8/15/11 Report - Spanish Monastery & Active Tropics

Gert and Two Tropical Disturbances.

These things have been quickly popping up and then disappearing.

Gert is headed out into the Atlantic.


Want to visit a 12th Century Spanish Monastery, but not going to Spain real soon? No problem! You can find a genuine 12th Century monastery in South Florida.

The monastery was built in Spain, later converted for other uses, purchased by William Randolph Hearst in 1925, then disassembled, the stones packed in 11,000 numbered wooden crates, and shipped to the United States where it was reassembled.

http://www.spanishmonastery.com/history.html

Pretty Amazing.



Divers explored the wreck of the HMS Investigator that sank in 1854. It is full of artifacts.

Here is the link to that story.

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Underwater+treasure+trove/5232495/story.html


Silver Spoon From Spanish Galleon.

This spoon was listed for sale on eBay. It can be difficult to identify the date and source of artifacts like this. Sometimes the style or design of very old spoons or forks can look very modern. The easiest way to tell if an artifact like this is old, is to find markings on it that provide good information. Unfortunately you can't always do that.

I believe this spoon had bid of about $50 on it with a couple days remaining.

Right now there are a number of artifacts from a Spanish galleon from Argentina listed on eBay. The artifacts include things like spikes, musket balls and ceramics.



Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.

Like I said, Gert is going away from us and won't affect the Treasure Coast.

The other two disturbances have about a 10% chance of developing into a cyclone in the next 48 hours. They won't affect the Treasure Coast much, at least not for a few days.

The wind is still out of the west. The surf web sites are still predicting a small increase in the seas around Wednesday or Thursday, but the increase is only about a foot, so that probably won't affect beach detecting conditions.

The topics have become so active, you need to keep an eye on current developments. Things are forming quickly, and so far, have then disappeared almost as quickly.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/14/11 Report - Shell Piles, Pot Shards, & Calabash

Shell Pile on One Treasure Coast Beach

Shell piles like this are worth looking through. I like to detect around them too.

If you dig down a few inches around piles like this, you'll often find layers of shells covered by the sand.

While the piles often hold fossils, sea glass, or pot shards, detecting around the shell piles will often lead to iron artifacts or pieces of thin metal or sheeting, such as copper sheeting. Many detectorists have no particular interest in those things, but they can often be worth as much as a cob in poor condition.

Below is a couple of pot shards form the Nieves site that is up for auction on eBay and at this point has a $25 bid with two days remaining.

Pot Shards for Sale on EBay.

These are larger shards than many that you will find in shell piles, but even small pieces can be interesting, especially if they are marked or something.

Things like this can also be good clues, and can be what I call signal finds. They can indicate the presence of a shipwreck or historic site in the area and tell you to check the area for other signs.

Another point that I want to make is that there is a lot to be found near shipwreck sites besides coins and many things that people tend to overlook have economic as well as historic value. Keep your eyes open while you detect.


Workers cutting a tree at Gettysburg found a mini ball in the trunk.

Here is the link to that story.

http://www.wgal.com/r/28820840/detail.html

Metal detectors will work other places than on the sand or ground.


Someone wrote in asking about Calabash, an old place where blacks used to gather in the Savannahs back near the turn of the century. It has an interesting history, but I haven't learned much about it yet.

Here is a brief description of Calabash and some of the old towns of the Treasure Coast.

https://sites.google.com/a/flgenweb.net/stlucie/history/old-communities/a-c


Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.

Some of the tropical waves disappeared overnight. Seven seemed to come from nowhere but is headed out towards the Atlantic and won't affect us.

The seas are still calm and conditions remain unchanged. You can still go out and much around for a few artifacts, like those I mentioned today, or detect the tourist beaches.

The surf web sites still show a predicted increase in seas about Wednesday or Thursday, but not enough to significantly change detecting conditions.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/13/11 Report - Finding & Returning Lost Items

New Named Tropical Storm Franklin.

He's is going out to sea and won't affect us.

One of the neat things about detecting is when you return a lost item to someone who really treasures it. It happens relatively often. And sometimes when at the beach someone will ask you to find something that they just lost. Sometimes the lost item is a valuable piece of jewelry, but sometimes it is something like a pair of glasses or car keys.

I've been able to return a number of gold and diamond rings, an emerald ring, gold chain, and glasses and keys. Most of the time you don't get a reward. And sometimes not even so much as a thank you.

I've told some stories in the past about how some attempts to return lost items were harshly turned away. That is puzzling, but you never know the circumstances of the loss, which might account for the owner not wanting any contact.

I once found a matching engagement and wedding ring in close proximity in the water and thought they might have been thrown away.

Once I was able to find a tourist,s eye glasses that were lot in the ocean. He offered to buy me a drink as a reward. I declined.

One lady after getting her emerald ring back, ran back to her beach blanket and returned stuffing a twenty dollar bill into my pocket.

And one day a guy that ran the jet ski rentals and other concessions at a major hotel lost a big bunch of keys, which put him out of business until they were found. He offered me fifty dollar to find them. It only took me a few minutes to earn the fifty dollars.

I always tell people to get a very detailed description of an item before showing it to someone who says that they lost it. I can recall at least three occasions when someone tried to claim an item that wasn't theirs. People will do that.

When a $30,000 diamond ring went up for auction after sitting in a police evidence room for two years, 25 people called the police claiming that it was theirs.

Here is the link to that story.

http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/crime/$30-k-diamond-ring-returned-to-owner


Fortunately many rings can be traced to their owner.

One detectorist was lucky enough to find a Super Bowl ring on a beach and personally returned it to the player.

Here is the link to that story.

http://www.minelab.com/usa/consumer/success-stories/superbowl-ring-found-on-beach-and-returned-to-player


And here is a really great web site. If you've lost or found a class ring you can enter it into a database. Hopefully many rings are returned through this web site.

Here is the link.

http://www.classringfinder.com/ContactUs.aspx

I highly recommend using this site and think I should come up with some type of award for the site.

And here is a link to another story about a found class ring being returned. This one was eye-balled.

http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2011-06-21/story/class-ring-found-returned-50-years-after-loss


You never know what you are going to find on a beach. It seems like anything in the world can pop up on a beach. I just saw a story where one man found a human skull on the beach. I'm glad that wasn't me - the skull I mean. I wouldn't want to be the finder either.

One man recently found 55 pounds of cocaine on a beach. If you ask me it really really isn't rare for drugs to be found on a beach.

Here is a link to that story.

http://www.sharpanddriverlaw.com/drug-crimes/499/galveston-drugs/

Of course you know what to do if that happens to you - call the police.


I once saw three huge bales of pot that washed up on a Treasure Coast shipwreck beach one morning before they were removed by the authorities.


Back to the lost jewelry. If lost jewelry isn't found, it can't be returned.
I don't know why some people can't understand that.


Yesterday I posted an incorrect statement and after discovering it, removed it. As a result I'll refer back to my June 2, 20089 post giving the rules and regulations for metal detecting on Florida beaches as provided by Tom Guidus.

Here is one statement from the June 2, 2009 post which corrects the error I made yesterday.

... and other than the National Parks, and a few upscale hotels around the state. You are allowed to hunt the beaches from the base of the Dune to the low tide line as you desire, and that includes the beaches adjacent to the 1715 fleet of Spanish shipwrecks.

Sorry for any confusion that I may have caused. The entire June 2, 2009 post on rules and regulations is still available for review.



Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.

The wind is from the southwest and the seas still calm. The surf web sites show an increase in seas next Wednesday and Thursday, but only up to two feet. That might well change though. They are not real reliable with their predictions several days in advance. And who knows what all of these tropical disturbances will do by then.

Right now Treasure Coast beach conditions remain poor. There is a lot of action in the Atlantic though, so thing could change.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/12/11 Report - Riparian Rights & Staying Out of Trouble

Four Tropical Waves.

It looks like the Atlantic is getting active.


Yesterday I showed the photo of that old house on Indian River Dr. I'm sure some of you thought that might be a good place to detect. I heard from one person that obtained permission to hunt there in the recent past, and he reported finding nothing of note except for a lot of roofing nails and junk in the yard. I do know that the yard had been detected at least a few times before that.

If you look at the back of that house, on the top floor you will see where there appears to be an oddly shaped room. The house was constructed with a hidden room, which is not apparent from the inside. I just thought that was interesting.

Yesterday I also wrote about some of the rules and regulation that relate to detecting. I often get questions from people wanting to know what they are allowed or not allowed to do. Sometimes I can give an easy general answer, and sometimes with all of the complications it is too tricky to even attempt an answer.


[I removed a couple of paragraphs here because I am not 100% sure that I was right and the statements were causing more confusion rather than helping. I'll do some more research and see if I can clarify the issue before commenting further. In the past I thought the issue was too tricky to answer, and after having tried to provide an answer, I learned that I was right to have avoided the issue in the first place.]


If you run into an overzealous park ranger, security guard or whatever, don't make trouble for yourself.

The law is almost always tricky when you get down to the fine points and technicalities and often the authorities don't actually know the law. Security guards, park rangers, life guards, police officers, wild life officers, home owners, and activist citizens often do not have a complete understanding of all of the applicable laws and might tell you something that is not correct. Trying to educate an overzealous authority is seldom successful. Don't make trouble for yourself.

In my opinion, if you use good common sense, try to do the right thing to the best of your ability, and avoid making someone, especially someone with real authority, angry, you'll probably stay out of trouble.

If you have a question, ask someone who really should know. People often don't know if they can detect on a particular beach, for example. If there is a life guard on duty ask them. They'll generally know.

On the other hand, it is better not to bring attention to some things.

Some beach clubs or hotels will try to keep you from detecting on the beach in front of their property when they do not have the authority to do so. Don't get into an argument, but you can follow up with the appropriate authorities if you want to know for sure if you are in the right. Call the county offices or whoever can tell you what the truth is. Get it in writing if you can.

There have been times when I received information from government officials that made it possible for me to be one of the first to detect a park that had not permitted detecting for a number of years. On another occasion they told me where the markers were that defined the area owned by a beach club, and told me I could detect up to those markers.

Always ask for permission before hunting on private land.

One concept that you should probably know something about is "riparian rights."

Florida navigable waterways are owned and controlled by the state. They are held in trust for the use of the public. The public is free to use those waterways for legal activities such as boating, fishing or swimming.

On navigable tidal bodies of water you are allowed to walk along the waterway below the mean high tide line. If you go above the mean high tide line, you might then be on private property. The easement is determined slightly differently on other bodies of water such as creeks and rivers.

If you want to learn more about riparian (and littoral) rights here is place to start.

http://www.law.fsu.edu/journals/landuse/vol20_1/proctor.pdf

Don't get bogged down in the technicalities. And don't get yourself into trouble. Avoid conflict, use the available resources, and learn as much as you can.

Yesterday I received an email from someone that has a law degree. What he said might help you put this legal stuff into perspective.

Here it is.

Laws are not as simple as yes and no or wrong and right. Laws are just to keep people somewhat honest and not for people who are figuring a way to circumvent the process ... They [laws] are just a general guideline to follow.




Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.

As you can see from the photo above, there are now four tropical waves in the Atlantic. I would say the two that have the most chance of affecting us are the two that are now closest to Africa. They also have a good chance of developing. Keep an eye on those two.

The wind is now out of the west/northwest and the seas running about one foot. The surf web sites are still predicting a little increase around next Wednesday.

Until then, conditions remain the same - poor.

Happy hunting
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

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

8/10/11 Report - Riffles, Dips & Loose Connections

Treasure Coast Beach This Morning.

Yesterday I mentioned that there are two types of beaches on the Treasure Coast right now. There are those with a wide flat front beach and a wide low tide zone, and then there are those like the one shown in the photo above, which has a relatively steep mushy front.

The beach shown above had a four foot and greater cut a few weeks ago. If you look at the photo closely, you might be able to see part of the cut that remains at the top of the slope. The mushy front beach is recently accumulated sand. Notice how the slope goes right down and into the water even at low tide, which is when the photo was taken.

I believe you'll find the beaches with a wide flat front to be more productive.

Riffles in the Sand.

This is something I don't remember seeing before - at least not to this extent. Notice the riffles, which were more extensive than what is apparent in the photo. There were at least a dozen riffles running parallel to the beach for a good distance.

The riffles accumulated small light items. It reminded me of a riffle box. Unfortunately the things that were being caught weren't much good. I was curious about how the riffles formed.

The riffles, like most of the front beach here, were composed of densely packed fine sand that was covering layers of shells and filled the areas between the shells. The result was a very firm beach that was hard to dig.

I mentioned yesterday that some metallic objects were found in areas of packed sand and shells like this.


It is always a good idea to check your detector before leaving the house. Last night I charged my detector but when I got to the beach and turned it on I found it wasn't charged. I noticed that when I took it off of the charger the connection seemed to be loose. It didn't get charged. I did have enough juice to quickly check out some spots. I should have checked it before I left home, especially after noticing the loose connection.


In the water there were some rocks and in front of the rocks some dips. Places like that can catch heavy items and are good places to look even if they are very difficult to detect and dig. It might be easier if you snorkel and hand fan places like that. The rocks can make it very difficult to use a scoop.


Many detectorists when hunting modern jewelry in the water go to the place that has had the most people. That is fine and often a good strategy. However my experience suggests that there is often a spot to the south (on East Coast beaches) of where the most people go that accumulates coins and rings and will produce time after time, year after year.

Instead of just detecting where you see the crowds, check to the south up to fifty yards or so. You might find one of those catch areas where things accumulate over time. When you find one of those, don't just clean it out, but return every once in a while to check it out.


Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.

There is a new area of disturbed weather just to the west of Africa that looks like it will develop and move in our direction. It is too far away now to tell much about, but keep an eye on it. There isn't anything else of interest in the Atlantic right now.

The wind is from the west and the seas are calm. The surf web sites are predicting one foot seas for several days. That means no change to beach conditions and easy water hunting.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/9/11 Report - Whites Spectra & IDing Titanium

Whites Spectra v3i.

Here is a nice review of the Spectra. I'm not doing this to give Whites free advertising, even though they are getting it. And I'm not one that puts a lot of emphasis on having the very deepest or best detector. In my opinion, there is no best detector. Some detectors are better than others for specific purposes.

The Spectra is undoubtedly a very good detector, as are most detectors made by the major manufacturers. Just like the others, it has its strengths and weaknesses.

If you are narrowly focused on finding old Spanish shipwreck treasures on a beach, this detector might not be the best choice. All of the fancy target ID stuff would be a waste a lot of the time.

No detector is going to tell you that the big piece of iron you are detecting is a cannon ball or shipwreck spike. If you are hunting old shipwreck items, you usually will want to dig everything.

As the reviewer said, the target ID is not perfect. Target ID is never fool proof. And you simply can't expect a detector to recognized the wide variety of targets you might dig on a shipwreck treasure beach.

If it wasn't hard enough for a detector to correctly identify the wide variety of items, some items will be bent, broken or stuck to other items. That makes target ID very difficult.

For shipwreck treasure hunting, a waterproof detector can be helpful. You can get hit by an unexpected wave or caught in a rain storm. I've even known one person that lost their detector to the sea on a rough day.

Here is the link to the review I am talking about if you are interested.

http://doodlebugs.hubpages.com/hub/Review-Of-The-Whites-Spectra-V3i-Metal-Detector

I suspect this would be a great detector for picking through trashy areas such as urban grass parking lots or parks where you don't want to dig any more holes than necessary.

Don't waste your money unless you need the capabilities you are paying for. Select your detector according to what, where and how you want to hunt. Remember, all detectors have their own specific strengths and weaknesses and will be better suited to one type of detecting rather than another.


If you've ever dug up a piece of metal that looks something like melted aluminum on a Treasure Coast beach, it could be titanium from a rocket or maybe the space shuttle Challenger disaster.

Here is a link to a web site that tells how to identify titanium.

http://mrtitanium.info/2008/03/17/how-to-tell-if-a-piece-of-metal-is-really-titanium/

As you might know, titanium is also used to make inexpensive jewelry these days and is much less expensive than platinum, gold or silver.


By midnight 8/8/11 gold finished at over $1751 per ounce. It is up again today.


A 2000 plus year old sword, still in its hilt, was found with some other artifacts in a drainage channel in Jerusalem.

Here is the link if you want to read that story.

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/History/Early+History+-+Archaeology/Artifacts_destruction_Temple_8-Aug-2011.htm

Even small creeks and channels can conceal treasures.


Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.

Emily has developed again. This time though, she is out in the middle of the Atlantic and no apparent threat to return to the mainland US.

The wind is out of the west and the ocean is very calm. No change to detecting conditions on the Treasure Coast.

I took a quick look this morning and saw that there are till basically two types of beaches right now. Some have a low flat wide low tide zone, and some have a front beach with a mushy front that slopes steeply down to the waterline.

I would focus on those beaches with a wide flat low tide zone. Some still have a number of metal targets, especially if you walk a distance from the parking lots. Some beaches also have some nice shell piles where you might be able to find lighter targets, such as fossils, sea glass or pot shards, if you are interested in that sort of thing.

On some of the beaches you'll some find metal targets between the shell piles and the water line.

It seems that the wide low tide zones are composed of layers of shells covered by fine hard-packed sand. It doesn't make for easy digging.

I only did a quick sample where I stopped today and dug some pieces of copper sheeting. I left some targets simply because I didn't have time to dig them all.

Anyhow, there are still some shipwreck items to be found on the beaches even if they are scattered and are not high value targets. You never know what might pop up.

Use rocks and other stationary items to indicate where the sand is moving.


Happy Hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net