where to swing your detector in s. florida for old stuff
Bob Carr wrote a couple of books about digging sites in Miami and the Everglades. It has a ton of insight where stuff has been found, including a 1600's English coin dropped in a hammock, he believes probably by Yamassee or Creek slavers (English allies at the time) on a raid. That hammock was located on the FIU campus, and was bulldozed just a few years ago. I'm thinking that is the oldest coin recovered in Dade County that has been publicly acknowledged.
finding really old stuff in s. florida is tough because most of it is developed or protected. All freshwater navigable waters are protected. State and federal parks are all off-limits,as are county historical sites. All offshore state waters are protected, though not enforced against old, snowbird geezers with metal detectors right along the beaches, except where, I'm told, there are active salvage leases.
You need a permit from the Fl. dept. of state to search Florida waters for new sites. I suppose there's nothing to stop one from putting up a drone and locating wrecks, or dragging a magnetometer behind a boat, and then diving on it, but to do more than eyeball it, you need the permit. To get the permit, I think you need an archeologist from a state certified university or archeological organization onboard supervising.
I've heard the military has been surveying the coastline to locate wrecked military ships and planes. It would be nice to get hold of that data.
