2/23/17 Report - Research Tips For Locating Good Old Sites. Stuff Found In Walls. Increasing Surf.

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

I was looking back at some old posts and noticed some that I think should be posted again.  I forgot about them and suspect many other readers did too.  Newer blog readers probably never read them.  I will post some of those that I think are worth rereading even if you might have read them years ago.

James F. consistently submitted pictures of great old finds.  He made fantastic finds while many others were complaining that there were no good places left to hunt.  I asked James if he would give some tips on how to conduct research that leads to the kind of  finds that he was always making.  

One of the things he said is that although the internet helps, the overwhelming majority of historical information, .maps, narratives, and photographs still exist only in hardcopy form.  I suspect that is still true today but perhaps to a lesser extent.

Here is  what James said.

The first thing I did to locate the steamboat artifact was a quick on-line search looking for generalities like major areas of steamboat activity in Florida. On-line sources indicated the St. Johns River (which flows northward, by the way) and the chain of lakes it includes (Lake Jesup, Mullet Lake, Lake Monroe, Lake Poinsett, et al) where almost teeming with steamboat traffic for almost 80 years ago, all the way from Jacksonville to Rockledge (Cocoa Beach) Florida. With this general data, I went to my local library and specifically searched for information about 19th century steamboat activity within my region...Sanford, Geneva, Oveido, Lake Mary etc. I then looked for historic facts specifically targeting those town's level of involvement with steamboat operations; Fruit and vegetable shipments, cargo and passenger operations, Seminole and Civil War materials and troops movements by steamboat, etc. It is all readily publicly available information using a few keywords like steamboat, shipping and check the index in the back of hardcover books. Once I identified the towns involved, I narrowed the focus down even further, by selecting a specific town or area to hunt.

One of my favorite sources of research material in this regard is best obtained from small local museums or historical societies. Many of these little (or not so little) organizations have some very specific resources available to you, you cannot find anywhere else; self-published books on the local area, old maps on display, people who can tell you, through family history, of certain things or places not found in a book. It was from a couple of these organizations I discovered information regarding several close-by areas where steamboat traffic and operations were very prevalent in the mid-19th Century. Using this information...old maps, photographs, drawings and other facts, I managed to piece together a promising site. A quick look on-line of aerial map views through either Google or Bing Bird's Eye (I like Bing best for this sort of search as it has very, very clear aerials that get within 25 feet of the ground) will yield current information about the site before your actual recon of the physical place. This gives you site coordinates that you will use to navigate to the location; nearby roads, landmarks and GPS information, etc.

From there, I find the online website of the local tax assessor and locate the property plat, which also gets me the name and address (sometimes even the phone number) of the owner. Again, all publicly available information. I then make a cursory visit to the site, and if it looks searchable (i.e. not swampy or too snake infested) I'll call or visit the owner and try to get permission. I always offer something in return: a free 2-hour metal detection search anytime in the future if they or someone they know loses a valuable item, or I ask if they would like to accompany me while I hunt and have their pick of the items recovered. It is their land. If you have any people skills at all, you should be able to get on site, and maybe even an invitation to come back by the landowner. That's it in a nutshell...remember to look out for snakes!

There it is. Some great tips that work. Thanks again James!

Let me repeat and summarize a few of the main points.

1. Do a preliminary search to become more familiar with the topic, identify important key words that can lead to other resources, and iteratively refine your search.

2. Check with local museums and historical societies.

3. Talk to people who may have personal knowledge.

4. Use the internet but go beyond that.

Your research will become more productive as you accumulate a depth of knowledge and variety resources on specific locales and topics.

---

Once you start digging — whether excavating long-populated urban land for a commercial project or tearing down the walls of a house — you never know what you’ll find. It might be a ritual object placed there to ward off evil spirits 300 years ago, or a few decades ago. It might have been put there on purpose or left by accident. Unless it’s a time capsule with a note enclosed, you’ll never know for sure.

Every building carries history within its walls, ceilings, floors and foundations. The very wood, plaster and stone can contain powerful secrets, even talismans, some of which were placed there for future inhabitants to find — a thread linking past and future...

That is the beginning of an interesting article.

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/realestate/the-history-hidden-in-the-walls.html?_r=0

Thanks to Doug for the link.

---


Today the surf was something like 2 - 4 feet.  Expect 4 - 6 feet tomorrow.  I'd like to see the beaches get stirred up.  Unfortunately the tides won't be high.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/25/14 Report - Florida Coin Shooter's Dream Come True! Reader Of This Blog Finds 335 Silver Coins On One Small Lot!

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



Silver Coins Dug By One Reader At One Small Site.
Look at that parade of Walking Halves!
Photo rights reserved.

Finally!  I've been itching to tell you about this for months now.  Finally I can do it. Remember, you got it here first, right here on the Treasurebeachesreport.BlogSpot.com.

Back in April of 2014 a small run-down condemned bungalow built in Florida in the early 1900s was condemned and demolished. Old silver coins spilled out of the walls - 60 pounds of them. But that is not what I'm going to tell you about today.  I'm going to tell you about what happened when one of this blog's readers, who will remain anonymous, followed up on the story.

Here is what he had to say.

 

When I read the news of the hoard and the method it was discovered, I thought some of the silver coins might have made it into the ground.  I was cautiously optimistic, but when I heard that the demo work had occurred months before I thought surely the area had been scoured since it was an open secret amongst the city workers, as there were multiple workers on site when the coins were initially discovered.  I worked out a deal with the current owner to split my finds 50/50.  I found one coin in the first half hour (a 1906 Barber dime unrelated to the hoard) before finding a large concentration of coins.  In about 3 hours I found 125 silver coins, many of them halves.  In one expanding hole I found 30 silver coins!

Silver Coins Found First Day On The Site.
Photo rights reserved.

 

The search was made much more difficult because 6-8 inches of fill had been spread on top of the site after demolition.  Many of the coins were deep and gave marginal signals.  There was also a huge amount of trash.   After searching the area over eight visits using every method that I could muster, including different swing directions, different coils, trash removal, digging all questionable signals, searching after hard rain, and even blind digging in spots, I found thirty more coins after having 4-6 inches removed with a Bobcat (I have a family connection and how I wish I had access to that Bobcat all the time!).

Silver Coins Found Second Day On Site.
Photo rights reserved..

I searched carefully for buried jars, but no luck with further caches.

My total silver count for the site was 335 coins.

One other quick note.  A city worker who was on-site the day the coins were discovered during demolition said that their project manager was impatient and did not want to delay the demo job for long while the coins were collected.  They carefully picked up all they saw, but scoops of dirt and debris had already been loaded in the dumpster prior to discovery.  The worker pulled out a few handfuls of dirt…and found silver coins.  The site manager did not want to search that dirt so it was hauled to the dump!  After hearing this story, I made some effort to find out the exact location the debris was dumped but, since it occurred several months prior, the search was fruitless.  I guess silver coins are still being lost!

 

Congratulations!!  And thanks or sharing.  It is always good to see people do so well. 

 

Back when the project started the detectorist commented to me on how going back over the same ground in different ways was productive.

 

There are some good hints in that story.

 

In that number of coins, and they look to be in very nice condition, there have to be some good dates and maybe even some error coins.

 

I was invited to be in on the project from the beginning, but tried to give what advice and assistance I could via email.  I missed a lot of fun, but I'm happy about the outcome nonetheless.

 

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

 

 

8/12/14 Report - Archaeology Site Closed. How To Decide When To Quit. More On Walls Full Of Silver Coins. No Cyclones.

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


Treasure Coast Beach This Morning


I found this interesting article that raises some questions.  It is about an archaeological site that has been studied since Victorian days and was more recently excavated by numerous students and professionals until one archaeologist finally declared that there was 'nothing left except gravel and natural geology.'

Here is a brief excerpt from hat article.

The public is invited in for one last open day Saturday, when there will be tours, craft demonstrations, and displays of this year's best finds, including a red pottery bowl as immaculate as if made yesterday, a massive thumb ring with an enamel inlay, and a copper alloy bottle opener, which proved to be the folding handle of a Roman soldier's skillet – apart from the decoration, almost identical to a first world war mess tin handle.

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/aug/08/silchester-roman-town-closes-natural-geology-archaeological-excavation-ends%20%20

One person wondered how long a site should be dug.   That to me is an interesting question.   This site was dug until they decided that there was nothing left but gravel and dirt.

That question of when to quit can be applied to metal detecting too.  When do you quit on a detecting site?   The answer depends on a lot of factors.  

If it is a site where there is continual replenishment of targets, such as a beach, then the answer might be never.

If you ask the question about a shipwreck site, for some the answer might still be never - at least not in their lifetime.   But for others the time to give up might come much sooner.  

The time to give up isn't necessarily when there is nothing left.  It might be much sooner when there are other more productive site.  You only have so much time to spend.

The decision about when to give up on a land site is often easier than a shipwreck site. 

Still the decision can be difficult.  Is the site really hunted out?  That might depend on you talk to. 

Will technology improve enough to make a site more productive again - perhaps in different ways?  That is another question.

Personally, I still am often surprised by how many times I can go over a land site and continue to find things.   That is especially true when you have used one detector or technique and then the next time use another detector or technique.  It is easy to think a site is cleaned out when there is still more to be found.

The goal is always one of the main considerations.   Without specific goals, you can't really evaluate success.  What do you want to find?  What types of things?   Is the goal to get everything, or only the best things?

In this study it seems that one of the most earth-shattering conclusions is that olives were eaten in England earlier than thought.   How important is it to know that?  To me it doesn't seem very important.   Not important enough to spend tons of time and money on.  But you never know what you will find before you begin.

Some people would say the fact that olives were eaten in England earlier than thought is or could be very important.  I'm sure those people are the ones that expect to get something out of the study - if not a salary, perhaps publications, recognition and professional advancement.  Good for them!  But is that why the site is being studied.  Judge for yourself.

It seems to me that archaeology is often practiced as if the primary purpose was to keep archaeologists employed. 

Lets not forget about the red pottery bowl, massive thumb ring and bottle opener that the pubic will get to view.  And whatever important information those objects might add.   But do the results justify the cost?  That is a question that should be answered.  Is it the best use of time and resources?

The same can be said of a metal detecting site.   Do the results justify the costs? 

In my opinion, that question should be answered in a very different way than a project that is being funded involuntarily by tax-payers. 

Metal detecting is voluntarily done by individuals at their own cost.  Many of the products are difficult to quantify -  recreation, exercise, lost items found and returned, and even occasionally but rarely, important discoveries that lead to archaeological investigations.

Whether you are talking about an archaeological project, shipwreck salvage (also archaeological but privately funded), or a simply metal detecting, there is a decision to be made.  In each of those three cases the decision should be made in a different way, but in all cases the decision has to be made. 

In all three cases, the decision has to be made without perfect knowledge.  You never quite know if you are quitting too soon or if there might be  better place to spend your time.  And in all three cases, there is a subjective element.  No matter how well you collect data and analyze what you have found, there is always the element of the unknown.  And that is a good part of what makes it so exciting.



More on the old house full of old coins. 

One city worker thought it might be finders keepers at first.

And they kept it quiet for months waiting to see if someone came foreward to claim the money.

Interesting.

Here is another article on the house with walls full of coins.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/trash-cash-florida-workers-find-2-000-silver-coins-demolition-article-1.1897886


There is nothing tropical going on in the Atlantic.

On the Treasure Coast the surf is small.  At the beach above, the unusually big tides from the Super Moon didn't do anything good.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net