4/2/18 Report - Beat Up Old Gold Band. Munitions Found On Beach. Oldest Foot Prints. Thousands of Artifacts.

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

Rough New Gold Band Find.

When the rough water subsides and you have a good negative tide, it gives you a chance to get out farther in the dips below the cuts.  You can sometimes get some leftovers that way, including some occasional gold.

This band is really rough, as I think you can see.  It was partly encrusted before cleaning.  Looks like it has taken a beating.  No markings on the inside at all.

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A century after World War I ended, discarded munitions from that and other wars continue to make their way onto beaches around the country.

Items ranging from tiny fuses to full-scale mines are displaced by beach replenishment projects, sucked from the ocean floor and pumped ashore, or by strong storms that uncover them.

The most recent discovery came earlier this month when seven WWI rifle grenades were found on the beach in Mantoloking, New Jersey, which is undergoing a beach replenishment project to undo damage from Superstorm Sandy more than five years ago...

Here is the link.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a19641774/a-century-after-wwi-the-weapons-of-old-wars-keep-turning-up-on-beaches/

Thanks to Doug for that link.


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About 13,000 years ago, two shoeless adults and a child squished their bare feet through wet clay near the water's edge, leaving footprints that still exist today.

The footprints, recently unearthed by anthropologists on an island in British Columbia, Canada, are the oldest known human track marks in North America, according to a new study, and provide more evidence that humans were thriving on the Pacific Coast of Canada at the end of the last ice age, said study lead researcher Duncan McLaren, an anthropologist at the Hakai Institute and the University of Victoria, in Canada....

Source: https://www.livescience.com/62153-oldest-human-footprints-in-north-america.html

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Nearly 10,000 Native American artifacts — a rectangular ceramic vessel, tool fragments, arrowheads, and other projectile points — have been discovered at two archaeological excavation sites in Camden.

Along with the hearthstones, animal bones, and remains of plants likely used for food, medicine, and fuel found during the excavations, the materials may shed light on the lives of indigenous people who camped along the Delaware River as early as 4,000 years ago...

Source: http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/kevin_riordan/thousands-of-native-american-artifacts-unearthed-in-camden-archaeological-dig-20180321.html

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There has been a lot in the news lately about data being mined from Facebook for use in advertising, political campaigns and disruption of countries.  Here is an article that will help you find out some of what Facebook knows about you.

https://www.howtogeek.com/346197/ever-wonder-how-much-facebook-knows-about-you-here%E2%80%99s-how-to-see/

It amazes me that Facebook, which started as a blatantly sexist application used by judge women's physical characteristics and is run by a bunch in California who you'd think would be not only opposed to such blatant sexism and stereotypical behavior, but who would also stand for the individual's rights, yet that is not the case when they can make a profit off of it.  One big bundle of hypocrisy!

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It looks like the increase in surf that was expected for the end of the week will be very modest, only reaching 2 - 4 feet.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/15/17 Report - Various Irma Finds. Bigger Surf and North Winds To Come From Hurricane Jose. Jupiter Beach Report.

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

Spike in Shipwreck Wood.

Here is a nice piece of wood with a spike still in it found by one reader.  Below is another nice piece found by the same person.

Nice Piece Found by the Same Reader.

Congratulations on the great finds!

A day or two ago I showed some musket balls found on the beach by Jonah and the guys of the Captiana.  That photo showed only finds from one low tide.  There was a second group found during another low tide.  Here is that group.

Group of Musket Balls Found During One Low Tide Cycle.
Photo by Jonah M.

That is a lot of digging.  I remember when Bill was finding so many musket balls in the water during one salvage season that he quit digging them.

Trez also was there and found those shown below.

Musket Balls and Lead Finds.
Finds and photo by Trez.

Looks like they hit a munitions cache.

I received the following report from CladKing.

Took most of summer off from detecting due to heat and too much sand on beaches! South side of inlet had filled in nearly to end of jetty making fishing and surfing tough there!! 

   

And while the hurricane removed a lot of sand, it was mostly wind driven! Water did not cut dunes near inlet at all! Just flattened the renourishment sand down to a gentle slope from dune line! The dune at the Seagrape trees is now higher than before by about 4 feet due to wind driven sand! 

Jupiter Inlet Area After Irma
Photo by Cladking

Carlin park was cut back to last years storm level with rocks exposed! But both Carlin and the inlet had refilled some in the last couple of days and where mushy! 

Rocks at Carlin Park Area
Photo by CladKing

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I don't have electricity at my house yet.  Soon, I hope.  

I had so much to do I hardly got out.  I would have liked to get out to check a lot more of the beaches and do some detecting.  That is the way it goes.  

I did hear of a few cobs finds, but not many.  I didn't get any reports from Wabasso and north and didn't get up there.  From what I've heard and seen, I would guess that most cobs came from Vero and north.

It seems that most finds were made early.  Obviously a lot of lead was found.  

Saturday the surf is going to be up to something like 5 - 8 feet.  It is supposed to stay high for two or three days, and the best part is that the wind is supposed to be from the north.

I have a lot I could talk about but I can't do it all at once.  I'll continue tomorrow and for a few more days until things settle back to normal.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/29/17 Report - Army Corps To Metal Detect Large Part North Hutchinson Island. Diagnostic Artifacts Web Site.

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

Area Designated for Study.

The area shown above will be the subject of a study to determine what materials might remain on the old amphibious training base.  Below is an excerpt describing the study.

A Tiny Tim was found in January of 2017 during a construction project.  Munitions were also found during a removal project in 1998 and munitions were removed in 2014 and 2015.

The Tiny Tim is a 1200 pound rocket or torpedo (I've seen it referred to both ways) that was detonated in the water off Vero.

Here is the link to that event.

http://www.wptv.com/news/region-indian-river-county/vero-beach/world-war-2-era-tiny-tim-rocket-dug-up-in-vero-beach-neighborhood

I saw them remove the obstacles from the shallow water a long time ago.  It must have been 1998, although it seems like it could have been longer than that to me.

It should be interesting to see what they find, military or otherwise.

Trez sent me a copy of the proposal prepared by the Environmental Science and Engineering Co. of Gainesville for the Army Corps of Engineers.  There goes our tax dollars again.

Thanks to Trez for the great info.

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I found a great web site just yesterday.  It is the Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum website.

I commend them for putting it out there and making it accessible to the tax-payers.  Good example of other states and government organizations to follow.

The have sections on diagnostic artifacts, including projectile points, prehistoric ceramics, colonial ceramics, and other small finds.  You have to go two or three clicks deep in each of those to get to the individual examples.

Here is the link.

http://www.jefpat.org/researchtools.html

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On the Treasure Coast we still have a one-foot surf.  The tides are more moderate now though.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/28/14 Report - Treasure Coast Eight Reale. What Civil War Artifacts Will Be Found On The Bottom of The Congaree River. Tommy Thompson Found.

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

Photos by Captain Jonah.

Here is a neat Treasure Coast Potosi Pillar and Waves Eight-Reale.

You can see the Potosi mint mark.  Also a three digit date in the bottom column of the middle row.

The picture below is the other side of the same cob.

I'm not certain I am reading the date correctly, but it looks like (1)715 to me.  What do you think?

It appears to nicely match some examples that are in Menzel's book.  That book shows a 1715 eight-reale that is also chunky and cracked like this one.

Menzel says that mint production for that decade was low and quality control was poor.  The book said that is rare to find a well struck Potosi cob around that time period.


Another excellent Treasure Coast find by a Treasure Coast salvage crew.

You might remember my comment from a recent post indicating that in 1700 and after, Potosi Pillars and Waves cobs had a three digit date while earlier Pillars and Waves cobs had a two digit date.


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COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA—A planned environmental clean-up of the Congaree River in South Carolina could recover Confederate munitions that Union troops, under the command of General William T. Sherman, captured in 1865. Sherman’s army burned a third of the city and captured 1.2 million ball cartridges; 100,000 percussion caps; 6,000 unfinished arms; 4,000 bayonet scabbards; and 3,100 sabers. The soldiers reportedly dumped what they couldn’t carry in the river. Since then, fishermen and swimmers have recovered some of the weapons...

Here is the link to read the article.

http://www.thestate.com/2015/01/17/3934680_exclusive-congaree-to-be-dammed.html?rh=1

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One thing I continue to be impressed by is the importance of the threshold setting on a pulse induction metal detector.   A threshold that is either too high or too low will cause a loss of depth and signals.  It is so important that I often test my threshold by using a well known gold test target so that I know I have the best threshold setting.  In my opinion, selecting the threshold is too important to do casually.

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When learning a new detector learn first in a familiar test garden if that is possible.  Then move to an easy setting such as dry sand.  Then to wet sand, and finally in water.

I think if you become very familiar with a detector in a less challenging environment first, it will make it easier to move to a more challenging environment.

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When I was at the beach yesterday, almost all the targets I found were discolored, corroded, and deep.  The recent surface drops had already been picked up, yet there were a good number of deep targets remaining.

It was also my observation that there is less junk out there these days.  I think more people are removing the junk.   There were a good number of bottle caps at some beaches.  There are also some beaches with a lot of small iron.

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Just got the news that Tommy Thompson was captured.  I did a post giving a link about him missing a few months ago.  You can find that post by using the blog search box.

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On the Treasure Coast, the wind changed direction.  It was coming from the North.  Tomorrow the surf will be a little higher.

Happy hunting,
TreaureGuide@Comcast.net