1/22/19 Report - Google Maps and Changing Landscapes. Lunar Eclipse. Columbus Verboten. Bigger Surf.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Eclipse As Seen From Treasure Coast

and Captured by Alberto S.

I missed the eclipse, but Alberto sent me the beautiful images that he captured.  He said the last image was from about 12:10 AM.  He said it felt like it was freezing outside.

Great images Alberto!  Thanks!

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I've talked a lot about using old maps and the benefits of knowing the history of a place.  I'm amazed how seldom people reference old maps to check out shoreline and other topological changes.  Targets that were once on land might now be either in the water or more deeply buried under sand that has accumulated.

Recently I was talking about the advantage of having personal knowledge of changing landscapes.  Now it is possible to get GPS positions and compare those to images to see how things have changed.

Here is one example of what I was talking about yesterday.  The satellite map is from Google Maps.  It shows some of the changes I mentioned yesterday and illustrates how having a knowledge of the past can help you locate old treasures.

A View of An Area That I Was Very Familiar With Back a Few Decades Ago.

This area has changed a lot since the 1950s.  Where you see the bull-dozed dirt, there was an old barn (big rectangle) and a corn crib (little rectangle beside it).  

The house across the road with two cars out front was a small wash house, where several young local families got their start with housekeeping before getting their own house.  The rectangle behind that, was an outhouse, that later was filled with great old cork-top bottles, many with paper labels.

Across the road from that was a small dump in a little ravine by the current telephone poll.

The two blue arrows point to the winding creek where we threw bottles and shot them with BB guns.  Funny how toxic masculinity was fostered back when there was so much less crime.

Across the creek were no buildings or roads up until more recent decades.

The good old dump is the area indicated by a circled X.  It is right across the road from a three story farm house.

There is much more that I could show on this and neighboring maps, but that is enough of an illustration for now.  There were locations where arrow heads were routinely found and many other things.

I think you can see how knowing the history of the place would be a huge advantage for a detectorist.  There are many good detecting sites that would not be apparent to those who don't know the history of the place.

Although I haven't been able to spend much time, I have had a few short hunts there and quickly dug up some of the old metal toys that I played with as a child as well as some silver coins around the old ball field that is now hidden by weeds and trees, so I know those things are still there if only I was there and had the time to work them.

The same thing applies to the beaches.  I was not raised on the Treasure Coast, but I have been here long enough to observe some of the changes.

Here, for example, is the Blind Creek area.  The access road to the south of the lake has been closed for some time.  There was a parking lot where I drew the blue rectangle.  It washed over in the 2001 storms and kept filling in.  I think they eventually gave up on keeping it open.   Anyhow it has been closed now for quite a while.

Blind Creek Area As Seen With Google Maps.

Where you see the blue semi-circle, the beach was eroded back close to the lake.  Just a little more erosion and it could have opened to the ocean.  I don't doubt that it was at some time an inlet, although I don't know that for sure.

There is a lot more to know about just that little area, for example the Native American habitations, or where the WW II observation tower was, or the WW II dump to the south.  You can still find evidence of all of those today

Landscapes change and beaches change.  Some changes are rapid and permanent.  Knowing about those changes can help the detectorist in many ways.

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SOUTH BEND, Indiana - The University of Notre Dame will cover murals in a campus building that depict Christopher Columbus in America, the school’s president said, following criticism that the images depict Native Americans in stereotypical submissive poses before white European explorers...

Here is that link.

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2019/01/22/notre-dame-to-cover-up-murals-of-columbus-in-the-new-world/

I have so much to say about that but I won't.  It is just too much.

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Google Maps and similar web sites provide a convenient method for checking out sites that you haven't been to for a while or comparing to older maps.

The wind is out of the east at about 15 to 20 mph this morning.

I hope to get a chance to look at the beach some time today.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

The tides are still nice and big.

Looks like the Treasure Coast surf will be a bit bigger tomorrow, but the wind will shift to the south.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/1/17 Report - Ancient Gold Jewelry Found by Detectorist. Distribution of Wrecks. How Natural Features Can Point You To Finds.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Ancient Gold Jewelry Found by Detectorist

Mark Hambleton, who went back to metal detecting after advice from his late father, made the find with Joe Kania, on Staffordshire Moorlands farmland.

The three necklaces and bracelet are believed to be about 2,500 years old.

Their find was declared treasure at an inquest led by coroner Ian Smith, who joked it was likely to be "worth a bob or two"...

Here is the link for more about that.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-39113201

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Yesterday I was discussing an interesting dissertation on shipwrecks. I'll discuss that a little more today.

Below is a chart showing the distribution of wreck sites in the study.  Many were from the 1800s.

Notice the clustering.  I always say that things cluster, whether it is stars or microbes.  It is certainly true in many ways when it comes to shipwrecks and metal detector finds.

In this illustration you can see that the heaviest concentration is outside of the inlet on a sand bar.  That is certainly not surprising.  The there were also a good number in the inlet and port area.  There are also plenty to the north and south of the inlet, with perhaps more to the north.  Or is that accurate?  I'm not totally sure about that one.

My main point, and I won't get much more detailed today, is that there are reasons for things and patterns to be discovered.  It is easy to go out to a wreck and swing a detector around anywhere to see if there might be something there, but you'll do better if you do a little research and analysis.

Towards the end of the dissertation you'll find a variety of wreck photos showing how wrecks deteriorate over a period of years and how they are repeatedly exposed and covered again.

Here is an interesting one.

Part of Wreck Partially Exposed.

Notice how the structure blocked wind, slowed sand and resulted in a small dune.  Again, there are reasons for things.  If you see a dune that seems to be out of place, you might wonder why it is there.  There is undoubtedly a good reason for it, and it could be a good clue.  Wrecks, like natural objects and other man-made objects can change the landscape.  I believe that some of the rocks along our shore cover shipwreck remains.

I use the same principle to find old bottles.  You see an isolated clump of moss or seagrass sticking out of submerged flat sand.  There is a reason the grass is in that one spot.  Sometimes it is growing on a rock or a log, and sometimes it might be growing on an old bottle.  My favorite bottle find came from investigating such a clump of vegetation.

I'd encourage you to browse through this dissertation for yourself.

I found it at I found the dissertation on https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu.

I'm sure you'll be able to find it using torres-dissertation-2015.pdf.

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The surf is running two to three feet.  We are going to have some good negative tides.

Expect a nice bump in the surf this weekend - perhaps up to seven feet.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net