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Author
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Topic: Speculation
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R.Shaw
Peanut Butter Man, da da da da DAH!
Member # 73
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posted November 11, 2013 07:18 PM
We were miles from a good road and in the middle of nowhere when we ran across this set of bed springs. I did a little research and we were very close to the Santa Fe Trail..More specifically the Cimmarron Cut-Off. This shortcut reduced the trip by 15 days, but was more dangerous due to Indians and the lack of water.
Any thoughts??
[ November 11, 2013, 07:22 PM: Message edited by: R.Shaw ]
Posts: 567 | From: Nebraska | Registered: Jan 2003
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DiYi
Wears wife's pink panties under his camo for good luck. (yeah, right!)
Member # 3785
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posted November 11, 2013 07:43 PM
Neat.Mysterious.But,the shape/age/era of the materials makes me wonder if they are that old.
Posts: 623 | From: SoDak | Registered: Feb 2011
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted November 11, 2013 08:32 PM
More than likely, it fell off the back of a covered wagon, became rain soaked or possibly caught fire leaving nothing but the springs. Or, anything's possible? Did you hear about the suitcase full of gems some mountain climbers found recently? In the Himalayas, traced to a plane crash in the 1950's.
I found a geiger counter once, in remote Nevada. I also found a complete wagon once, looked like a buckboard. Even the wood spoke wheels were too big to cram into the back of my cousin's Bronco.
As far as those old trails, I have been over a few of them. The Pony Express crosses the entire state of Nevada.
When deer hunting once, a number of years ago, I decided to take a shortcut back to camp. Looked damned near straight down but I love a challenge. Of course I had to strap my rifle and use both hands and it got a little dicey, here and there. There was a small grove of pine trees at the base of the cliff. As I got a lot closer, like the level of the tops of the trees, I saw something that made me a little curious. The tree closest to the granite wall had a cut right at the base of the trunk.
When I got to the bottom, I checked out the cut very closely and was surprised that it was actually rust from the top of a tin can with many years worth of pine needles covering the entire box except for the top.
This box is about ten inches square, after I dug it out. The placement screamed a stash location, no way someone would stumble on it accidentally. So, talk about excited as I opened it. There was a paper bag in the bottom that fit the interior dimensions perfectly. This bag has some chew holes in the corners and it rattled around so I pulled it out and ......nothing was inside, but the bag was formed around SOMETHING at one time. Don't know what it might have been but there was also quite a bit of garlic cloves inside. Sometime later, I heard that the old miners and prospectors used garlic to deter insects and small vermin.
Whatever was inside the bag was gone, must have been consumed by something or other? Maybe some kind of food or paper currency, although what would eat through the bag to eat paper inside? So, it's a mystery, but I like it and have had that tin box for more than twenty years, maybe longer?
My wife was cleaning up once and tossed the paper bag, which I did not appreciate, but never thought to instruct her to keep her hands off. Originally, I think it was a biscuit tin, it's rusty but you can make out some of the printing that was on it. So, maybe some sourdough was hiding his biscuits from his buddies, I don't know.
The main thing was the thrill of discovery. Short lived but I think it's a neat momento, has memories for me.
Good hunting. El Bee
[ November 11, 2013, 08:33 PM: Message edited by: Leonard ]
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32361 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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DiYi
Wears wife's pink panties under his camo for good luck. (yeah, right!)
Member # 3785
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posted November 12, 2013 04:50 AM
R Shaw my concerns weren't correct.Finally came up with a search that worked.Did a 'civil war beds'search and found near identical metal,tube bending,construction etc.In fact some pics were near identical.
Posts: 623 | From: SoDak | Registered: Feb 2011
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DAA
Utah/Promoted WESTERN REGIONAL Hunt Director
Member # 11
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posted November 12, 2013 07:34 AM
Randy, I'm not familiar enough with the history of that area and trail to even speculate. But if DiYi's findings are correct, and I assume they are, I seen no reason not to believe it came off one of those wagons.
Along the lines of what Leonard is talking about, the country I roam, finding bed springs is actually fairly common. Sometimes I think they are just the only, or at least only easily discernable remnant of an old homestead or semi-permanent camp. Other times, they are obviously associated with old cabin sites. And of course they are everywhere around old mining claims. But, some of them, just like yours above, just standing out in the grass. I often think they just got tossed to save weight by desperate people trying to make the next water hole.
I found a whole wagon once too. Down in a wash, half buried, but totally complete. Not a buckboard, but a great big Conestoga. Close to the Oregon trail in NE Nevada. That was about 30 years ago, with my buddy Tim. We actually made it back to that spot just a couple years ago, the whole thing was gone. Sitting in somebodies yard, or in front of a restaurant somewhere now, no doubt.
Something else we recently noticed missing. We found an old late 40's or early 50's Power Wagon, complete, with the bed full of old barb wire still on spools. Went by there just last month, truck still there, but the barb wire is gone!
But, yeah, have stumbled across more "interesting" stuff in out of the way places than I can remember.
One of the strangest was a wooden box and a very old fashioned bathroom scale I found in a super out of the way cave out in the Jarbidge mountains. Like Leonard's pine tree, totally accident I found the cave, and it's hard to imagine many people have ever laid eyes on it. Wish I knew the story of that scene. The box and scale are still there, far as I know.
- DAA
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"Oh yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom, but they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em." -- George Hanson, Easy Rider, 1969.
Rocky Mountain Varmint Hunter
Posts: 2676 | From: Salt Lake City, UT | Registered: Jan 2003
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booger
TOO BIG TO FAIL
Member # 3602
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posted November 12, 2013 01:34 PM
Here in our area, we were on a very busy part of the Sante Fe Trail, with Fort Larned only being around 20 miles from where I now live.
One of my old bank customers was an avid metal detector, and used to follow the old wagon trails, especially where they crossed the Arkansas River. He would ask permission to do what he did from the landowners and actually shared what he found.
He never said anything about finding furniture, but had the most beautiful collection of $5, $10 and $20 gold coins he found.
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If we ever forget we are one Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under--Ronald Reagan
Posts: 911 | From: Bob Dole Country | Registered: Apr 2010
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32below
Knows what it's all about
Member # 2075
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posted November 14, 2013 07:13 PM
Have run across those in different places. Mighta come off a wagon but then again there are old cowboy camps dating from the 1930's up through the 1980's scattered across the area as well. They were well know to leave all kinds of junk behind when they packed up. Finders keepers.
Posts: 100 | From: SW Kansas | Registered: Nov 2007
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32below
Knows what it's all about
Member # 2075
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posted November 14, 2013 07:19 PM
Northeast of here near the Smokey Hill River there are a whole string of moonshiner caves from prohibition days. If you don't know where they are you won't find them, pretty well hid.
Posts: 100 | From: SW Kansas | Registered: Nov 2007
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