8/11/11 Report - History on Indian River Drive, & Rules and Regulations

House on St. Lucie County Historic Registry.

There is an old house on the corner of Midway Road and Indian River Drive that was built in 1901. This photo, which was clipped from the Hometown News, shows that house. It is the only house on the St. Lucie County Historic Registry and can be found discussed in a book that you can find in the Fort Pierce branch of the St. Lucie County Library. If I correctly recall, the title is something like The Historic Homes of Indian River Drive.

The house was lived in until the hurricanes of 2004 severely damaged the house. It went into foreclosure in 2008, and is now rotting away and either beyond repair or close to it.

I find it interesting, or is it paradoxical, that the state claims every coin, artifact or piece of junk that is over fifty years old (Yes, fifty years old!) that is found in the waterways of the state, yet this entire house, which is listed on the historic registry, rots away without any interest or efforts on the part of the state or other governmental agencies to save it.

Let me clarify a tad. Not only does anything over fifty years old found in a Florida waterway belong to the state, but it is illegal to remove objects over fifty years old from state waters.

Florida State waters include all submerged bottom lands including lakes, rivers, lagoons, and three miles out into the ocean on the East coast, nine miles out into the Gulf Coast, and twelve miles out from Key West.

As I recently reported, the government is in the process of redefining "their" water as almost any water including creeks, streams, and who knows, maybe even puddles.

Before May of 2005, there was in Florida what was referred to as the Isolated Finds Program, which permitted the removal of old objects if the item and all relevant information such as the location was reported to the state. In most cases the finder was permitted to keep such "isolated" finds.

I want to repeat this - the Isolated Finds Program has been done away with.

Back to the house. It was built from cypress wood salvaged from a wrecked barge.

If you want to read more about the house, here is a link.

http://www.myhometownnews.net/index.php?id=83541

Please forgive me if my interpretation of the law is not correct in all details. And please don't ask for clarification. I am in no position to provide a legal interpretation of Florida law. I am simply giving my impression from what I have read. If you have significant corrections or clarifications that should be added, feel free to send them to me. And feel free to do your own research if you need additional information.


The blog survey has concluded and the results are in. Well over ninety percent of the respondent think that the governmental rules and regulations that affect the metal detecting hobby are too restrictive. I'm not surprised by that.

When you think that you could drop a 1961 penny in the water and not be allowed to pick it up, that seems ridiculous. Yet as crazy as that sounds, I think it is technically correct.

Many of the people reading this are over fifty years old. An item isn't even an antique unless it is a hundred years old, yet you are not allowed to remove items over fifty years old. Who wrote these laws? Fifteen year-olds?

That seems too restrictive to me.

None of the respondents to the survey seemed to think that the rules were not restrictive enough, but nine people (about 6%) did think the rules were about right. I think I could guess what involvement those people have.

It is not an easy task to find all of the applicable laws and regulations. It seems to me that when it comes down to it, there are those who would rather them not be widely publicized and understood. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but that is how it seems to me.


Well, it seems like only yesterday that gold went over $1700 an ounce. And then yesterday it hit over $1800 an ounce for a brief time, and gold was and maybe still is actually more expensive than platinum.


Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.

There are now three tropical waves to watch. The first is right over us, but will not affect the beaches significantly. The other two are coming off of Africa and are still too far to be much concerned about.

The surf web site are showing flat seas for the next few days, not changing until Wednesday when they are now predicting four or five foot seas. As you probably know by now, the predictions they make that far in advance usually change.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/18 Report - House of Refuge & Shell Pile

House of Refuge.

I mentioned the House of Refuge yesterday. The picture above is an older view shown in a vintage postcard.

Old postcards can provide good detecting clues. They can show how an area has changed and what was at that location in the past.

One of my favorite hunting areas down south was a beach that was once popular, then abandoned and then recently redeveloped.

Also notice the rocks in the picture. They create traps for small heavy objects like coins or nuggets.

Shell Pile on Treasure Coast Beach Yesterday.

Not all shell piles are the same. Most of the time you will only find light stuff like aluminum or other junk in shell piles. Sometimes shell piles are worth eye-balling because sometimes they'll contain fossils or pot shards or other light objects.

This particular shell pile was a bit different. It was higher and more concentrated. It also had a pile of large rocks in the middle.

Although it had the typical light aluminum close to the surface it also held some heavier metal objects buried in the deeper area with the large rocks.

Old Spike Found in Pile of Shells.

I guess I should have used a different background. This spike is partly encrusted, but you can see the head and part of the spike. It is about twice as long as what is seen in the photo.

The encrustation that covered the head was already broken off when I found it. I didn't do any cleaning to it yet.

My main point here is not the object found but that a heavy older object like this can be found sometimes in a pile of shells.

The piece of copper shown below was found just a couple feet from the spike. You can see that it has been tumbled and is now shiny on the outside while the green patina remains on the inside surfaces.

I think you get the point that if pieces like these can be found in a pile of shells, it would be just as possible for a nice artifact to be found in the same type of shell pile.

Piece of Copper Found in Pile of Shells.

Again, not all shell piles will hold heavier metal objects like these. This particular shell pile was a bit unusual. Nonetheless, it does show that it might sometimes be worth detecting shell piles.




A Chinese vase found in an attic recently was sold at auction for 83 million dollars. It was probably brought to England after the Second Opium War.

Here is the link for the rest of the story.

http://www.helium.com/items/2012535-vase-found-in-attic-goes-for-83-million-at-auction

Don't break a leg running up the stairs to the attic.

Forecast and Conditions.

Tomorrow seas will be peaking at about 5.5 feet. The wind is from the southeast and the low tide will be around noon.

Conditions won't be great but I'd still be checking the low tide areas for items left over from last weekend. Also it might be worth looking for some of the spots that aren't detected much that might have little washouts that haven't been thoroughly hunted.

I have a lot more to talk about but will hold it for tomorrow.

In the mean time,

Happy Hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/17 Report - Copper Sheet and Copper Rim?

Wabasso Beach in Front of Disney.

This photo was submitted by Pete V. a couple of days ago. He also reported, "Ambersand showed no cuts and neither did an area just north of the Salvors camp."

I appreciate reports like that because, as you know, I can't be everywhere. I would have posted it sooner but like I said yesterday I was busy and neglected my email for a couple of days.

And Jon M. said, "I went to Corrigans at 3PM to Sunset on 11/13/2010. Sand from
restoration was washing out of back dune. The brown restoration sand was
covering middle and front beach."

It looks like those seven foot seas just didn't do much to most of the beaches this time. From what I did see, it looked like the waves were hitting the beaches straight on a 90 degree angle, and that just doesn't usually do it.

Photo of Part of Copper Bowl or Something.

This ornate piece of copper appears to be from maybe a rimmed bowl or large cup. It was found yesterday.

I did a little scratching around on the beach today and picked up a couple things I'll show sometime.

Clean your car keys before you put them in the car door or ignition. Sand can stick to the key and get in the locking mechanism.

I got a couple of emails about the disk I showed yesterday and I think it I got it figured out.


Piece of Copper Sheet Found Yesterday.

Notice the penny for size.


One area that I haven't mentioned much, down around the House of Refuge has been producing both shipwreck spikes and a few gold nuggets that test out in the 18 to 22k range. Be careful where you detect down there though. If you get on the protected archaeological site, you could get arrested.

Forecast and Conditions.

The wind is from the west and the seas are around four feet now. One beach, the one at John Brooks, was really building. Tons of sand piled up in the past few days.

Another beach was getting stirred up on the beach front. Shells were being exposed all along the front of the beach where the waves were pounding. And there were some piles of shells pretty far back on the beach. I'll have more to discuss about that tomorrow.

I'll downgrade my treasure beach conditions rating to a 1 (poor) for now. However there are some good places to check. One good place to check would be the low tide areas below recent cuts, especially where sand was removed because of obstructions - like rocks, jetties, etc.

It looks like the seas will increase again a little around Friday.

It will take a lot to really improve the beaches because of all the accumulated sand.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net