Grabbed a 1920s mining claim map from an estate sale that had a hand drawn update from 1958

Honestly, I picked this up for $15 just because it looked cool. But when I compared the old boundaries to the updated lines someone drew in red pencil, the mine shaft locations shifted by like 2 miles. The handwriting in the margin says "new vein opened up after the cave in" and it just makes me wonder what happened between those dates. Has anyone else found a map that had major revisions scribbled in by hand decades later?

2 comments

2 Comments

schmidt.amy1mo ago

Stop treating this like some kind of treasure map from a movie. I've seen way too many of these old mining maps at flea markets and half of them are just wishful thinking scribbled by some guy in a bar after too many beers. That two mile shift probably just means whoever updated it was drunk or trying to make his claim look bigger than it was. Cave ins happen all the time in old mines and that doesn't mean there's a secret vein of gold or whatever you're imagining. People love to romanticize old documents but the reality is usually way more boring. I'd be surprised if that map leads to anything other than a pile of rocks and a dead end.

pat_murray161mo ago

Right, and my luck I'd find a map like that and the "new vein" would actually be pointing to my neighbor's septic tank, right? I always end up buying stuff that looks mysterious but then it just turns out to be confusing garbage, not treasure. That shift of two miles is wild though, makes you think somebody really was onto something big down there, or they were just really bad at drawing.