I’d love to get involved with something like that, but there’s precious little western history here out on the coast. Everything is less than a hundred years old.
You stand a better chance of finding things intact out west due to dry environments. A few years ago for example a wooden wagon wheel intact was going for several hundred dollars. There is also pottery etc than can be hundreds of years old.
One of my dads last interest was hunting arrow heads. He would find ones made of flint whereas flint is not common to our area. The Indians would trade with northern tribes for it. He didn't do it for any gain but rather just for the thrill of finding them. None he found were ever sold.
But as for valuable items? The old wooden Coca Cola cases are worth quite a bit now as most were destroyed. Here's you another rare find. Any fruit jar with 13 stamped on the bottom. Moonshiners busted them because they thought they were bad luck LOL. The weirdest things can made something valuable.