St. Augustine Cobs

[TNBob]

Anyone know where they are finding cobs around the beaches of St. Augustine, FL? PM me please, I want to detect there. Bob

[Hangingfor8]

Be careful hunting around there. There are a bunch of places you aren't allowed to be at with a detector.

[Diver_Down]

The south of Anastasia Island is Matanzas Inlet. From the beach access ramp south is offlimits. The National Park Service patrols the area regularly. North of the Matanzas access ramp up to the Pier is wide open. North of the Pier is Anastasia State Park. The MD'ing is allowed depending on the ranger on patrol. You can gain access to the beach, but there is 4 miles of beach north of the last public beach access. Not too many persons venture beyond this access.

[divewrecks]

Hey Diver_Down, I was looking at the area you are talking about on Google maps. By "last public beach access" I assume you mean the Anastasia Park Road lot with a turnaround. Is that right? Are you saying that some of the rangers hassle you searching that four mile stretch of beach? Have you had any personal good finds there?

Thanks,
Stan

[Diver_Down]

Hey Diver_Down, I was looking at the area you are talking about on Google maps. By "last public beach access" I assume you mean the Anastasia Park Road lot with a turnaround. Is that right? Are you saying that some of the rangers hassle you searching that four mile stretch of beach? Have you had any personal good finds there?

Thanks,
Stan

Anastasia State Park (ASP) beach has two (three actually) access points. Both are from the parking lot turnaround that you reference. The third is actually from the Pope Road parking lot adjacent to the St. Augustine Beach Resort. No admission fees. Just park and walk north. Regardless of where you park, you gain access to the south area of the state park. The northern area is about 4 miles until you reach the inlet. No one really goes there except the healthy joggers/walkers. Most of your tourists will congregate in the state park access areas.

Now, some of the rangers don't give a crap, but others will hassle you. The hassle consists of telling you that MD'ing isn't allowed and ask you to leave. Getting hassled is a remote possibility as most of the rangers are so preoccupied with the camping area that the beach is ignored. So long as you fill your holes, they probably won't bother you.

Expect to dig, alot. The area offshore of ASP was used for Naval ordinance testing in WW2. There is tons of shrapnel. On occasion, actual unexploded ordinance has been discovered (not recently, the last time was a couple of years ago). You can expect to find the clad, jewelry, etc. that is lost from tourists.

IMO, you are better off on the county beaches. Less trash (shrapnel) and way more tourists. If you are hellbent on detecting the inlet area of St. Augustine than you are better served hitting Villano Beach. Villano is located directly across from the state park sharing the inlet.

Matanzas is not worth the hassle of the Nat'l Park Service. Also, you have to realize that the inlet at the time of Spanish rule was located at the present day access ramp for Mantazas.