Incredible Metal Detecting Discoveries: True Stories of Amazing Treasures Found by Everyday People (2 page)

Where Was
the Mojave Nugget Unearthed?

That
is the million dollar question isn't it? The exact location of this
monster nugget find is still not known. It was recovered somewhere
very close to the city of Randsburg, California in an area where gold
has been known to exist in large volumes. There are plenty of mines
in the area, but the exact location where this beauty was unearthed
still remains behind tight lips. Who could blame them? Would you be
willing to tell anyone the exact location if you discovered this
giant nugget? I don't think I would.

There
are also quite a few interesting stories floating around out there
about how this nugget was found. Ty was using a metal detector when
he located it. That part we know, but the exact kind or model of
metal detector he was using is still up for debate.

Some
people are saying it was a metal detector that was designed to locate
landmines and others are saying that Ty had several coils attached to
his vehicle. He would just drive very slowly through the desert until
his coils alerted him to the treasure below. We may never know
because Ty Paulsen has since departed the land of the living.

What
Happened to the Mojave Nugget?

Ty
sold his amazing find to a private collector by the name of Robert E.
Peterson. Don't worry, this massive gold nugget did not stay hidden
behind closed doors in a private collection.

Margie
and Robert E. Peterson decided to donate their rather impressive gold
nugget collection to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
County. The entire collection of gold nuggets consists of over 130
pieces of gold that total more than 1660 troy ounces. That is just
over 113 pounds or 51 kilograms of pure golden delight. Sitting at
the middle of the collection is the Mojave Gold Nugget. As of this
writing, this is the biggest gold nugget that has been recovered in
California soil with a metal detector.

If
you are planning a trip to the area, I strongly suggest you visit
this exhibit. Once you see the Mojave Nugget, the cleaning crew at
the museum will need to come along and pick your jaw up off the
floor.

Museum
Contact Information

It
is always a good idea to call ahead to make sure this exhibit is
still on display.

Museum
website:
http://www.nhm.org/

Phone
number: 213-763-3466

email:
[email protected]

This
next story will lay the theory “an expensive metal detector is
the best metal detector” to rest. I mentioned in my book
entitled: “
Metal
Detecting: A Beginner's Guide to Mastering the Greatest Hobby In the
World
,” knowing how to use your metal detector properly is
much more important than buying a metal detector with an expensive
price tag. This story drives this fact straight home and proves that
sometimes simple is so much better.

Once
again we have to travel to that harsh desert landscape for this
incredible story. This one takes place just south of the United
States border in the Sonoran Desert where the daytime temperatures
can exceed 125 degrees Fahrenheit (51 degrees Celsius). It is said
that the wind here is so ferocious that its hot breath literally
strips the water from any living creature in a matter of minutes.
This area is not exactly a walk through the park with your metal
detector. You have to be conditioned to handle this type of
environment, and you have to be a hardcore treasure hunter to spend
any extended amount of time here.

This
area of desert may seem harsh and devoid of life, but it is rich in
treasure folklore. There are countless legends of mountains of gold
and silver just waiting for the would be treasure hunter to uncover.
These legends are attractive to anyone who has been bitten by the
treasure hunting bug.

Could
you imagine discovering a mountain of gold? What would it be like to
walk into some long lost desert cave where the walls were lined with
the richest gold veins the world has ever seen? Are you ready to take
your metal detector out to the desert yet? I know I am. If you are
not, then you will be by the time you are done reading this story.

The
Sonoran Desert is no stranger to gold. There are numerous gold and
silver mines throughout the Sonoran Desert region, and in 1989
history was made by a local Mexican prospector in a canyon close to
the Gran Desierto de Altar.

This
local prospector whose name seems to be magically erased from the
history books found the largest gold nugget in the entire western
hemisphere with a metal detector. If you thought the Mojave Nugget
was incredible, you haven't seen anything yet.

Instead
of sweating his life away prospecting for gold the old fashioned way,
this prospector decided to put technology to work for him. He
purchased an inexpensive metal detector from Radio Shack. The exact
model he used is not known, but given the era of the find and the
fact that he purchased this metal detector at Radio Shack means one
thing. He was using an entry level machine without any fancy bells
and whistles.

Did this
prospector randomly pick an area and blindly search it with his entry
level metal detector?

No
he didn't. He carefully picked an area in a canyon where large gold
nuggets have been found in the past.

Once
he decided on this area, he slowly and very methodically combed every
single inch of desert sand using a tight grid like pattern. Hunting
in a grid pattern is essential if you want to leave nothing behind
but footprints. I cover this metal detecting technique in great
detail in my book entitled: “
Metal
Detecting: A Beginner's Guide to Mastering the Greatest Hobby In the
World
.”

Was This
Method an Instant Success?

No
it was not. This prospector faced what many of us face when using our
metal detectors on a regular basis. He uncovered quite a bit of trash
before he finally hit the mother lode.

He
spent about two weeks digging scrap iron targets and old bullets in
this harsh desert environment, but his hard work and dedication was
about to pay off more than he could have ever imagined

His
entry level metal detector alerts him to a rather large target in the
sand. This target is so big that it must be an old iron chunk of
trash, but this prospector ignores this idea and gets down on his
hands and knees to uncover his find.

At
first it appears to be a good sized nugget laying in the ground, but
as he continues to move the sand and rock away, the nugget grows in
size. By the time he is done, he has unearthed a nugget that measures
10.75 inches in height (27.3 centimeters) and 7.25 inches wide (18.41
centimeters).

This
monster nugget weighs in at 389.4 troy ounces. That is 26 pounds, 10
ounces (12 kilograms) worth of almost pure gold. Not only is the
nugget huge, but it is oddly shaped just like a boot. Hence the name,
“The Boot of Cortez.”

Boot
of Cortez images courtesy of Robert Boor. The images were taken while
the Boot of Cortez was on display at the 2004 Tucson Gem and Mineral
Show.

Where Is The
Boot of Cortez Now?

On
January 20
^th
, 2008, the Boot of Cortez was sold at auction
for $1,314,500 or £775,699. As of this writing, this was the
most recent transaction for this amazing metal detecting find. Its
owner has said that they hope to have it on exhibit soon.

Is There a
Metal Detecting Moral to This Story?

I
personally believe there is a moral to every story. There is always
some sort of knowledge that can be extracted from something like
this. In this case, there are two glaring examples that are
practically slapping you in the face.

One
is the fact that this monster nugget was found with a simple entry
level metal detector. The other very important lesson is that slow
and steady wins the race. This prospector did not ignore a single
target and he took his time making sure every single grain of sand
was searched by his metal detector. Incredible and it could happen to
you.

For this amazing story, we
have to travel to the other side of the globe. We have to go “down
under” as they say, to the great continent of Australia where
food is cooked on the “barbie” and swimming suits are
called “budgy smugglers.”

This great land just
happens to be where the largest gold nugget in the world was found
using nothing more than a metal detector by crickey! Okay, I promise
not to insert any more Australian slang in the rest of the story
mate.

This story takes place in
Kingower, Victoria, Australia. This town is no stranger to gold. At
one time, the town was quite large during the Victorian Gold Rush. It
was the discovery of the Kingower goldfield that brought over 4000
people to the area in a record amount of time.

The area
quickly became known for large gold nuggets, and everyone was happily
digging them up. That all changed a few years later when the nearby
Inglewood goldfield was discovered in 1859.

Everyone pulled
up stakes and headed for Inglewood, but a few lucky prospectors
stayed behind. They were rewarded with several large nuggets, but the
largest of them would not be found until over 120 years later.

Kevin Hiller is
the lucky man who goes down in the history books for finding the
largest gold nugget in the world with a metal detector, and he did it
in the Spring of 1980.

Kevin was
searching a small area of land behind the old Kingower school house
when his metal detector started acting weird. He had been digging all
sorts of trash, and he was almost positive that his metal detector
was not working properly when he got this signal. It was too erratic
and odd. It was as if his machine was falsing.

Frustrated with
his detector, Kevin decided to call it a day and ignore that odd
signal that made his metal detector act so weird, but he just
couldn't get it out of his head. He decided this would be the last
thing he dug up that day.

Waiting for him
under only six inches of earth was the largest gold nugget ever
recovered with a metal detector. Kevin called it, “The Hand of
Faith.”

Hand of Faith
image courtesy of FF23-fr

This monster
sized nugget tips the scales at 45 troy ounces. That is just over 60
pounds or 27.21 kilograms of gold. As they say down under, “What
a beauty!”