Sunken Trunk, Priceless Pants: The $114,000 Jeans from a 19th-Century Shipwreck

A Gold Rush Shipwreck and a Trunk Beneath the Waves

In September 1857, the SS Central America, a 280-foot steamship carrying passengers and gold between Central America and the U.S. East Coast, sank during a Category 2 hurricane off the coast of North Carolina. Of the 578 people aboard, 425 perished. Along with them went an estimated 21 tonnes of gold.

The wreck remained lost until 1988, when explorers located it and began retrieving cargo. Among the discoveries was a waterlogged trunk that once belonged to John Dement, a passenger from Oregon. Inside the trunk was a pair of white men’s work pants that would spark worldwide attention more than 160 years later.

The Auction That Made History

On December 3, 2022, Holabird Western Americana Collections held an auction in Reno, Nevada, featuring 270 items recovered from the SS Central America. The trunk’s pants were among them.

Auction officials described the trousers as having a five-button fly and being in remarkably preserved condition. Believed to have belonged to a Gold Rush-era miner, the pants sold for $114,000, making headlines as possibly the oldest known jeans ever sold. The total auction brought in nearly $1 million.

A Denim Debate

Auction representatives suggested the fly design of the pants was “nearly identical” to modern Levi’s jeans and might indicate an early manufacture connected to Levi Strauss, who patented blue jeans in 1873.

However, Levi Strauss & Co. historian Tracey Panek stated the pants were not denim, did not originate from the company, and were not miner’s workwear. According to Panek, button-fly trousers were common in the 19th century, and no connection could be made between the artifact and the Levi Strauss brand.

Artifacts from a Sunken Era

The auction featured a variety of Gold Rush-era items recovered from the wreck: passenger receipts, 1850s garments, kitchenware, and even a brass ship’s bell that sold for $18,000. A glass ashtray fetched $1,500. The pants were the highlight, not just for their price but for the mystery and survival attached to them. Experts believe they may have been purchased in San Francisco before the voyage.

More items from the SS Central America are scheduled for future auctions. Though the origins of the trousers remain under debate, their survival in the cold depths of the Atlantic and eventual emergence at auction underscore the scale of material lost—and now found—from one of the 19th century’s most significant maritime disasters.

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