Old shovel

From: Gregory Anderson

... For several years, I've had an old shovel – real old, iron I think – laying around my property. I pretty much ignored it until recently, when I finally decided to pick it up out of the weeds and give it a closer inspection. The blade is squared, it's cracked, and it's much heavier than a shovel you'd buy today. The two-piece curved part that would normally hold the handle is attached by rivets. There are no obvious manufacturer markings (at least none that I can see), but I would guess it to be of an age that probably makes it either gold-rush or railroad. I can't imagine how else it might have ended up out here. My property in Auburn is located near an old mine (the "Big Giant Quartz Mine") but also is not far from the original rail line. The shovel sits on my front porch now, and since I see it every day, I've gotten more curious about it's origin. Can these old shovels be identified and dated accurately? This area was mostly orchards around the turn of the century, so I suppose it could be just another shovel someone used to plant a tree, but if it's actually a piece of history, I'd really like to know more about it ...

—Greg Anderson