11/1/18 Report - A Look At Some Beaches. Cocoa Beach Hunt. Magic Black Quarters and A Friendly Wave.

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

John Brooks This Morning.

I took a look at a couple beaches on South Hutchinson Island this morning.  I didn't feel any throat irritation from Red Tide.  It was much better today.

Surveying at John Brooks This Morning.

EPA Vehicle At John Brooks.

On arriving I saw an Environmental Protection Agency vehicle in the parking lot.  They were doing a survey.  


The beach was scalloped irregularly.

There were a few cuts.  The biggest cut was in one scallop.  That one (shown above) was about three feet high, but only ran about ten yards.

The sand on the slope was mushy.  I did a quick check and saw no evidence of good targets.

I didn't see any dead fish.

Scallop With Three Foot Cut at John Brooks This Morning.

Beach Front At John Brooks This Morning Around Low Tide.

I also took a look at Frederick Douglass Beach.

Frederick Douglass Beach This Morning Near Low Tide.

Frederick Douglass was very mushy.

I also stopped at Fort Pierce South Jetty just to take a look.

Fort Pierce South Jetty Beach.

The slope there was very mushy.  I did another quick check and didn't find much.

By the way, those aren't my foot prints.  I took the photo before walking up the beach.

Dan C. sent me this report of his recent outing at Cocoa.

After a month of no hunting I decided to try yesterday since low tide coincided with sunrise-perfect for me.  I parked 200 yards from the beach, and when I got out of the truck, immediately my throat began burning. The closer I walked towards the beach, the worse it got.

I saw many people wearing dust masks or handkerchiefs, although I doubt that would work. I tolerated 3 1/2 hours of detecting but had to give up.

A small cut produced one tiny half inch diameter 14k religious medallion and a few "greenies", but otherwise the beach is not ripe for detecting.

My nostrils were inflamed for hours afterwards and the red tide toxin deposits on my face caused my eyes to burn if I rubbed my eyes. The beach also smelled like a combination of decay and dirty socks.

At least I have something to show for the 1.5 hours of driving and 3.5 hours of hunting, but I would have accepted getting skunked, as is usually the case at that beach. 

Thanks for sharing Dan.

When I stopped at Fort Pierce Jetty I met a fellow that asked if I had any spare change.  It reminded me of one time many years ago that I met a fellow when I arrived at a Fort Lauderdale beach just across from Bahia Mar.  The fellow asked if I could spare any change.  I had been detecting at another beach earlier and had a pocket full of change.  I pulled out about two dollars of black quarters and give those to him.  He said "God helps those who help others."  

I started detecting, and about two steps into the water after turning on my detector got a hit, dug it up - diamond ring.  Not bad.

I continued, maybe three more steps, got a hit - bingo - another diamond ring.

Call it coincidence or a message from God or whatever, it has been probably nearly thirty years and I still remember the experience.

Today I had a single dollar bill in my pocket, and very little change, so I handed the fellow the dollar bill.  I hoped he wasn't going to buy booze or drugs.

I should have given him some of my magic found change, but I didn't have any this morning.  And I found no diamond ring, but there was something better.  There was the absolutely beautiful day and the hope the fellow would be a little better off.

When I left, I was driving down the road and saw the fellow come out of a small store and throw a small wrapper in the trash can.  As I drove by he waved, and so did I.

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Looks like the surf, which isn't big now, will continue to decrease for a few days.

At least it looks like the Red Tide is subsiding.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

10/29/18 Report - Eerie Eelie Beach. Some Small Erosion. Not Kang Hsi, Oxidation on Nice Mercury Dime.

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

John Brooks Beach Sunday Afternoon.

The surf wasn't large but the wind direction was good so I went out to take a look at the beaches yesterday.  Often when a front comes through you'll get a little cutting.  As you can see from the photo above, there was a little erosion.  The surf and tides were high, so the cut was low on the slope. The sand in front of the slope was fairly soft.

The weather was beautiful, and on such a beautiful Sunday afternoon, you'd expect to see a lot of people, but there were very few people at the beach.  Evidently the Red Tide was still keeping people away.

I felt a little respiratory irritation, but not as much as at Jensen Beach a couple days ago.  There were a few dead fish and eels.  

I didn't know there were eels in the lagoon until the I saw some dead ones over there recently.

John Brooks Beach Sunday Afternoon.

Notice how the water is washing up onto the beach here was at about a thirty degree angle.  That was directly below a cut and was the cause of the cut.  

Frederick Douglass Beach Sunday Afternoon.

Above is the view looking south from Frederick Douglass beach.  As you can see there was less erosion there.  The depth of the foot prints also shows you that the sand was soft there.

Fort Pierce South Jetty Beach Sunday Afternoon.

There was a nice cut south of the Fort Pierce Jetty.  Unfortunately that is all renourishment sand.  

Notice the steep slope in front of the cut in the distance.  That is down near the old picked-over wreck.

For such a beautiful day, it is a shame that people weren't able to enjoy it more.

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Blue and White Beach Shard.

If you were walking the beach and found this shard, at first glance you might think Kang Hsi.  If you've seen much Kang Hsi, a closer look will show that it is something else. Take a look at the broken edge.

Edge of Shard.

The paste is not as white and fine as Kang Hsi.  This paste is more coarse and not as hard.  But that isn't all.  The top layer of blue sits on top of the surface.  Kang Hsi has a transparent layer and the blue penetrates down through that layer.  I think I've shown that before.

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1942 Mercury Dime.

This is an old find that I decided to experiment with.  I'm experimenting with methods of removing the black oxidation.

Close View of Oxidation.

This dime was probably in excellent shape when it was lost.  The date and lettering is still very nice.

It is very rare to find a nice silver coin on a salt water beach that isn't badly damaged.

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We'll have some more north wind, but the surf won't pick up until late Tuesday.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/26/18 Report - Where Is The Treasure Now? One Thing You Should Know. Red Tide in Vero.

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

Fort Pierce Inlet.

Snipped from Floridadep.gov.  Full link below.

I mentioned a project to find gold bars dropped along a West Coast beach a few decades ago.   The bars were scattered to some extent.  Those hunting the bars have a general description of where the bars were dropped (scattered)  relative to the beach and a delta.

Since the bars were dropped a few decades ago, the first thing I'd want to know is where the shoreline was when the bars were dropped relative to where the shoreline is now.  Beaches change over time and it is important to know where the beach was relative to where it is now.  That is often an overlooked and very important piece of information.

Let's just say the bars were said to be dropped along the shoreline very close to the water.  Where was the water line at that time?  Was it farther out than it is now, or is it now under the beach.

If we use the Fort Pierce inlet area as an example, we know that north of the inlet the sand has been accumulating for quite some time, and the shoreline just south of the inlet continually erodes.  The shoreline to the north of the inlet has been moving one way, while the shoreline south of the inlet has been moving the other.  If the bars were dropped along the waterline, if they were dropped north of the inlet a few decades ago, they would probably be under the beach now.

Fortunately there is good detailed data on shoreline changes.  For Florida you can find very detailed data for most of the 20th and 21st century.  If you do the research you can find out where  the beach was back some years ago and compare that with where the beach is now.

If you were told that a bar was buried ten yards back from the water line fifty yards south of the Fort Pierce inlet fifty years ago, it might seem like you'd have a good idea of where that bar was.   However, the shoreline might have changed a lot in those fifty years.   In recent years the beach just south of the inlet changes a hundred yards east/west every year or two when they renourish the beach and then it erodes again.  You can't just go out to the waterline and march back fifty yards and figure that is where the bar is.

It doesn't have to be bars of gold.  Resort beaches have changed the same way.  One beach that I hunted a lot in the past is now covered by at least a hundred yards of new sand.  The beach and dips in front of that beach that I worked thirty years ago are now deeply buried, as are the items dropped there back then.  It helps a lot to know where the beach was compared to where it is now.

Below is an example of a map that shows how erosion changed a shoreline between 1954 to some time in the 2000s.  If there was a swimming beach at this location in the 1950s hundreds of yards farther out than they would be most recently.  Or if there was a shipwreck offshore, it would now be much farther out from shore.

Map Showing How a Shoreline Changed Over a Few Decades.

There will be daily, monthly, yearly changes, but there are also fluctuations that occur over decades and centuries.   A shipwreck that was in the water could now be under the beach if it is in an area where there is accretion rather than erosion.

Florida provides an immense amount of shoreline data.  The database is not easy to use unless you are familiar with it, but the information is there if you are willing to do the hard work.

Here is a link to the Florida shoreline database.

https://floridadep.gov/water/beaches/content/historic-shoreline-database

If you take the time to dig into it, you'll be amazed at the detail that is available.  There is map, survey and photographic documentation on virtually every foot of shoreline.

If you look at the photo at the top of the post, you'll see that there are six small red triangles west of the shoreline.  Those are the survey monuments.

The Florida Public Land Survey System (FLPLSS) was established by the United States Government Land Office (GLO, now re-organized under the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, BLM) beginning in 1824, with the establishment of the Initial Point in Tallahassee. This system of rectangular survey grids was gradually extended through the remainder of the 1800's eventually covering the entire state, dividing all the public lands first into six mile by six mile areas (Townships), then subdividing these Townships into one mile by one mile regions (Sections). Physical survey markers, or monuments, were placed every half mile on these section lines to delineate the surveyed lands. Monuments were also placed at points on the section lines where they intersected bodies of water or previously occupied (private) lands...

(Source: http://sfrc.ufl.edu/pdf/faculty/gibsonresearch.pdf)

I better wrap this up.  If you have a general description of the location of a beach treasure, the first thing you might want to do is check to see how the beach has changed since the time of the description.  It seems that people don't appreciate how much or how rapidly beaches change.  You will want to know where the beach is now compared to where it was in the past.

Shipwrecks that were once underwater can now be under sand.  Treasures that were once buried on the beach, can not be out in the water.  People talk a lot about how items move, but beaches move too.  The movement of the beach is just as or more important than the movement of the items.  A lot of data is available if you are willing to dig it out.

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There is a lot more to be said on the above topic.  I might pick up on it again real soon.

One reason I chose the picture at the top of the post is that it is not a simple case.  It is more complex than an unbroken stretch of beach.  See if you can see how the sand is flowing at various spots.

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I've noticed that more people are starting to use DuckDuckGo.

DuckDuckGo says, DuckDuckGo is an Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs. With our roots as the search engine that doesn’t track you, we’ve expanded what we do to protect you no matter where the Internet takes you.

See DuckDuckGo.com.

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It seems that the Indian River beaches have some of the most toxic Red Tide contamination.

https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/indian-river-lagoon/health/2018/10/16/red-tide-florida-2018/1656605002/

https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/indian-river-county/2018/10/20/crews-remove-thousands-dead-fish-indian-river-beaches/1710002002/

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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/25/18 Report - Red Tide Keeps People Off Treasure Coast Beaches. Gold Relic. Most Active Hurricane Season Ever.

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

Flag Indicating Red Tide Spores Displayed at Jensen Beach Yesterday.

Red Tide was strong at Jensen Beach yesterday afternoon.  It evidently kept a lot of people off the beach, but there were a few there.   I heard a lot of coughing and saw one kid crying with burning eyes.  It can be serious.  Too bad!  It is otherwise beautiful beach weather.

Jensen Beach Yesterday Afternoon.

There were more people to the north for some reason.

The beach had lost some sand.  You can see the small cut and the slope had eroded back some.  You can also see a small dip in front of the beach.  Didn't look half bad for modern jewelry if the Red Tide doesn't bother you.

Jensen Beach Yesterday Afternoon.

It looked like the tide predictions were pretty accurate.  Just some small waves breaking on the sand bar at low tide.

Expect nothing more than a two or three foot surf for the next few days.

We have a full moon and some decent tides.

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Gold Relic.

Source: See MSN.com link below.

The origin of a mysterious golden relic has been identified after leaving archaeologists baffled for almost 150 years.

The small, flat golden plate was uncovered alongside a female skeleton and a coin at a grave site beneath York station in 1872...

The coin, which was made of copper with a silver wash over the top, had the face of Septimius Severus on one side and Fortuna, the goddess of luck on the other.

Severus was Roman Emperor from 193 until his death in York in 211, but it is not clear whether the woman was buried during this period or later...

Here is the link.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/mysterious-gold-relic-finally-identified-after-baffling-scientists-for-almost-150-years/ar-BBOOO67?ocid=spartandhp

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The oceans near North America have been angry this year.

When all the hurricanes and tropical storms that have formed in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans this year are added together, the 2018 hurricane season is the most active season ever recorded, Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach announced Tuesday...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/10/23/hurricane-season-most-active-record-atlantic-pacific-combined/1741226002/

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I was consulting with a treasure author that was wondering about how far some bars of gold might sink into the sand over a period of a few decades.  I won't give any details because I don't want to put anybody else on the trail, but some bars got deposited in a fairly unusual way and they wanted to try to find them.  It took me a couple of emails to answer, but I still wasn't happy with the answer.  That reminded me that I started to talk about the subject of how things sink in the sand a few weeks ago in this blog.  I introduced a question, but got off on other subjects and failed to answer the question.  I'll try to do that some day soon.  I'll have a meaty related subject for you tomorrow.


Go, and do well.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/22/18 Report - Fall Front Starts Erosion On Treasure Coast Beaches. Early Roots of Slavery In Viriginia

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

John Brooks Beach This Afternoon.

A front came through with a little period of northeast wind and created some cuts along the Treasure Coast.  As you can see above, there was a bigger cut above and the most recent tide left a lower fresh cut.

Here is the view to the south.

John Brooks Beach This Afternoon.

There were a few dead fish on the beach, but not many.

A lot of people report that there is something in the air that makes a person cough.  Both I and my wife coughed from it.

Dead Fish at John Brooks.

TV News reported the Pepper Park and Indian River County Beaches were closed because of Red Tide.

Cuts Above New Cut.

The sand on the beach front was not very firm.

Surf Near Low Tide.

Walton Rocks Beach This Afternoon.

Walton Rocks, unlike John Brooks, was not cut at all.

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Dug From An Early 1600s Virginia Site

Here is an article digging into the history of some of the earliest African servants or slaves in America.

https://popular-archaeology.com/article/digging-the-roots-of-american-slavery/

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I don't know how widespread the erosion was.  I didn't see any other beaches.

We are starting to get some of the Fall cuts that are typical.  At least the weather is improving.

It looks like we won't get any more good surf real soon.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net