a beautiful area to hunt in...

and great finds..!!

great Group hunt!!!

I would love to hunt out west like that once in my life...

maybe a week out in the open camping and hunting...Exploring...loving nature and history!!

Good for Yall!!

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

Keith Southern Wrote:
> I would love to hunt out west like that once in my
> life...
>
> maybe a week out in the open camping and
> hunting...Exploring...loving nature and history!!

Actually we stayed in hotels in Wendover on the NV/UT state line. There are a number of casinos to hit at night for those that like to gamble or just to get out and walk around. However, I do have a popup trailer for similar trips or fast weekend trips. I sure do like the wide open spaces out west. Not like where I came from in the mid-west. But the older history of the areas back east and the detecting that goes with it is something I am always jealous of. Also Wendover is home to the Enola Gay. There is a nice museum in town with some history of the A bomb mission.

We were talking about how we get a sense of the rough conditions people put up with when they headed west. We wondered if people ever got out there and thought "geez I wish I would have stayed in Boston". We walked up to that cemetery and looked back to see the Toano hunt area down below (where you can see the cars parked in the background). Several headstones were kids that lived from days to a few years old. I wished I had a better camera but at least I had my cell phone camera. I have a few more pics to put up here.

Keith Southern Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well Im very Envious/Jealous of your hunting
> locale..
>
> What a beautiful area to hunt in...
>
> and great finds..!!
>
> great Group hunt!!!
>
> I would love to hunt out west like that once in my
> life...
>
> maybe a week out in the open camping and
> hunting...Exploring...loving nature and history!!
>
> Good for Yall!!
>
> Keith
Come on out dude! Serioualy. Make plans

Keith Southern Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well Im very Envious/Jealous of your hunting
> locale..
>
> What a beautiful area to hunt in...
>
> and great finds..!!
>
> great Group hunt!!!
>
> I would love to hunt out west like that once in my
> life...
>
> maybe a week out in the open camping and
> hunting...Exploring...loving nature and history!!
>
> Good for Yall!!
>
> Keith

Keith,

I believe Monte is planning another hunt in and around the same area in Sept/Oct.

Elbert Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Keith Southern Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Well Im very Envious/Jealous of your hunting
> > locale..
> >
> > What a beautiful area to hunt in...
> >
> > and great finds..!!
> >
> > great Group hunt!!!
> >
> > I would love to hunt out west like that once in
> my
> > life...
> >
> > maybe a week out in the open camping and
> > hunting...Exploring...loving nature and
> history!!
> >
> > Good for Yall!!
> >
> > Keith
>
> Keith,
>
> I believe Monte is planning another hunt in and
> around the same area in Sept/Oct.
Let me know El. If I can break away, may join yall.

deathray Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Elbert Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Keith Southern Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Well Im very Envious/Jealous of your hunting
> > > locale..
> > >
> > > What a beautiful area to hunt in...
> > >
> > > and great finds..!!
> > >
> > > great Group hunt!!!
> > >
> > > I would love to hunt out west like that once
> in
> > my
> > > life...
> > >
> > > maybe a week out in the open camping and
> > > hunting...Exploring...loving nature and
> > history!!
> > >
> > > Good for Yall!!
> > >
> > > Keith
> >
> > Keith,
> >
> > I believe Monte is planning another hunt in and
> > around the same area in Sept/Oct.
> Let me know El. If I can break away, may join
> yall.

Cal_cobra Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> El that's an amazing amount of keepers!
>
> Every year a group of us gather up on Memorial Day
> and Labor Day weekends and head to Nevada to go
> "ghost towning" as I like to call it, and we just
> don't get those kind of numbers of coins.
> Especially that kind of big silver!
>
> I wish I'd been able to go on this trip, but that
> darn honeymoon got in the way I suspect it
> would've been education as much as it would've
> been fun!
>
> Was there any trend as to who was making the good
> finds (machine they were using, small coil, raking
> debris to get to the goods, etc?).
>
> Congrats
> Brian
>
> PS - BTW that 1912S Barber half is about a
> $300'ish dollar coin - very nice find!

Brian,

I remember our PM conversation before the hunt and could tell you were itching to go.

As far as machine and coil trends go, the smaller the coil for real trashy spots worked best and to me it looked like the hunters new their machines extremely well regardless of make and model. The one thing that I learned after watching the experienced ghost town hunters was to slow my sweep speed down. It all came down to how lucky you were to have a special target under the coil.

Thanks for the info on the coin.

El

SeabeeRon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Love seeing this thread wherever it pops up El!!
>

Thanks Ron. Maybe I'll see you at the Santa Cruz beach someday.

TabWhisperer--Thanks Jim . Glad to have met you and Mark. Good luck at those Colorado ghost towns.

Champ Ferguson--Thank you. Appreciate you looking and the kind words.

,deathray--Thanks Ray and I may see you at the nest one.

Monte is respected on the forums. He has been on finds promoting the Racer a great deal. The last thing I want to do is turn this into a Racer thread. But I was wondering what kind of detectors were used there. Does FBS work in that kind of environment and so forth.

As far as the value on the coin...rarity always drives value, and the fact that it came out of a historical context of a ghost town....much rarer and interesting than one sitting in someone's bankbox. Any value assigned by grading guides should serve only as a low end starting point

Great post thanks for sharing, wish I could have been there. Nevada has some great old ghost towns to hunt.

goodmore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Monte is respected on the forums. He has been on
> finds promoting the Racer a great deal. The last
> thing I want to do is turn this into a Racer
> thread. But I was wondering what kind of detectors
> were used there. Does FBS work in that kind of
> environment and so forth.


I don't know a thing about the Minelab's but one person had CX3030 and I believe he is the one that found the large cent. Of the rest there was 1 F19, 4 Racer's and the rest of the units were White's units, MXT, M6 I believe. There may have been a Tesoro. Don't hold me to it but that is what I think there was.

Gary in Daytona Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great post thanks for sharing, wish I could have
> been there. Nevada has some great old ghost towns
> to hunt.

Thanks Gary. Appreciate it.

Great finds El! And congrats with the Barber half, Excellent condition best one I've seen come out of the ground.

WTG!
Paul (Ca)