Searchers found antique silver from a hotel in the woods

Silver dating back over 80 years was discovered by a pair of prospectors in the woods of Vancouver. Specifically, 121 pieces of antique cutlery from a hotel. Knives, forks, and spoons were carefully hidden.

It was immediately obvious where the silverware came from because it had the hotel's mark on it. They were discovered in the woods by prospectors Christian Laub and Julien Hicks when they went on a prospecting walk one cold morning in late December. Hicks had information that there was an abandoned car in the area. So he called his friend and they set off.

Near a rotting stump, they came across something incredible. They discovered silver cutlery that had been used in a hotel in Vancouver, Canada. "We hit the bull's-eye. You don't see something like this right away. A whole stash of silverware from the Vancouver Hotel," Laub gloated.

The pair unearthed 121 antique pieces of silver. Most of them were completely intact, with only a few damaged. In short, they were soup spoons, teaspoons, various kinds of forks, knives or ladles. Finding out where the treasure came from was relatively easy. The cutlery has the hotel's emblem stamped on it.

For both searchers, finding such a rare treasure is a real experience that can hardly be described in words. "It's a surreal experience when you pull out one silver object after another. You find nearly 100-year-old forks and knives once in a lifetime. I thought we'd be fighting over who found the first piece, but I've been pulling more and more forks, knives, spoons... It's a lot," Hicks said.

Laub first guessed that the cutlery dates back to the 1920s. However, a little research revealed an origin in 1939 or later, when construction of the Vancouver Hotel, which still stands at the corner of Burrard and Georgia streets, was completed after a five-year delay.

"Its logo was an imitation of the Canadian national logo," Laub noted. The cutlery was carefully placed in the ground. No one just thoughtlessly threw them away. "It's possible that someone stole the silverware and hid it in a stash on a rainy day so they could return for the treasure in the future, but that didn't happen," Laub added.

Sources: www.cbc.ca, www.vancouverisawesome.com