1/8/20 Report - Land Mine Found by Detectorist In Indian River County. Using the River For Information About The Ocean Beach and Erosion.

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

WWII Land Mine Uncovered by Detectorist Near Reef Road in Indian River County.

A man using a metal detector made an unexpected find on an Indian River County Beach Tuesday...

Here is the link submitted by Jorge Y.

https://www.wptv.com/news/region-indian-river-county/old-land-mine-found-on-beach-in-indian-river-county-sheriffs-office-says

And another link on the same story submitted by DJ.

https://www.newsbreakapp.com/n/0Nm6iA9f?pd=03GjMPEp&s=i3

Thanks guys.

It appears that it was found down around Sandy Point.

I remember back around thirty years ago when they removed a lot of the obstacles from the shallow water used for landing exercises at Avalon Park, which is a bit farther south.

I always wished that I had taken photos of the huge barge they brought down A1A to use for that.  It was as wide as A1A, both lanes.

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The Indian River makes a convenient observation station for watching how water moves sand and things.  The waves are not as big, and there are other differences, but there are also many similarities to the beach.

You can take a look at the river and get some idea of what is going on at the beach.  It won't always be correct, but it will often give you a good idea.

The one thing you can usually tell from the river, is if the wind is causing waves and the direction of the wind swell.  When the river shows white water coming in from the northeast, for example, there is a good chance that the beach will also be having some good waves from the northeast.  You can take a look at the river before deciding if you want to go over to the beach.

Concrete Block At Bottom of West Bank of Indian River Lagoon.

Above is a concrete block that I originally found in the water and moved to the edge of the water.  It is one of the landmarks I occasionally use to observe the movement of sand.

I brought the block in from out in the water (which might explain my back problems) and placed it against the lowest block on the last sheet on concrete erosion control sheets that were installed after the 2004 hurricanes.

The block is roughly 27 inches, by 12 inches by 7.5 inches.  It rests on the edge of the lowest block with about a six inch overlap.  For a short while I had it standing straight up.  You can't see the last block in the photo because it was covered by sand when I took the photo.

During the nearly fifteen years since I positioned it there, the block has not moved a noticeable amount and the level of sand has not varied up and down any more than a about a foot.  As you know, we've had some good storms in that time period.  The top corner is only visible some of the time, and most of the block is visible at other times.  I can't remember a time in those fifteen years seeing the block entirely covered, but it has come close.  When the tides and wind is pushing water against the bank, there might be as much as five feet of water over the block.  Still the sand has not varied at that spot a lot.

The connected block sheets were originally at about a thirty or forty degree angle, I would guess.  For most of the fifteen years, they stayed put very much undisturbed.  In the past two or three years, however, the sand is getting moved and the block sheets are falling in.

Erosion Under Block Sheets.

In some places I'd say three or four feet of sand has eroded from under the blocks.  I was surprised that they lasted more than ten years with almost no erosion, but now they are beginning to show the effects of erosion.  In some places it is still almost as it was originally constructed, but there has been a definite acceleration in the block sheets falling in.

During the 2004 storms, some of Indian River Drive fell in.  A smaller area fell in once sometime after that where a homeowner did not allow the blocks to be put in.  The homeowners in the area own down to the river - not down to the road - so the land along the east side of the road is private property.

Generally speaking everything is on a smaller scale along the river than on the ocean beach.  That isn't surprising, since the waves are smaller.  The erosion is smaller too.

Erosion Exposing Old Tire.

The tire shown above was covered one day, but when the wind shifted from southeast to northeast, it got uncovered again.

Some of the items along the west side of the river are remarkably stationary.

Line of Cinder Blocks Running Perpendicular to the Bank and Old Truck Springs.

Both the blocks running east/west in the above photo and the truck springs in the photo above have not moved over the past twenty or more years  despite all the storms.  They were there and remained unmoved even after the 2004 hurricanes, which heavily eroded the west bank in spots.  One of the reasons for that is that there is a good hundred yards of shallow water along the east side of the river.  

Wall of Fiberglass Play House (Approximately four feet by five feet)

The playhouse wall shown above was came from about a mile south during either hurricane Matthew or Irma.  I'm not sure which.  Since it was moved by the storm, it has remained very stationary ever since (two or three years).

It took a good storm to move it about a mile originally, but nothing strong enough to move it inches or feet has occurred since.  Besides marine growth that now weighs it down, I suspect sand has filled the openings.

The biggest problem with the river as an experimental observation station is that the concrete erosion sheets were placed soon after the 2004 storms.  It is therefore difficult to know how much is due to the man-made changes rather than mother nature.

The relatively small amount of erosion in front of the bank is primarily due to the large expanse of shallow water, and the concrete sheets definitely reduced erosion to the bank.  You seldom see as much as a foot of erosion in front of the banks, yet that can be enough to uncover a lot of junk.  

I was starting to think the erosion control sheets would stay in place relatively undisturbed for a very long time, but they are now showing a lot damage from erosion.  I haven't studied how the water gets in behind the sheets and washes the sand out, but it obviously does.  The sheets have withstood lots of storms but now seem more vulnerable.

The point is that you can look at the river and learn a lot.  The general principles of how water moves sand and objects is the same in the river as on the beach. 

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The surf is very small today, but as you can see from the predictions below, it will be building.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

I just realized that I have been posting this year's posts wrong and had to go back and change them all to show the year as 2020.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/27/18 Report - Poorly Labeled Silver Half Reale. Blown Green Flask Bottle. Dissertation on Two Old Shipwrecks.

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

Mexico Minted Beach Cob Without Other Identifying Information.

In the past couple of weeks I posted several beach-found half-reales that were found during a couple hunts almost thirty years ago.  I had a lot of good information on those cobs, including but not limited to, when and where they were found.  Unfortunately not all finds are so well labeled.  This half reale was labeled with no information than the name of the beach it came from.  I have no idea what year, or even decade, it was found.  I can tell that this cob was minted in Mexico because of the style of the cross, and I can tell it is a half reale from the size, but that is about it.  If the cross was not visible and so well placed, even the denomination could be in question.  Some cobs found on the beach are worn down to a fraction of their original weight and sometimes you'll just find small pieces of silver that you can't tell if they are a part of a coin or not.

The first piece of silver I found on a wreck beach was about the size of a one reale but had no detail at all.  Back then I thought it might be a razor (thin flat cob).  Now I think it was probable off of something else.

The cob shown above looks like the part of the cob right where the monogram would be found flaked off and most of the potential diagnostic information was lost.

You might think that you'll remember where and when you found something, but that might not be the case thirty or forty years later.  It is best to write it all down.  

Dime Showing Significant Salt Water Corrosion

Compared to some, this dime is in good condition.  Unlike the cobs, I cleaned this dime.  I've seen Roosevelt dimes that were so corroded they look very much like cobs.  It doesn't take a real long time for a silver coin to turn into an indistinguishable black mass with absolutely no details remaining.  I might show some like that some other time.

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Old Blown Green Flask Type Bottle.

Notice the big bubble up near the right shoulder.  That is typical of blown bottles.

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Here is a doctoral dissertation that you might like to read.

It is a study of a late 17th century shipwreck and a late 18th century wreck.  As you browse through I'm sure you will find some things of interest.

Here is one brief excerpt.

Finally, the accidental discovery of the Benya Lagoon site highlights just how little is understood about the Lagoon’s role in the town of Elmina’s function. Although its use for the careening and refitting of vessels is noted in historical accounts, their validity was unproven. It had been assumed that until the twentieth century most of the lagoon was overgrown with mangroves and brush. Consequently, maritime activity was confined to the river’s mouth adjacent to the castle. The presence of a relatively large eighteenth century vessel upriver now suggests otherwise. Although the intent behind the abandonment of this vessel remains a mystery, its placement in an area of restricted access must have been intentional and sanctioned...

You might want to think about what that could mean to you and how it relates to where you hunt.

Here is the link for the entire dissertation.

https://surface.syr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1088&context=ant_etd

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/19/15 Report - Indian River Treasures. Steamboat St. Lucie. Pot Shard, Old Bottle & Fossils.

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



Picture of the Steamship St. Lucie
Docked Not Far From Jensen.

In the old days the Indian River Lagoon was one of the main highways on the Treasure Coast.  Boat traffic was used by early settlers.  Later there was steamship service.

Here is a picture of the steamship St. Lucie at dock near Jensen.  I haven't found the name of any others, but feel there must have been others.

If any of you know of other steamships that sailed the Indian River along the Treasure Coast, I'd like to hear or read about that.  I've done a little research on that but haven't found very much.

You will occasionally see old things along or in the river.  One day just walking along Indian River Drive I saw a check-stamped pottery shard.  That was a surprise. 

Back after the hurricanes of 2004, the west side of the Indian River was lined with bottles.  It really was amazing.  They were solid along the water line.

The bottles gradually disappeared.  There weren't any to be seen for a few years.  I didn't know if they would ever return because many of them came from the banks where people used to throw their garbage.  That, of course, was in the days before they had garbage service. 

After the hurricanes they put sheets of concrete blocks over the banks of the river to prevent Indian River Drive from getting washed out again.  I thought with all of that we might not ever see the bottles again.

Last year a few of them started to appear.  And in the past few months some of the older ones started to show up again in spots where there was erosion along the water line.

My guess now is that there are still tons of them covered by sand that will be washed up again some day.

Years and years ago an embossed blob top beer bottles was found in the sand down by where the steamship shown above was docked.  The dock is no longer there.  It was destroyed by a hurricane way back in the day.

The thing that revealed the bottle was a spot of moss in the sand.  The moss, or seaweed or whatever it was, was growing on the bottle.  That bottle was not along the water line but out in the shallow water.

There are still the remains of a few garbage burn piles that can be found on the banks of the river.  Not many though, because of the erosion control structures.

I've never gone out to hunt fossils along the Indian River but have twice seen fossils there.  The first was this nice Great White tooth found along the edge of the river

Great White Shark Fossil Tooth.

.When I first saw it I thought it was the corner of a buried bottle.  When I bent down I saw it was a shark tooth. 

It is a very nice example with sharp serrations.  It is over two inches long.

One other time I was walking along the river bottles and noticed a fossil tooth of an extinct horse.  That was a surprise too.  I didn't really think that would be what it was when I first saw it.

Even though the fossils are there, I think in most places they are very rare.

When it comes to metal detecting along or in the shallow water of the Indian River, it is very difficult.  There is a ton of trash on the banks and in the shallow water.

I did spot an old pair of ear rings in one old burn pile once.

Even without a metal detector you can find all kinds of stuff along the river.  Those that I've mentioned today include include pot shards, old bottles and fossils, all of which I have seen when not hunting them. 

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The surf predictions and wave data is now found below the popular posts list.

This week we'll have very smooth surf and south winds.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net