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Rafting Down the Snake River in Wyoming.
This is way off the Treasure Coast, but I hope it might stimulate your thinking. On these raft trips the guides try to show their skill by having the guide in front of the raft place a quarter on the rock shown in the photo, and then the helmsman (I guess you would call him) tries to remove the quarter from the rock as he goes by. On this occasion, they failed and the quarter ended up in the Snake River.
Of course when I saw this, the first thing I thought is that there are a lot of quarters in the river just downstream of this rock. Who knows how long this has been going on?
It also happened to be very close to where President Garfield once camped too. There were a lot of stories of old whiskey bottles being found there.
As the story goes, the President was followed by the press, who came on mules, some of which ended up shot to death one night when there was the sound of rustling in the trees. They thought the Indians were attacking.
Good stories of historic events like this should stimulate your thinking about where to detect.
Reading about the history of the Treasure Coast should give you some ideas too.
When I saw the river guide dump a quarter in the river, it made me think of other places where a person might detect. Under bridges, for example. Where the rafts are put in and taken out. At the picnic spot where the raft trips ended. It got me thinking of places like that.
Its good to do something different every once in a while, if for no other reason than to get you thinking. That is something I've been talking about lately. Opening up your mind to different possibilities and opportunities.
Also, the same raft company used to take Walt Disney's crew up and down that same stretch of river multiple times a day as they made nature documentaries back in the sixties. If you are old enough, you might remember watching some of those on TV.
Here is a great story about a seven foot length of shipwreck plank that was found washed up on a Virginia Beach beach after a storm. It is copper sheathed and apparently from an 18th century wreck. Good photo too.
http://hamptonroads.com/2011/02/shipwreck-plank-found-virginia-beach-may-go-back-sea
The same thing happens on the Treasure Coast occasionally. A piece that long is not common though, and it still has a good bit of the sheathing attached.
What I've seen on the Treasure Coast, with one or two exceptions, are two or three foot lengths at most.
Old shipwreck wood was showing up on one Treasure Coast shipwreck beach back in June of 2011, and I showed one example in my 6/20/11 post. And I showed more about the Toredo worm that riddles wood like that in my 6/27/11 post.
Here is a story about an old shipwreck that seems to appear about once every twenty years at low tides and after storms. It is on the Pacific Coast.
The article includes a nice photo of the ships skeleton.
Here is that link.
http://articles.sfgate.com/2007-05-09/bay-area/17244514_1_clipper-ship-king-philip-sailing-vessels
Again, neat photo.
It goes to show once again how shipwreck materials can appear and disappear with changing conditions.
You probably know that the Outer Banks of North Carolina is another good place to hunt shipwreck treasure coins. They were really hit by Irene. I understand that some of the beach areas are still closed.
Here is a story about the flooding and damage from Irene up there.
http://www.wral.com/weather/story/10057097/
Even though some eagerly await a hurricane because they want to find a treasure coin or two, they evidently don't think of the damage and personal hardships that hurricanes cause. I think that should be a concern of any thinking person and not taken too lightly.
Bernie C. sent me a link to a video of a guy demonstrating his invention. His invention was a combination gas-powered portable suction dredge and detector. He started it up, threw it over his shoulder, walked in the shallow water, and started dredging/detecting. As items were sucked up the dredge and into a filtered container, the detector gave a signal if the item was metal. when he was done, he took the cap off of the container and took out the metal items that were sucked up and trapped.
Quite a contraption. I found it humorous. Although it worked, I'm sure it would present a lot of problems.
For one thing, I'm sure a lot of places would not let you use a suction dredge, no matter how portable it was or strange it looked. I'm also sure that if you were in a shelly area, the container would fill with shells, rocks or whatever in a hurry.
I wouldn't want to use it among crowds and I feel pretty sure most life guards wouldn't go for it.
There would probably also be some areas where environmental concerns would prohibit its use.
You have to give it to the guy though, he came up with a real contraption.
Here is the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0V9LpRfG8A&feature=youtu.be
If you are going to use a suction dredge, why not use a detector to identify areas where it would be worth while, mark those areas, and then do your dredging with a real dredge?
I guess someone might like it.
It amazes me how far people will go to try to avoid a little manual labor these days. Did you ever notice those guys that use a Caterpillar tractor to dig a two foot hole that an old lady could dig in five minutes with a tea spoon? And it takes one person to run the machine and five more to stand around and watch. I guess it is their own personal jobs program.
It seems that on most of the blog's surveys, the people who respond first are on the average different from those who respond to the survey later. I've noticed that time and time again.
The survey will start out one way, and then as it nears conclusion the categories will start shifting. That seems to show up in the surveys on a regular basis, and I have some theories as to why. Those who respond first, I believe, are some of the more dedicated readers of the blog. They catch the posts as soon as they come out and respond first.
Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.
NOAA is now showing Katia curving a little more north. Maybe North Carolina will be spared this time.
Today the wind is out of the southeast and the seas about three feet, decreasing for a couple of days, to increase again to about four feet on Wednesday and Thursday.
That is not very encouraging. Conditions remain challenging on the Treasure Coast. I'd say conditions are poor, but there are still some things to be found if you use your head.
A nice piece of shipwreck wood recently washed up on a Treasure Coast beach, as they sometimes do after big seas. I guess Irene did stir up some things.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net
