8/26/19 Report - Tropical Storm Dorian. US POW Camps. Fort. Jackson Lake Lodge.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Dorian is the big news today.  As you can see, Dorian is expected to become a hurricane by Wednesday.

While it is coming in our direction, there is a lot of uncertainty yet.  It could hit us, but if the above prediction is correct, it will only be a storm when it gets here.

In summary, it is worth watching, and we'll know more in a few days.

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Here is a nice article on WWII POW camps in this country.  Some were in Florida.  One I mentioned not long ago is not shown on this map.  It was in the Bal Harbour area.

When the United States entered WWII in 1941, the United Kingdom was running short on prison space and asked the US for help in housing German POWs. The US agreed and when Liberty Ships transported US soldiers overseas, the relatively empty ships brought back as many as 30,000 Axis POWS per month to America. From 1942-1945, more than 400,000 POWs, mostly German, were housed in some 500 POW camps located in this country.

Here is that blog.

http://blog.fold3.com/wwii-pow-camps-in-the-united-states/

And here is what I posted on the South Florida camp.

Since the 1920's, the Detroit-based Miami Beach Heights Corporation (headed by industrialists Robert C. Graham, Walter O. Briggs, and C.T. Fisher) owned 245 acres of undeveloped, partially swampy land that stretched from the bay to the Atlantic. Mr. Graham assumed the duties as the developer for Bal Harbour. In the 1930's, city planners Harland Bartholomew & Associates were called in to design the Village. The company made several plans and they were submitted for review to Miami Beach Heights. In 1940, World War II began and the plans were put on hold. As a goodwill gesture to the government, Robert C. Graham rented the land to the United States Air Corps for $1 per year. The Air Corps used this land to train their soldiers and established a Prisoner of War camp. The ocean front area was used as a rifle range and the barracks were set up on the west side of Collins Avenue. The camp for prisoners was located where the Bal Harbour Shops are presently... 
(Source: https://activerain.com/blogsview/484718/the-history-of-bal-harbour--florida----paradise-found----miami--fl-33154)

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WINDHAM, Maine — A team of Maine archaeologists is racing this summer to uncover the secrets of a colonial-era frontier fort before impending roadwork obliterates it for good. One of Maine’s most famous battles between white settlers and Native Americans raged just outside its gates.

Historians have long suspected the fort’s remains lay beneath River Road, but digging for evidence has been impossible since it was paved in the 1920s. Now, a long-planned road construction project is giving state archaeologists a chance to have a look...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://bangordailynews.com/2019/08/24/news/portland/archaeologists-race-to-uncover-colonial-fort-buried-beneath-a-maine-road-before-its-too-late/

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Grande Tetons As Seen From Pioneer Grill at Jackson Lake Lodge in Jackson Hole Wyoming.

If you watched any of the financial programs this weekend, you probably saw interviews with this view of the Tetons in the background.  The meeting occurs at Jackson Lake Lodge, which is one of my favorite vacation spots.

The hotel is not fancy, but the breakfast buffet is my all time favorite, especially when you get a window-side table.  Everything from fresh fish to blueberries and the best waffles going.  Anything you want.

Jackson Lake Lodge Lobby.

You will notice similarities between the Jackson Lake Lodge lobby and both the Disneyworld Wilderness Lodge and Animal Kingdom Lodge.  I don't think that is accidental, as Walt Disney visited the lodge when he was making TV nature programs on the Snake River.  If you are old enough you might remember the Disney TV shows of the 1950s.

This isn't a commercial although it might sound like it.  It is just one of my favorites, and it has a lot of history.  There is a table upstairs that was used for a treaty signing between President Eisenhower and the Russians.  And other US presidents visited.  Theodore Roosevelt visited, but that was long before the current lodge was built.

Don't expect fancy rooms, but I love the lodge and surrounding area.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/13/19 Report - New 1715 Fleet Finds Being Made. Mystery Button for ID. Putting the Puzzle Together. Tropical Storm.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Crew of the Bottomline Salvage Vessel 

Finding Treasure Off The Treasure Coast.

I got a couple photos of brand new 1715 Fleet finds from Captain Jonah Martinez.  Jonah is working on the Bottomline this year.  Here is an eight and some four-reales that they've found.

Reales Recently Found by Crew of the Bottomline.

Congratulations!

Thanks Jonah.

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Here is a two piece button bearing a lion and crown.  I'd like help if anyone can identify it.

Unidentified Two Piece Button Find.

The back of this button is missing, but the front is in good condition.

It is just a little less than 3/4 an inch across.

Any help is appreciated.

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Putting Together the Pieces of the Puzzle.

Yesterday I showed what I think is a piece of soldier art.  That is one piece of a puzzle.  I think it is a very interesting piece, but yet it is only one piece.

The puzzle is of one place and time in history.  A lot of the pieces are there.  I showed the island, the landscape, the fort, where the cannon were, and some of the other things found there, including some buttons that tell us some of the regiments that were there.

On the island you can still see some of the stone walls where the parts of old buildings still stand.  You can see the paths that were undoubtedly the same paths used hundreds of years ago.  And we can read much of the history of the island, including about the battle.

That is a land site that hasn't changed much.  Relics can be found at about the same place where they were dropped.  That is one of the advantages of land sites that haven't been much disturbed.

Putting it all together you get a pretty good picture of that one time and place in history. There is layering.  One era rests on another.  There were the times long before when the indigenous populations used the island, and there were times later.  The different time periods are like individual picture puzzles that have to be put together, each one on top of the other.  \

On Pigeon Island, the late 1700s is the most evident time period.  Many of  the large pieces are still there, including some of the buildings and forts, but there are pieces of puzzles from other time periods still there as well.

Occasionally a piece of the puzzle from one era will get mixed in with the pieces of another.  That happens at some places more than others, like on the side of a steep slope where erosion occurs and things fall towards the sea, but there are a lot of pieces from that one period that you can put together to form a pretty good picture.  That is the way it is with some land sites, but it is much more difficult on a constantly changing beach.

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The topics are getting active, and it is time to start keeping a close eye on the weather.  We might get a storm that produces some nice erosion, and you want to be ready for that.

We have had so much flat surf, and it is continuing for now, but the systems are beginning to come off of Africa.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

You can see Barry down by Louisiana.  The yellow system will probably fizzle out by the time it gets into the Caribbean, but you can't say for sure yet, and there will be other systems developing out there.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/30/18 Report - Pillars and Waves Example. Native American Fort. 400-Year-Old Clan Artifact. System Coming Off Africa.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Reproduction Eight Reale After Cleaning.

Other Side of the Same Coin.

Not long ago I posted what appears to be a reproduction escudo with the plating corroded off.  I thought I might have one just like it, so went looking for that one.  I didn't find it, but located the one shown above, which I dug up some years ago.  If I correctly recall, it was found near Jensen Beach.

Anyhow, I cleaned off much of the encrustation.  It was heavily encrusted when found.  It is fairly heavy - 22.2 grams.  Not too far off the real thing.

As you can see the Pillars and Waves side still has some plating on it, but some has come off, revealing the copper underneath.

The other side is still encrusted, and the cross can barely be seen.

This one is particularly chunky and although it gave some excitement as it came out of the sand, it really isn't very realistic when you see it cleaned.

Even where the plating is still intact, it looks strange.  When new, it would still have been an obvious fake.

The Pillars and Waves side doesn't look like a genuine silver cob at all.  A genuine old silver coin that has spent time in salt water will be grey to black.

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... Not only did experts recently find the remains of the 17th century fort, they discovered some artifacts including arrow and spear tips that date back an estimated 3,000 years, indicating Native Americans were active at the site for generations. No evidence of human remains has been found...
He said it appears the Norwalk Indians, a tribe that historians know little about, had a fort at the site from about 1615 to 1640 and used it to trade goods with early Dutch settlers. The site is on a small sliver of land next to railroad tracks that carry Amtrak and Metro-North commuter trains. A 19th century history of Norwalk mentions an old Native American fort, and a road near the site is still named Fort Point Street.

The site was found during preliminary archaeological surveys ordered as part of the state's upcoming replacement of the 122-year-old Walk Bridge, which spans the Norwalk River and swings open to allow boats to pass. The bridge has gotten stuck in the open position several times and caused massive rail service delays. Construction is set to begin next year...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.newsday.com/news/nation/native-american-fort-connecticut-1.20709914

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A 400-year-old clan artifact was uncovered near ruins in Scotland.

Artifact Discovered Near Ancient Ruins.
Source: HeraldScotland.com link below.

Site Where Artifact Discvoered.
Source: HeraldScotland.com link below.

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

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16601818.ancient-clan-artefact-uncovered-after-being-hidden-for-400-years/

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It has been a very quiet summer.  There have been no storms of any effect.

There is now one developing, but it is just coming off of Africa, and it will be a while before we know what it is going to do.  If it does eventually come our way it will take several days.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

In the mean time...

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/1/18 Report - 9 - 13 Foot Surf Predicted For Next Week. Counterfeit Coin Ring. Cannons Found. Eroding Graves.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Counterfeit Morgans Made in China.
Source:TheSpruce.com (Link immediately below.)

Yesterday I posted a link to a very good web site that tells how to identify counterfeit and fake coins.  Here is a link to an article about a Chinese counterfeiting ring.

https://www.thespruce.com/chinese-coin-counterfeiting-ring-4071202

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The following excerpts provide a reminder of the continual effect of erosion, and it relates to something else I've mentioned a few times lately.

There have been more than a million people buried in the mass graves on Hart Island since 1980, but since the damage of Hurricane Sandy, that’s become a gruesome problem...

“The cliffs of Hart Island are sort of exposed and bones are washing up on Long Island Sound – that hasn’t been repaired yet,” said Melinda Hunt, the founding director of the Hart Island Project which identified more than 67,000 people buried there.

Most of the problem is in the northern shore of Hart Island where there is a steep bank heavily damaged by the 2012 storm.

“If you are in Orchard Beach, which has lots and lots of New Yorkers, it’s what you are looking at directly,” said Hunt. “That’s where are bones are washing up into the sound.”


http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2018/02/26/bones-from-hart-island-mass-graves-washing-up-in-local-communities/

After one reader brought up the question, I've been asking about 1715 graves that have been discovered.  I've received reports of one or two being discovered, but that is about it - nothing like you might expect from the number of deaths.

My thought has been that the dead would have been buried as quickly as possible by people trying to survive in the summer heat and humidity after a hurricane.  The graves at Hart Island were being eroded and washed out.  I suspect that the same thing might have happened to the survivor graves on the Treasure Coast.  Of course I have no evidence of that - just a theory.

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Source: TheStar.com (See link below). 

GEORGE TOWN: Archaeologists in Penang discovered twin cannons buried 1.2m below the ground beside Fort Cornwallis at the Esplanade here.

The 2.2m and 2.35m-long cannons, which are believed to be at least 200 years old, were discovered during the excavation of the fort’s moat and outer defensive structures at around 2pm on Monday.

Penang chief archaeologist Datuk Dr Mokhtar Saidin said the discovery could change Fort Cornwallis’ history as a “peaceful fort.” 
Here is the link if you want to read the rest of the article.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/02/21/double-ang-pow-discovery-in-penang/

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Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Here is the really big news.  March might actually march in like a lion.  The predictions have been very consistent for a few days now.  After a few weeks of summer-like weather and beach conditions, this big surf might actually happen.  Its only a few days off now.  Time to check out your equipment and get your batteries charged.  Not only will the surf be big, but the predictions are showing a north wind along with the big surf.  We also now have some nice big tides.

1/29/16 Report. A Few Beaches. Fort Excavation. Kennedy Mansion Auction. Little Pocket Mystery To Some.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Typical Beach Friday Near High Tide.

The wind was from the west today and will be shifting to become a north wind Saturday.

Above is a typical Treasure Coast beach - no cuts.  I saw another beach before I took this picture, but forgot to take a picture.  The first beach had a lot of sand on the front beach, but a lot of shells at the high tide line.  I saw two detectorists working the shell line.  No one else was on that beach.

Every car in the parking lot at the above beach (there were about 10) was from another state.  The locals weren't there.

Jensen Beach Friday Afternoon.

I had not been to Jensen Beach for a long time.  Notice how few people are there.

North End Jensen Beach Near High Tide.

I stopped at three different beaches, and this is the only place I saw any significant erosion.  This area has eroded back quite a bit over the past month or two.

The wind will shift tomorrow, but there will still be little surf.

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From Kovels Kommets:  The furnishings of the Palm Beach house once owned by the Kennedy family were auctioned on January 23, 2016. The house was built in 1923 by the Wanamaker family, sold to Joe Kennedy in 1933, and used until the Kennedys sold the house and furnishings in 1995 to Mr. and Mrs. John Castle...

Some items had been part of the house for 21 to as long as 93 years. A set of William and Mary style tables estimated at $500 to $700 brought $10,625, and an Italian painted hall bench estimated at $3,000 to $5000 went for $9,375. Both were in the 1923 house. A pair of Venetian glass mirrors estimated at $2,000 to $4,000, perhaps in the house since 1933, was $38,750. The walnut twin beds used at various times by Joe Jr., Jack or Jackie sold for $20,000. A 1963 photograph of President Kennedy with his wife and children at Easter was $6,350.

Click here to go to the original article.

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"Just inside the walls of the fort we encountered what we call essentially a 1750 walking surface. That would be the level of the Earth that the British soldiers were walking on after the construction of Fort Lawrence and it's a very thin deposit but there are sufficient amounts of material in it to indicate that we are looking at that 1750 to 1755 era when the fort was occupied."

That is from an article about discoveries made at a fort site near the Nova Scotia border.  Here is the link for the rest of the article.

Here is a link to the rest of the article about discoveries at a fort site near the Nova Scotia border.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/fort-lawrence-beausejour-charles-burke-1.3421687

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That little pocket in the pocket of your jeans is the subject of a story that is circulating on the internet.  It seems people started wondering what that little pocket is for.  The thing that amazed me is that so many people didn't know.  I've never wondered about it at all because I what it was for ever since I was old enough to wear jeans.

In case you didn't know, it is a pocket watch pocket.  Why they still have them is a bit of a mystery, but it never occurred to me that someone might not know that it was originally for a pocket watch.

I suppose there are a lot of things like that which - like TVs with knobs.  Younger people don't know about l I'm sure a lot of them don't know there was a time when you had go to the TV to switch channels. A list of things like that might be interesting.  I've seen lists like that before.  It gives an idea of how much things have changed in recent years.


http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/fashion/style/news/a40820/small-pocket-inside-pocket-jeans-use-whats-it-for/

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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/19/12 Report - $38 Million of Silver Recovered & The Fort Pierce Collection

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.



Silver Bars (Odyssey Marine)

 I mentioned Odyssey Marine Explorations yesterday and the big jump in it's stock prices.  It appears that the reason for that increase in stock price was probably the recent recovery of $38 million in silver from the Gairsoppa.


Here is a link to an article about that recovery.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-07-18/news/os-tampa-finds-tons-silver-wwii-ireland-20120718_1_ss-gairsoppa-silver-bars-tons-of-silver-bullion

And here is a more detailed article, including a nice slide show.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/ss-gairsoppa-shipwreck-38-million-silver_n_1683505.html#slide=1243147

Thanks to Terry T. for both of those links.


You all probably know about the Indian Mound and site of the 18th Century Seminole War stockade just south of Fort Pierce.  The site, at least part of it, is now a park and you can stop, read the marker and walk up the mound.

This is not the site of Fort Capron, which I've talked about before.  That is north of Fort Pierce.

Below is a link to a report by Carl Clausen (1970) on the Fort Pierce Collection.   The Fort Pierce Collection refers to the artifacts collected from the site of the Second Seminole War Army post by Don Neiman from 1965 to 1967. 

Don donated the collection to the St. Lucie County Historical Society.  I presume the collection is still there.  Maybe I should look into that.


http://www.flheritage.com/archaeology/publication/docs/Bulletin_1.pdf




Model of Old Fort Pierce (From the Clausen report.)



The report includes an especially nice collection of pictures of military buttons of the period.  It also shows photos of  bottles, pipes, buckles, nails and spikes and other artifacts.

Thanks to all the hard-working tax-paying citizens who provided funding for Clausen's work.


Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Forecast and Conditions.

No change in conditions again.  Seas still running two to three feet.  Wind from the south.  And low tide at about 2:45.

There are still some places where you can find lighter materials accumulating.   And some miscellaneous things in the low tide area.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/25/12 Report - Micanopy & Seminole Wars and Gold Nugget Jewelry

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Historic Stanley Hotel in Estes Colorado.

If you are thinking of taking a break from the beach for the summer, there are a lot of interesting historic places to go like this.  Up in the hills behind the hotel old glass shards littered the ground.  You'll find the same thing on the grounds of many old hotels.

But you don't have to  leave Florida to find old historic places to visit.


I'm going off-beach today for just a little while.  There are a lot of interesting inland sites in Florida that receive little attention. 

One inland Florida area with a very long and interesting history is Micanopy, which was visited by some of the earliest Spanish explorers, was the site of an Indian village, and later, was central to a lot of Seminole War battlefields.

It seems the site of Fort Micanopy has been identified.
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20120422/ARTICLES/120429901/1109/sports?p=1&tc=pg

Alachua County is said to have been one of  the bloodiest places in Florida during the Seminole Wars.  Many battles were fought in that area.

Here is a good web site that gives a lot of informtion about that.

http://www.southernhistory.us/Counties/c4alac3.htm

I first visited Alachua back in the early eighties when IFAS (Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences) was having a large mainframe computer put into a converted sausage plant that was to become a science and technology center.

Anyhow, it is a nice old area with a lot of history.

And here is more information on the history of the area.

http://www.southernhistory.us/Counties/c4alac.htm

There are plenty of places to detect in Florida besides the beaches.

Aquanaut John says there will be a test of dowsing at the upcoming Annual Treasure Hunter's Cookout this weekend.  They have a real project planned. Sounds really interesting.

Gold Nugget Pendant Florida Beach Metal Detector Find.

Nugget jewelry was popular back in the seventies or eighties but is still being found today.

Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Forecast and Conditions.

It looks like the wind and swells are from the north today while the seas are calm. 

The seas will remain at about one or two feet until this weekend when they will start to increase, reaching up around six feet by next week, if the predictions are correct.   That might stir things up.  But too often the predictions of increasing seas end up being much more moderate than predicted.

We'll have to wait and see.  But if you want to do the low tide zone or water, best get it done in the next couple of days.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/22/11 Report - Big Discovery at Fort Lauderdale

Detecting Excavation.

This photo came from a link submitted to me by Michael H. The link can be found below if you want to read more about this.

Construction crews working on a $3 million beach park project along A1A recently made a significant archaeological discovery that could date back as far as 1839.
The workers were digging a channel for a drainage pipe two weeks ago when they found several hundred artifacts, including musket balls, gold coins and some buttons off military uniforms.”The thought is maybe this has something to do with the fort we had over here back in the pre-Civil War era,” said Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler.One of the three original Fort Lauderdales was located near the site.
“The beach fort was mainly used as a staging area for what we would call marines to chase the Seminoles into the hinterlands, into the Everglades,” said Fort Lauderdale historian Susan Gillis.

Here is the link if you want to read the entire article.

http://www.local10.com/news/27858910/detail.html

Many of those who detected the Fort Lauderdale beaches in past decades knew where the old fort and inlet were and occasionally picked up musket balls and other artifacts.

This story goes along with what I was saying the other day. There is always more. Often it is just below the sand that you have passed over a hundred times in the past. Those beaches were detected heavily for decades, but all of this newly discovered stuff was just waiting under the surface.


I recently mentioned a video that showed the surf uncovering rocks and shells on the front beach. I couldn't get it uploaded at the time. I finally uploaded it to YouTube. I guess I'll make more videos for the blog in the future now I know one way to get it done.

Here is the video. Notice the rough area on the beach just in front of the water. That is where rocks and shells were being uncovered and sifted. Another important spot to look at is the little cliff that the water falls over when it recedes.

Here is the link to the YouTube video. I also embedded the video into this blog below. I'm trying to figure out which is the best way to post videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UBHSzKMOTA


The other day I was talking about hunting outside the box. One thing I thought about was Art McKee's use of a bucket with a glass bottom for viewing under water. Today I ran across an article talking about Burt Webber using a glass window inserted into a surf board. Those kinds of innovative techniques are the kind of thing I really like. They require a little thought, ingenuity and effort to implement.

Beach sifters and scoops with 30-foot extension handles also come to mind. I've used both of those for special situations.


Here is a web site that talks about the evidence of beach combing by the Indians that lived near the Texas Coast. I found several interesting pieces of information on this web site. One thing that was mentioned was the salvaging of a French boat by the Indians. I plan to research that one a little further. Here is the link if you want to check it out.

http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/coast/prehistory/images/beachcombing.html


Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.

Well it sure is summer. The wind, or should I say air, is coming from the south. We're getting that hot humid air and very calm seas. Mosquitos galore too! The surf web sites are predicting calm (1 foot) seas for about a week.

It is that time a year when conditions won't improve unless we have a storm of some sort. It doesn't take a hurricane. All it takes is a storm that churns up northeast winds for a while. We sure haven't had that for quite a while now. The storm doesn't have to come ashore as long as it churns up the waves.

It is that time of year when the water is as inviting as it will ever get. The water is a touch cooler than the air and nice and calm with pretty good visibility.

Remember, you can't detect in the water where the shipwrecks are leased. You can however, snorkel or dive and just take a look around, if that is what you want to do, but not with your detector.


Surf Video Again.


I hate to take the time to learn new computer things, but have to do it once in a while.


Remember, as they found in Fort Lauderdale, there is still tons of stuff out there.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net