6/13/20 Report - Treasure Coast Beaches Building. A Morning On The Beach. One More TG Mistake.

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

John Brooks Beach This Morning.

I went out to take a look at a few beaches this morning.  My first stop was at John Brooks.  As you can see above there was a lot of seaweed.  There was a flat front beach that was building.  You can also see a small cut in the photo.

John Brooks Beach This Morning.

Frederick Douglass Beach This Morning.

Frederick Douglass, as usual, was very much like John Brooks.  Notice the waves breaking right on edge of the front beach. 

The difference at Walton Rocks is the bar about 75 yards out and the small dip in the water in front of the beach.  The waves are breaking on the bar.

Unlike John Brooks and Frederick Douglass, you don't have the flat front beach at Walton Rocks.

Walton Rocks This Morning.

I did about twenty minutes of detecting in the dry sand this morning and found a handful of coins and a silver shepherd's hook earring and small turtle.  I don't know what that is mounted in the center of the earring.   No good finds, but I enjoyed spending a little time before it got real hot.

Morning Finds.

I was actually surprised by the number of easy finds this morning, even if they aren't much good.

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Captain Jonah says he is off to a slow start but will be sending photos when good finds are made.

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I've been listing some mistakes I've made.  Here is another.

Yesterday I posted some fossils.  I was looking for a dire wolf tooth that I found near the water's edge one day all by itself.  I precisely remember finding it and where, and I remember the research I did on it, but I couldn't find it when I wanted to.   I have one box of fossils and some of them are stored in bags with their labels, but I have fossils in other places too.  The mistake is pretty obvious: I wasn't organized enough in how I stored things.  Some were just thrown in a box together.  Some were in different places.  Right now I don't know where the dire wolf tooth is and there are probably a number of others that I couldn't find right away if I wanted to.  That doesn't apply to just fossils.

You might think you'll remember where things are and there is no reason to take the time, but if you are like me, the years will pass and you won't be able to locate finds when you want to.  That is an easy enough problem to solve, but you have to decide it is worth taking the time.  It might not seem like it now, but it will later.

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For an insightful look at COVID-19, try the book that Amazon.com tried to censure - Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns: Part 1: Introduction and Death Counts and Estimates by Alex Berenson. Amazon.com made tons of money as the primary online shopping retailer during the lockdowns.

Here is the link.

https://www.amazon.com/Alex-Berenson/e/B001JRVEO4%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

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Don't expect beach conditions to change much for at least a few days.  There is no tropical activity on the NHC map right now.

The surf is running around two or three feet, and the surf is small.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/10/20 Report - Treasure Coast Beach Metal Detecting Conditions Rating Increase. Broward Shell Show This Weekend.

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

John Brooks Beach Friday.

I took a look at a few beaches today and did some detecting.  To get to the most important thing first, I'm increasing my beach detecting conditions rating to a solid 2.  Since I only looked at a few beaches, and they were all on South Hutchinson Island, I'm being conservative.   If I knew some of the other beaches improved also, I might issue a 3 rating.  I suspect they did but don't have that information yet.

John Brooks Beach Friday Just Before Low Tide.

If you've been following this blog very long, you know my rating scale is a five point rating scale.  A 1 rating indicates a very low probability of finding shipwreck coins or artifacts, while a 5 rating indicates a very good chance of finding shipwreck coins or artifacts.  I've broken it down more finely in the past.  A 2 is a transitional rating indicating improved conditions and a better chance of finding old shipwreck items, but they won't in my opinion  be very abundant.

My first stop today was John Brooks.  There was some good erosion, especially to the north.  Up by where the old Christmas Tree used to be and beyond, some of the cuts were about six feet high.

John Brooks Beach Friday.

Looks like some water on the lens blurred the cuts some.

There were good numbers of modern coins scattered widely on John Brooks, along with some EOs and some currently uncleaned and unidentified objects.

Next I stopped at Frederick Douglass, which was not as cut.  One of the cast members of the Oak Island TV show was just leaving.

Frederick Douglass Beach Friday Before Low Tide.

I did some detecting there and hit both silver and gold - both modern.  Frederick Douglass did not have such nice cuts as John Brooks.

I did more actual metal detecting than I've done in a long time.  I probably put in a couple of hours of swinging.  I haven't been able to do that for quite a while.

Frederick Douglass Beach Friday.

I then took a look at Walton Rocks to see what was going on down that way.  Nothing much.

So then I took a look at the beach to the North of John Brooks, up by the condos.

Beach in Front of the Condos to the North of John Brooks.

Looking Back Towards John Brooks From the Condos.

I can't help think of times when the beaches were back one or two hundred yards from where they are these days.  There is actually a concrete foundation that was exposed on the beach back in the eighties or nineties down in the area where you see the people in the photo immediately above.  It would be under all that sand to the west of them.

That was something I was thinking about yesterday too.  I stopped at Round Island and remembered where the beach was back years ago.   Now it is a good hundred yards to the east.  There is so much renourishment sand up and down the coast these days.

Yesterday I mentioned Wabasso Beach being closed and the sign which said that it would be closed until Jan. 20.   I also mentioned that I didn't read the entire sign.  JP says the sign says, "Closed for Emergency Nourishment." 

He also said, They dumping truck after truck of sand on the beach. It's my understanding that they are doing Sea Grape as well. Not sure if they going as far south as Turtle but I'm sure at some point they are. 😭.

Thanks,
JP

Thank you, JP.

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I want to get this beach conditions upgrade posted, but have one more timely thing to tell you about.

The Broward Shell Club will be having the Annual Broward Shell Show on January 11 - 12, 2020 at the Emma Lou Olson Civic Center, 1801 NE St., Pompano Beach, Florida, 33061.

I know some of you are shell collectors.  Here are a couple links.

https://browardshellclub.org/2020-shell-show-announcement-and-forms/

https://browardshellclub.org/

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The surf is expected to decrease only a very small amount tomorrow.  It looks like the swells will not change direction much.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/22/19 Report - Some Beaches Still Eroded and Producing Coins and Things. 6 PM Additions.

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

Beached Sailboat at Walton Rocks.

There was a beached sailboat at Walton Rocks.  It had a big hole in the side and the ripped sail was in the dunes.

Sailboat Beached on Walton Rocks.

Junk from the wreck was scattered all over, including a lot of plastic.

There was a good bit of erosion at John Brooks today, especially to the north.

North of John Brooks Beach Access This Morning.

There was a cut of about four feet, plus or minus, running for a few hundred yards north of the John Brooks beach access.

The top half of the slope was mushy, but there was firmer sand near the water.

Despite the cuts, I didn't particularly like the looks of it, but did a little detecting anyhow.

Right in front of the access, the beach wasn't that cut.

Frederick Douglass Beach Sunday Morning.

Frederick Douglass Beach also had some cuts this morning.  The sand near the water actually looked better here.  

I'm still on the ring path.  Found one more today.  I was surprised again by the number of modern coins on the beaches.   I found a lot of modern coins on two different beaches today.

Junk Ring Found Today.

I'm sticking with my 2 rating on my 5-point Treasure Coast Beach Conditions Rating Scale.  It is certainly better than summer conditions, though it hasn't really started to produce much older stuff yet - with a few exceptions.  I only saw a few of the Hutchinson Island beaches today.  I don't know what is going on in the Vero/Sebastian areas today.

Stick of Lead Found on Beach With Bunches 

of Modern Coins and Small Pieces of Copper.

The lead didn't show the oxidation that you'd expect to see on older lead.  I suspect it isn't very old.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

With the slightly improved conditions that we have now, some additional erosion might get us into the older stuff.  Maybe it is already happening at one or two spots.

As you can see from the surf predictions, we'll have a little rest and then the surf will be building again.

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Added 6 PM.  

Steve M. sent me photos of beaches in the Vero/Sebastian area.  I'll post his descriptions now and add the photos as soon as I can.

My wife and went to the beach today to check for erosion.      First we went to Tracking Beach as last time we went to go there it was closed and a sign said dune renourishment going on.   We immediately went to Jaycee park, to see, but it looked like trucked in sand piled up.    Today we found that they made the dune go seaward about 40’ and planted sea oats on it.   So first stop, top 2 pics, are South and North of Turtle trail.   Beach had a lot of sand up high.   But eroded at beach.    Next 2 down were Golden Sands.   Same conditions. Next 2 down are Treasure Shores, same.    Last are Sebastian inlet state park.   Same condition.    Thanks much Steve. Looked like less erosion up there than on John Brooks. ---

Happy hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

9/23/19 Report - From the Treasure Coast to the Palm Beaches - Conditions and Finds. Triton Submarines Visit the Titanic.

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

Palm Beach

Photo by Joe D.

Palm Beach.

Photo by Joe D.

The South Hutchinson Island beaches were not looking good this morning.  In fact those beaches haven't changed much at all in the last few weeks even though they were hit by Dorian and a lot of high surf.  The swells have continued to hit the beach directly at a ninety degree angle for weeks now.  Its amazing how little the beaches have changed during that length of time.

John Brooks was unchanged this morning, except for some very shallow dips, which could also be found on other beaches.

Walton Rocks Beach Monday Morning.

Walton Rocks looked very much like the other beaches I saw.  The beach was more convex than is apparent in this photo, but there was a very sparse coin line just above the water line.  I'm pretty sure those coins and other items were washed up out of the water, but I'm not completely sure.  The water had been up to the vegetation.

A bit farther south ( I don't know the name of the beach ) I found the cut shown below.

Eroded Bank in Renourishment Sand.

Even though there is a cut here, the cut is in renourishment sand and the same beach was cut down much lower a year or so ago.

I found an MRE this morning.

MRE on Beach This Morning.

Overall, beach conditions remain poor.

Before long I'm sure they'll use Dorian or any other excuse to spend some FEMA money to dump more sand on the beaches.

DJ sent a link to the coastal management plan for our region.

Here it is.

https://connect.xfinity.com/appsuite/#!!&app=io.ox/mail/detail&folder=default0/INBOX&id=176559

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Triton Submarines of Sebastian recently made the first manned dive in fourteen years to the Titanic to document changes to the wreck.

Here is that link.

https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/indian-river-county/2019/08/21/triton-submarine-sebastian-documents-titanic-wreckage/2071692001/

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There are three storms in the Atlantic, but it looks like they'll stay away from Florida.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/10/19 Report - 3000 Ancient Coins Found by Deterctorists. Beach Conditions on the Treasure Coast.

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

Roman Coin Hoard Found By Detectorists.

LINCOLNSHIRE, ENGLAND— The Sleaford Standard reports that a cache of early fourth-century A.D. Roman coins was discovered in eastern England by metal detectorists Rob Jones and Craig Paul. Paul assisted archaeologists Adam Daubney of the Lincolnshire County Council and Sam Bromage of the University of Sheffield with excavation of the more than 3,000 copper-alloy coins. Daubney said the coins were found in a ceramic pot buried in the center of a large oval pit lined with quarried limestone...

Here is the link.

https://www.archaeology.org/news/7643-190509-england-roman-coins

There is always more to find.

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John Brooks Beach Early Friday Morning.

I visited some beach some beaches this morning to see if anything was going on.  My first stop was at John Brooks.

The water had been high.  It washed over the first berm and hit the remains of the old cliff behind that.  Sea weed and sand was washed up onto the beach.

John Brooks Beach Friday Morning.

There were some small cuts where the water hit the old deteriorated cuts.

Frederick Douglass Beach Friday Morning.

Frederick Douglass beach also had seaweed and accumulating sand.

Small Dip In Front of the Beach.

I'm not sure which beach this is, but it is one to the south of Frederick Douglass.  I wanted to show the nice little dip in front of the beach.

Walton Rocks Friday Morning.

This is Walton Rocks.  Again, more seaweed and accumulating sand.

The beaches that I saw were all pretty much the same.  The water had been high, but the angle wasn't good and sand was getting washed in.

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Once again I wish I had stored and labeled finds better.  I learned a good bit about black powder guns in the last two days that I wish I had known before.  I now realize that there are a number of finds that are probably associated.  I'm going to put my percussion hammer, nipple cap and percussion caps together.  The percussion hammer stumped me for a long time.  It just didn't look like any gun hammer that I was familiar with.  I would have recognized a more modern hammer or a flint lock hammer, but I didn't know much of anything about percussion hammers.

I'll also get back on the subject of bullets and shell casings before long.  I got some more emails on that.  It looks like the exploded copper items I found and posted are not of the same era as the black powder gun parts.  I think they came from the same beach area though.  It isn't unusual for items of different ages to be found together.  I'll expect to have more on that tomorrow.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/20/19 Report - How Some Treasure Coast Beaches Are Shaping Up. Big Tides and More Surf Tomorrow.

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

John Brooks Beach This Morning.

I didn't see John Brooks yesterday, but it looked to me like the last high tide took away some sand.  The average cut was about three feet high.  Some places were higher and others lower.

It looked very similar to how it looked back a few weeks ago when there was a big cut.  There were no layers or shells or other major features.  It was just a uniform brown sand.

I checked it out and there were very few widely scattered targets.

John Brooks Beach This Morning.

The cuts ran to the south, decreasing some at Douglass beach.

Frederick Douglass Beach This Morning.

The cuts were smaller at Frederick Douglass beach.

There were some modern coins near the water line at Frederick Douglass.

Blind Creek was cut pretty good Monday, but was mostly filled back in today.

Walton Rocks Beach This Morning.

Maybe I did better yesterday than I thought.  I thought it was all junk, now I'm not so sure.  Some items were encrusted.  I'm pondering what I want to do with them and hope to have some photos later.

The biggest thing for me yesterday and today was that I was able to detect an hour or so without any back problems.  You might remember that I wrote around a year ago that my detecting days might be over.  My back has been better since then, and although I kept my detecting time way down the past couple of days so I wouldn't overwork my back, my back took the exercise with no big problems.  That is a big relief even though I was frustrated that I couldn't put the time in that I wanted to.

Dale J. sent me a variety of photos from around noon yesterday.  He said, The only beaches with only very small new cuts were Golden Sands and N of McLarty.  I didn't see Golden Sands beach yesterday.  His photo or Rio Mar also didn't show any erosion.

Thanks much for the photos and report Dale.

I have some more finds to clean off and photograph.   One of the more interesting ones is heavily encrusted, although I don't know what it is yet.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

The surf is supposed to be even a little higher tomorrow.  The tides are big now too.

The wind has been wobbling and one day one beach will be cut and the next day it will fill again, and another beach will be mush one day and then cut the next.

To use my beach conditions rating scale, I'm tempted to give it a three rating, but it just doesn't seem quite that good.  Of course, I wasn't able to look at all the beaches.  There are just too many beaches and too little time.  Right now I'm wavering between a two and three rating.  I wouldn't be surprised if a few cobs were found, but I would expect the finds to be relatively few.

It takes a lot of perseverance.  You might remember my success formula.  Time spent detecting is one of the biggest factors.

Scouting is also important.  Sometimes time spent scouting is almost as important as time spent detecting.  It doesn't matter how much you detect if you are in a area that isn't producing what you are seeking.  Of course if you are out there a lot, you have a better chance of being there at the right time.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/21/19 Report - A Look At Some Beaches. One Find. Incan Tomb. Some Blood Sucking History On The Indian River Lagoon.

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

Jensen Beach Wednesday Afternoon Near Low Tide.

I was driving down a stretch of South Hutchinson Island yesterday and got to take a look at a few of the beaches.  This was near low tide and before the peak tides that occurred later in the day.

As you can see Jensen Beach didn't look bad for hunting modern items.  There were plenty of people there and a wide low front beach.

Another View of Jensen Beach About the Same Time.

Walton Rocks Yesterday Near Low Tide.

Walton Rocks didn't look so good.  Most of it was covered with seaweed and it was very sandy.

John Brooks Beach A Little Before Low Tide Wednesday.

You can still see a good bit of the old cut at John Brooks.  It didn't look much good.

I did get my detector out for a few minutes and found the following.

Gold Dental Cap.

I think I got some gold even if not much.

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This is one of those days when I've been thinking of a topic that is just too big for a blog post.  For me it is a very important topic, but it would take a lot of time to get it in a form that would do it justice.

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Peruvian archaeologists discovered an Incan tomb in the north of the country where an elite member of the pre-Columbian empire was buried, one of the investigators announced Friday...

Archaeologists believe the tomb belonged to a noble Inca based on the presence of "spondylus," a type of sea shell always present in the graves of important figures from the Incan period, which lasted from the 12th to the 16th centuries.

The tomb had been broken into multiple times, possibly in search of treasure. But despite evidence of looting, archaeologists recovered items including vases...

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

https://phys.org/news/2019-02-archaeologists-incan-tomb-peru.html

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There was a big mosquito bloom on South Hutchinson Island recently.  I had a nice talk with one of the St. Lucie County mosquito control people and learned some interesting things.  While the mosquitoes that populate the island are aggressive and can travel up to 25 miles, they do not carry diseases.  At least that was my understanding of what was said.

I thought this photo was interesting.  These fellows had the job of digging the mosquito control ditches.

The jacquithurlowlippisch.com showed this photo along with the following explanation provided by the author.

The photograph above is one of those rare images that tells you everything even without a caption. This photo, shared by my mother historian, Sandra Henderson Thurlow, (http://www.sandrathurlow.com) was given to her by Mrs. Elizabeth Early, a pioneer of Stuart, “Stuart on the St Lucie.” The photo is entitled “Mosquito Ditch Digging,” and the subjects are unidentified. My mother believes the photo was taken in our region around 1920.

Here is the link for more about mosquito control and the Indian River Lagoon.

https://jacquithurlowlippisch.com/2018/09/14/historic-photos-of-mosquito-control-along-the-indian-river-lagoon/

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I was informed by one reader that one of the detectorists on Dig Wars admitted that some of their "finds" were planted, so in that light it was my mistake to suggest their finds might in any way be illustrative or typical.

As I said just a few days ago, if I post something wrong it isn't long before somebody brings it to my attention, so I can make corrections.

I guess that is also another reminder to be skeptical of "reality" TV.

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The surf is decreasing now.  It looks like we'll get another bump in the surf in a few days.

The tides are big now.  The low tides are really low.  That might present some opportunities.


I'd really like to get more ideas on the mystery item I posted yesterday.

Thanks.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide @comcast.net

12/11/18 Reports - Favorite Coin Finds Of One Blog Reader. Beaches Around the Treasure Coast.

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

Some of Captain Jonah's Favorite Coin Finds.

I asked my readers to send photos of their favorite coin finds.  Captain Jonah Martinez had a variety to choose from.  Having found some of the biggest Treasure Coast finds ever made, he had a lot of excellent choices.  Here are SOME of his favorites.  Escudo Royals are always hard to beat.

Same Royals.

Jonah sent some other choices that I'll show in the future.  For now, this should be enough to keep you drooling.

It is out there.  And remember, these were right up under the sand in front of the beach.

Thanks for sharing Jonah.

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John Brooks Beach Monday Afternoon.

I went out to take a look at some beaches yesterday.  They didn't look much good.  Above you can see John Brooks, which had some new lighter color sand on the beach front.

John Brooks Beach Looking South.

John Brooks was smoothed out since the last time I was there, but there really hadn't been much change at all.

The surf was small due to the northwest winds.

Walton Rocks Beach Monday Afternoon.

I also took a look at Walton Rocks.  It has not changed much for several weeks.

Jensen Beach Tuesday Afternoon.

Jensen Beach looked better than the others.  I would say it was not bad for hunting modern coins.  You can see some cutting, and there had evidently been more in the not too distant past.

Of the three that I looked at, Jensen would be my top choice.   At least there should be some modern coins there and the possibility of a piece of jewelry.

Jensen Beach Yesterday Afternoon.

In the distance to the north, there were some nicer cuts.  Not too bad for hunting modern items.

Today the cool air moved in.  We've been getting a lot of fronts moving through, but they've been quick, with only one or two days of north/northeast wind, and the surf not being very big.

As I said recently, this is the time of year when we have a good chance of some decent beach conditions.  Nothing real good yet though.

Here are the surf predictions from MagicSeaWeed.com.

As you can see, the wind will be from the northwest and then quickly sift to the south.  That isn't too encouraging.  Yet we are supposed to get up to a five foot surf on Wednesday,

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net