Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| John Brooks Beach Saturday Afternoon. |
What a beautiful joyful Sunday morning!
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Yesterday I posted some of Southern Digger's email to me. Today I'll post more of the same email. It tells about a large collection of silver coins obtained from Florida Everglades sites. Here is what he said.
: ... That collection filled about fifty 8 X 12 inch Riker cases. The viewing was so private that I was not allowed to note the address or location and I was never given the names of the collection owner. That did not bother me. Just to view and study it was a vast education which helped me in later years on seeking sites in the deep woods of the everglades--that is, on privately owned land.
I know the collection I saw came from lands now under state and Federal laws and are off-limits. Moreso, I have heard that people who ignored these boundaries were arrested; severely fined; and, sometimes imprisoned for trespassing and digging these sites. I won't go into detail how the collection was obtained, but it involved the Caloosa Indians, Mendenez's Gold, and later European contact which evidence showed was on wild and hidden places of tribal ceremony -- I might add, on land which had not enforced government restrictions at the time it was discovered.
In fact, when young and hunting in the glades it was not uncommon to enter a hammock from five to twenty miles from the nearest dirt access road and find a cabin and a few occupants living free off the land. Maintaining food from gardens and hunting; and, water from makeshift cisterns. The Federalization of the Big Cypress and other parts of the everglades ended this by the late-1960's.
The collection included finds that dated from early European contact--including rare glass beads which were identified to date back to Portugal from the fourteenth century; it contained gold beads up to 3/4" long and 1/4" or thereabouts diameter. Some silver coinage was hammered into breastplates with stick-figure artwork of deer being chased by stick figure Florida Indians pursuing the game. On some of these, you can still make out the stretched/hammered outline of the original coin enought that you could determine what type of coin was used to make it. I recall being bold enough to ask if I could photograph at least part of the collection, but of course, was refused.
This treasure was not obtained from one site--but rather from several sites and much hard work and much time camping in the glades away from the comforts of society. Referring back to the coins--I saw they were of Spanish. English and American origin--the latest dating to the 1830's indicating Seminole and Spanish Indian influence and use of sites which date back to pre-Mendez era and of course, prehistoric. Most likely, some of these items were obtained from beached shipwrecks and shipwreck survivors. Many of the coins were in part defaced. Scratch marks in the head of Liberty or the King, which indicate hatchet marks; and scratches on the throat indicating the obvious.
Southern Digger also emphasized that there is a lot that was not reported and much of what is published is often twisted.
On the question of 1715 Fleet burials, which I've mentioned a few times recently, Southern Digger said, At the Disney site on the Treasure Coast--before the structures were built--was a raised dune near and just north of the old beach access. When that was scraped back by construction, an archaeologist representing Disney stated to me that they found a grave which was believed to be a shipwreck victim as they recovered a ring with it. Also, they found an anchor in the dunes. Of course, I did not know the source and just regarded it as here-say. Perhaps research of published State records can prove such finds were actually recovered.
Southern Digger has long been involved in South Florida archaeology. Thanks for sharing S. D.
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The wind picked up Sunday morning, but was coming from a southerly direction. Everything else is pretty much unchanged. The tides will increase a little again in a few days, while the surf continues to run around two to four feet.
May you find peace within,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
