Cape Canaveral National Seashore Metal Detecting

[sabre15]

Who thinks there is a large potential of treasure along this piece of national seashore?
Does the Cape ever allow like a once a year open visit to detect its beaches and norht torwards the park?

[pcolaboy]

Man if they did, I would drive down a week a ahead of time to make sure I'm at the front or close to the front of the huge line that would inevitably form.

Pcola

[FISHEYE]

Theres tons of treasure there.No detectors allowed unless you are a ranger.

[ivan salis]

you are kidding right --of course theres stuff there -- its a huge natural ship snag --at night if careless or in bad weather -- for about 150 years (1580's to 1730's) with loaded spanish treasure vessel's running close to land using "dead reckoning" navagation --hugging the coast using "land marks" to navigate by --- the cape was used let them to know when to turn eastward --riding the gulf stream home -- oh yah theres stuf there count on it --now for the bad news -- no they will not let you play in their sand box. ---- Ivan

[sabre15]

I kind of new that answer, But, other than Bureacratic BS, why are they hiding this beach front to us, I would not care if at Kennedy they put a wall on the other side of the dunes like on the Mexico border and we had to walk miles down the beach from the park access, but to own that entire beach front is just wrong. Maybe Nasa will move someday and tear down that area, no thats prime real estate, they would ruin it with high rises.

[Hangingfor8]

You should hear some of the stories the old timers tell about swimming on the Cape and finding pieces of 8 while wading. One gentleman told me after hurricanes you could find the old timbers and ballast piles. I thought they were just stories until he showed me some of his finds from there. All of which were found long before the space center was there.

[ivan salis]

hum just build a good sized sand screening box and be on the look out for ballast rocks --find em start sifting -- without a detector , thats about as good as you can do.

[rgecy]

It will remain a National Seashore even if NASA left. They would do the same thing they did with the Keys. Turn it into a Marine Sanctuary! In eesence it already is. They know whats there and they will do whatever they can to keep salvors out.

[sabre15]

I know the beach is off limits but is the surrounding water?
And do these idiots really know whats out there or is it more an environmental thing?

Idiots meaning government!

[ivan salis]

yes they know theres wrecks there , they would have to be total ******s to think otherwize--- and often enviromental or historcial preserve zone areas are just a way of placing prime salvage areas off limits for "normal" salvor type folks --however state and federal archies can often get accesss to these types of areas for "research" when "normal" folks can not -- basically its a "control issue" --ie they can / we can not

[FISHEYE]

The water is off limits all around NASA.They did open up some fishing areas last year.That area including the land is all watched by Satellites they take a pic every 10 seconds.So if you are heading to close to the beach,i bet you get a visit by the coast guard or a seal team or MIB.All of them armed.Not really worth the risk in going to their brig,loseing your boat and equipment and being interrogated for 3 days.Not much fun.

[diverlynn]

I have magged the outer area of the cape and, yes, we were watched quite a bit.

DL

[wreckdiver1715]

Of course there is the case of the boat load of Chinese foreign nationals who were shipwrecked along the Florida coast a couple years back, and were stranded on the beach adjacent to the Shuttle launch pad. As I recall, they were on the beach for some time before security forces at the Cape discovered that they were camping on the beach.
Or maybe the case of the massive search and rescue looking for a man and his boat from West Palm. They searched for days and found nothing eventually calling off the search. A few days later the boat was found washed up on the beach at the Cape with one or two bodies aboard.
There was yet another story about a plane that crashed at the Cape, and it took days to find the wreckage. Of course, when they found it they were not looking for it.
The offshore area they opened last year for fishing, was open for just about ever, until 9-11 2001, Thank god it didn't take as long to reopen A1A in front of Patrick AFB, or Cocoa Beach would have become a ghost town some years ago. The only reason that NASA opened the area back up was due to political pressure from the fishing industry.
I have walked the beaches at the Cape/Kennedy Space center back when I was in the military, and there is plenty of evidence of old shipwrecks that wash up after every storm. Of course, Bob Marx will tell you that there are no shipwrecks at the cape, followed immediately with a chuckle.

Tom

[ivan salis]

sir robert marx is joking to the max of course , he of all people knows better. -- Ivan

[pippinwhitepaws]

i always wanted one of the V-1's they shot off into the water after WWII.
what a lawn ornament.

[diverlynn]

I think I found one of those. It was a "practice" bomb I was told. North of the cape.

DL

[sabre15]

How close to the land did you get?

[pippinwhitepaws]

at the end of WWII, the US military took captured German rockets to the cape and shot them off, reverse engineering the technology.

i read there were over twenty V-1's shot off into the ocean. a few V-2 also.

[FISHEYE]

After the last hurricane of 2004 i walked 8 miles of that beach and found some bronze spikes inbedded in some giant shipwreck beams that was exposed in the dunes.Further down i found a rudder post with copper nails and sheathing still attached.Before i went on the beach i asked a ranger if it was ok to take driftwood off the beach,he said take all you want.I have the spikes and the rudder post.The wood is perfect since it was buried in the dunes since whatever ship it came off of was wrecked.

[divewrecks]

I had the good fortune to walk a section of the beach last year. I am on an aerospace technical committee on welding that NASA participates in. They offered the use of the "Beach House" for our two days of committeee meetings. It is on a remote part of the facility and as the name implies it sits right on the beach. You can read about it here:

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/shuttle/beach_house.html

Looking both North and South from here it is desolate beach as far as you can see. During our lunch break on both days our host said it was cool if we wanted to walk on the beach. One day I walked about a half mile North and the next about a half mile South. I saw what could have been timbers exposed in one area and there was plenty of other miscellaneous flotsam washed up on the beach. What a place to really get down to business! I think I could have gotten away with using my detector if I had brought it. Nobody took me seriously when I was talking about looking for treasure and shipwrecks.

Hopefully I will have the opportunity to visit again inthe future!

Stan