Treasure Coast Report....

Mitch1FL

Full Member
Oct 6, 2004
119
10
Sebastian, Florida
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Garrett GTI1500/AT-Pro/Minelab Excalibur
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Well I know everyone wanted to hear that we were finding gold bars all over the beaches here. But it was not to be. The storm did very little to the beaches here. Remember that the hurricanes of 2004 severely eroded the beaches, in many cases all the way back to the old dune. The county and state in its infinite wisdom and to appease all the rich condo and homeowners living on the beaches, decided to replenish the sand after the 2004 season. They claimed it was for tourism. But yet the county does not promote tourism. They want to keep Indian River County all to themselves. Most places now sport a nice wide but ugly filled-in beach. Not a nice white sandy beach, but this ugly gray pumped in muck. Most areas are filled with a 50-foot wide by about 10 foot deep pile of this mess.
Also all public beaches in IRC were off limits and closed to NON-residents, as in NON-beach residents. Just like in 2004. Once again sighting public safety as an excuse. But yet they allowed the beach resident to go down to “their” beach! They did not drive down the beach and tell the residents that it was unsafe and they could not pick up seashells or metal detect. And we all know about a certain police dept that in 2004 chased people off the beach so they could go down with their detectors and find stuff themselves. (FACT).

Ok, sorry I got a little side tracked…..
But now I will get down off my soapbox and get back to the storm,

Basically the storm was not strong enough to cut the beaches back to their post 2004 hurricane status. I put over 100 miles on my truck the day of the storm, checking the sites. There was NO significant erosion anywhere. I don’t know and did see any Spanish treasure, coins or other wise that was recovered. I think there may have been a possibility of some ½ or 1 reales washing up out of the troughs and unto the beaches, but certainly not any heavy 4 or 8 reales. There were NO cuts even close to the dunes in my area. We did work a few beaches that had cuts. But we only had hope of finding post 2004 jewelry drops. But that was not to be either. All we found was coins, fishing sinkers and junk!

Better Luck next time.
 

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South of Sebastian Inlet, the first reef starts almost at the waters edge. This reef was (is) filled with artifacts. At low tide, it was visible and you could actually walk on it. Anybody remember the old KellyCo catalog adds showing them detecting on top of this reef? When was the last time anyone has seen it? Right, the beach nourishment project that stevemc referred to has covered it. (where are the environmentalist when you need them ;) )

The rockpile on the beach at the base of the McLarty museum used to be quite steep but after they added several feet of fill dirt on the beach, it was only a couple of feet high.

All that added extra dirt makes things difficult for us salvors too because as it slowly washes back off the beach, even under 'normal' sea conditions, the water visibility is reduced even more than than the usual few feet or so.
 

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