Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
It seems that 2015 is a year of a lot of big anniversary events. I think I posted not long ago a link to an article about how the world changed in 1965. To save you the math, that was 50 years ago. It was a time of change and transformation. And personally, it was a pretty big year.
Crises Magazine said, Different writers here and there have talked about 1965, fifty years ago, as a year of transition. It was a year in America when trends came into focus, culture was altered, and life changed—politically, socially, culturally, morally, and in the Catholic Church. Perhaps historian James T. Patterson provided the most detailed elaboration on these developments and their implication for the country in his bluntly titled book from a song of the time, The Eve of Destruction: How 1965 Transformed America. I found the article interesting, maybe you will too. Here is the link. http://www.crisismagazine.com/2015/1965-the-dawn-of-our-current-age
In treasure hunting, 2015 marks the 300th anniversary of the 1715 Fleet disaster and 30th anniversary of the discovery of the Atocha.
Another article had the following to say. This year we celebrate 200 years of the victory of the Battle of New Orleans! The British were defeated by the good people of New Orleans, Louisiana during this Battle. On January 7-8 while all the men were fighting the battle, the women gathered in the evening with the Ursuline Sisters to pray before the statue of Our Lady of "Prompt Succor" ( Means Quick Help.) The next morning a Mass was offered and the nuns promised to have a Mass of Thanksgiving annually if they were victorious. That Thanksgiving Mass is still celebrated to this day at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Prompt Succor on State St. There were many odds against Andrew Jackson and his men but after winning the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson publicly acknowledged that the American victory was won by heavenly intervention.
You can read the rest of that article by using the following link. http://holymotherchurch.org |
Hurricane Katrina was ten years ago. And that was the last year that a major hurricane hit the United States. It has been that long. Time flies.
Talking about the amount of time since the last major hurricane, the Advocate says, The gap is something of a record that has not occurred since the 1870s, according to information compiled by researchers at LSU.
The article continues, There have been hurricanes that have caused widespread damage such as in 2012 when Hurricane Sandy, a Category 2 storm hit the East Coast, and Hurricane Isaac, a Category 1 storm in Louisiana, but neither storm reached Category 3, 4 or 5 status as measured by wind speed (http://theadvocate.com/news/12162292-123/9-years-since-last-major)...
When you go out and look at the Treasure Coast beaches, you'll see some very sandy conditions - not only has the sand been accumulating on the beaches but also in the shallow water close to shore. In Florida we haven't had anything to really move much sand for quite a while. Even Sandy didn't cause much erosion. It was more of a high tide event down here.
I guess it looks like we are due. I really can do without a major hurricane. A good storm that sits off the coast and churns for a while can do the job.
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I often hear people complaining about how difficult it is these days. They talk about all the competition, and they talk about how every beach is over-hunted. They talk like in years past all you had to do was walk out there and things would fall into your scoop. They don't know. Most of them weren't even born then.
There were more detectorists than you would know about back in the old days. There was no social media. You didn't know about Tom, Dick and Harry and what they found even if they were out there hitting the beaches everyday. There was no email, and there were no blogs, or forums.
You didn't hear about the top guys anyhow. The LOOK AT ME Kardashian generation wasn't born yet. The guys were much more secretive, especially the best ones. Some of them are still around, and you still don't hear about them. I know one that is as good as anyone, and certainly better than any of those that you read about on the internet. His water skills are amazing. He was actually a Navy Seal. As a result he hunts locations, times and waters where others don't.
There were some very intense hunters in the old days. I once mentioned a fellow that hunted every low tide for weeks on end. No break. I haven't heard about him for quite a few years.
I knew others, one of which would come crawling up out of the ocean every morning as the sun rose. I saw him a few times, including once up at Vero, even though he was a South Florida hunter. He didn't say who he was, but I had been around enough and knew.
Everybody learned and perfected their skills pretty much on their own back then. There was very little sharing of information. You couldn't go on the internet and read about where to hunt, where not to hunt, how to use your detector, etc. etc.
And for those of you who like the new detectors and new technologies, we didn't have all of that. If you want to go back to the old days go buy a used detector from past decades and see how you like using that instead of your latest and greatest
Don't think there wasn't competition in the old days. There was more than you know about or hear about.
I never hunted South Beach much. I never spent much time where the crowds hunted. Like some of the others back then, I didn't like being observed.
The heavily hunted areas are heavily hunted for a good reason, but there are always other hot spots that aren't heavily hunted. You have to spend some time to find those spots. And they may come and go, but they were out there back then and they are still out there.
Some hot spots are not well known because they only open up periodically. Some are not well known because they are hard to get to, but when you have over forty miles of densely populated coastline, I'll guarantee you that there are hot spots out there that you can still have pretty much to yourself if you are willing to spend some time prospecting. It might take a while, but it can be done now just as it was done decades ago. There are always those following the crowd and then there are those detecting on the edge. If you are on the edge you won't be bothered by the competition.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
