EXHIBITING THE SS CENTRAL AMERICA ARTIFACTS

 

Then along came the SS Central America treasure. I worked on that from about 1998 to about 2001, then on and off for a few years as things arose that needed my attention. Then, sometime after the 2014 recovery, I got brought into the mix again by the Court's appointed representative on a number of matters.

Ultimately, I was asked to sell the artifacts. They were originally collected for a museum, a true cultural display. The expedition recovery team (note I didn't say "salvors" – it has a different connotation) was careful to take samples of all aspects of the cultural relics. But this collection never made it to a museum – it was an asset to the shareholders, since none had ever been paid back by Thompson. Columbus America did everything right along the way. They had a professional conservation team work on all the recovered clothing found in the sealed trunks that sat idly on the ocean floor, 8000 feet deep, for about 150 years. (remember Wm Ralston's personal shirt?) Years later, when the recovery team opened the nearly completely dissolved Purser's iron safe, out popped two bundles of documents, wrapped and tied, protecting most from the living organisms. Those were sent to the Northeast Document Conservation company in Andover, Mass. I got the call to take a look mid-project and was blown away- literally. This was the first time in history that documents had been preserved from a deep water ship – the staff there thought this was so, and i agreed, as I expressed my wonder at reading some of the names, Including James Birch, the young, energetic stage coach owner during the California Gold Rush, who lost his life on the SSCA.

I got a call from my friend Dwight Manley to come to Florida to look over the artifacts, most of which had not been seen in 25+ years, many items of which were still stored in desalinized, distilled water. I met Bob Evans there, and off we went into the tombs of NGC where the goods were then stored. That day will live in Bob and my mind's history forever. We discovered the massive key to the gold room. We uncovered the original treasure box lid (top) of a Wells Fargo treasure box, never seen before by anyone. My friend Bob Chandler, Wells Fargo Historian completely flipped when I sent him a photo via email, and my phone went off the hook seconds later as he called with his excitement. I did a little bit of careful curation to the lid to clean off the black goo from years of underwater exposure.

Fast forward… to about 2022.

The Gold Rush Show was upon us. I wanted to put on a helluva show at the Grass Valley event with the first public exhibit of the SSCA artifacts. I called McDowell and told him what we planned, and he was all for it. Our publicist, Donn Pearlman, one of the great masters at PR, let all the PR bells ring, and ring loudly! Bob and I, and probably 4 of my company team, arrived early and started setting up a very complex, compact exhibit. We printed professional labels for displays, and I wrote a promotional pamphlet especially for this show, aiming it directly at Gold Rush collectors, the main theme of the show.

The design of the exhibit was carefully thought out … we made it up on the spot! It came out great.

 

 

 

But life has a way of throwing a Tommy John sinker when you expected a Sandy Koufax fastball …

With the best PR machine on the West Coast hitting the Sacramento and central California markets hard, we got a completely unexpected response … nothing. We couldn't believe it. Not a single reporter ever called back, emailed, or showed up at the show.

We took that exhibit on the road, and continued to let loose with the PR. In Chicago, we even brought the original Nemo, the underwater high-tech contraption that used deep underwater computer controlled devices to "harvest" the gold bars and coins, as well as photograph the process. The first few days brought thousands. In Denver, we also had a strong showing, but at the last minute the building manager wouldn't let us bring in Nemo. The head of the Union in charge of running things at the Denver Convention Center, wanted it in there, but the manager still declined. So out it went to my friend Bryan Lees' Collector's Edge parking lot in Golden, out of the eye of the public. We didn't have the manpower to put it in front of the public away from the main display.

Then came the auction. It was in two parts, one in December, and the second and final sale in March. That story is fantastic, to be told another time. But the point of the entire story here is that the crowd at the Grass Valley Show was completely obsessed with the SSCA artifacts, and that crowd proved to be the important buyers.

The Press completely missed the boat – literally – in this case, the biggest gold treasure ship of all time from America and her artifacts on display at the Grass Valley Show. Today, it is estimated by some that the treasure has changed hands, some items several times, for an estimated whopping $300 million.

So come to the show this year, and see what treasures await you!!

 

For more information on the Grass Valley show, see:
http://www.grassvalleyshow.com/

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