Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Peace River Fossil Finds. Finds and photos by Bill M. |
I talk about all kinds of treasures in this blog, but mostly what can be found on the Treasure Coast or around Florida. Sometimes, like yesterday, I'll talk about experiences from elsewhere. I believe that the more experiences you have, the better off you will be. You can usually learn something from hunting different things or different places that you can apply to somewhere else.
While waiting for beach conditions to improve, Bill M. took a trip to the Peace River and found the fossils you see here.
Nice finds Bill! That was a good day.
I was thinking just the other day that I hadn't mentioned fossils for quite some time.
You can occasionally find fossils on a number of the Treasure Coast Beaches. I've seen a few in the River too. In fact my first Treasure Coast fossil was a Great White tooth that I saw beside the river.
The first fossil I found, I didn't know what it was at the time, but it came up in a scoop of sand when I was digging a target in the water in S. Florida. I didn't know what it was at the time but held onto it until I eventually found out exactly what it was.
Don't be too quick to throw things away when you don't now what they are.
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| A Closer View of One of Bill's Finds. |
Here is a nice shark tooth that Bill found.
You can see many others in the above photo.
Below is a photo of Bill's equipment.
You can get a permit to hunt fossils from the State of Florida.
I once posted information on how to do that. The price is nominal.
Fossil hunting can be a lot of fun. If you think Spanish coins are old, that is nothing compared to fossils, which can be millions of years old.
A sifter can be a handy for a lot of things. They aren't expensive or difficult to construct.
Yesterday I mentioned Eldorado Canyon and an old hotel site up the trail.
Well, I'm not the only one that visited that hotel site.
I received an email from Rick A. who said the following.
When I first started reading the story, I thought to myself "this sounds like Eldorado Canyon "
I have not only been there , I have metal detected that hotel site, and although I didn't find much, I did find a spoon from the old hotel. I gave it to the park ranger as part of its history... Sometimes I wonder if we have crossed paths, as I lived in Colorado for 30 years and moved to Florida 4 years ago. Have you ever heard of the old Treasure hunting club in Denver called " Eureka " ? I was once a board member there...
Small world!
Good to hear from someone else that has made the trek up that trail to the old hotel site. I guess you didn't get stymied by the fake snake.
Thanks for sharing Rick.
While on the topic of scenic places, snakes and the like, Aquanaut John shared his encounter. Here is what he had to say.
As far as the snake story goes, I have one similar, albeit with a real encounter. When I was 14 years young, my Grandfather took me out to West Virginia to experience the wonders of his own childhood. One of the these was a climb up Seneca Rocks (pictured). He had told me he did it when he was about my age and was sure I'd enjoy the climb, view the river below with the large schools of huge trout in it's crystal clear waters, and the extraordinary view at the top. While he went fishing I went climbing. My serious trout fishing lessons on native trout streams would come later.
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| Seneca Rocks. Submitted by Aquanaut. |
About halfway up, I stopped to look around and sure enough I could see the trout, although they looked pretty small from up that high. I resumed my climb anxious to see what the view would be from the top! Not to be! About another 100 feet up, I reached for a handhold above me only to hear a familiar rattle. I jerked my hand back down only to hear a chorus of rattles, RATTLESNAKES! Lots of them! All the snakes had been made aware of my presence! The big trouble was that I didn't know where they ALL were. I had only one recourse, head back down the way I came up.
Although I didn't make it all the way to the top, I was still pretty excited about the adventure. I think my Grandfather was a little disappointed for me, but it got better when we began the fishing and camping part together!
There is another beautiful place visit and to get out and share the sights and sounds of nature.
We do have rattlesnakes here on the Treasure Coast too, so be careful when you are hunting inland. And coral snakes, which I see every once in a while.
It looks like beach detecting conditions will remain poor for a while now. I don't see anything in the forecast that will cause an improvement in conditions this week.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
