Thanks to all who said welcome! I'm new to detecting...I live on an 800 acre cattle ranch 3 miles up Western Sonoma Mountain(the city of Sonoma is about 18 miles East, as the crow flies, over the Mtn)...the ranch has a great history...many very old basalt rock walls line the area, from the old Mexican Land-Grant days, property lines, and, towards 1890-1910, many micro-quarries mined basalt to make pavers for the streets of San Francisco..they were hauled by oxen down to the Petaluma River, where they were shipped to the wharves by Fisherman's Wharf...Chinese laborer's worked the quarries, so, it would be neat to find some old coins from China....over on the hill across from my trailer is a site where a homesteader lived(fruit trees still standing), where he herded his sheep....my Landlord's kid & I dug last year,, and found 2 old leather shoes, tons of broken transfer-ware delft pottery pieces, old milk-glass spice jars, a Civil-War-era steel 3-leggeg stock-pot, but no coins.....were heading back tommorow for another round...will update....My next hunt is going to be Adobe creek, next to the Petaluma State Historic site, where hundreds of Indians lived at the adobe, learning trades once out of the local Missions...of course, it's illegal INSIDE the Park, so I'll be on the upper creek, outside the perimeter, hoping for obsidian, beads, coins, and anything else...always a possibility of Spanish Reales, with the Mexican/American connection. The next hunt is back to a beach, at low tide, as we have had enormous winter waves, and, lots of changing sands.
I'm banged up, and am getting a new hip in April, and have to use a cane, and can barely walk...but it CAN'T stop me!!! I'm determined to find the homesteader's secret stash of gold and silver coins! Anyone close by, feel free to chime in, and we'll buddy up.