Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| John Brooks Beach Monday Morning. |
When I got up this morning, it was breezy and rainy. I decided to go out to the beach before it got hot. I visited both John Brooks and Frederick Douglass beaches.
You can see here what John Brooks beach looked like.
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| John Brooks Beach Monday Morning. |
By the time I got there the sun came out and it got hot.
The waves were pretty high and hitting from the southeast. Looked like the three to five feet that was predicted.
As you can see, the front cut was still there. I don't think it changed much since the last time I was there.
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| Frederick Douglass Beach Monday Morning. |
As is often the case, Frederick Douglass beach looked very much like John Brooks.
Not many targets there either.
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| Frederick Douglass Beach Monday Morning. |
I would have checked out a few more beaches, but didn't have much time.
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |
Looks like the surf will be decreasing for a few days.
It looks like Laura will be going south, but according to MagicSeaWeed, Key West is still supposed to get up to an eight foot surf.
Yesterday I mentioned metal detecting in the Florida Keys. I used to do that a bit when I lived farther south. It was a bit of a drive to the Keys, but about the same as the drive to the Treasure Coast.
You are always at a bit of a disadvantage when going to new places and metal detecting areas that are new to you.
Two or three decades have passed since the days when I used to metal detect in the Keys. I'm pretty sure that some of the places will no longer be accessible.
For example I used to detect the swimming area at John Pennekamp State Park on Key Largo. I did well there with modern jewelry, but I doubt you can detect in the park anymore.
The last time I looked, there was a flood advisory in effect for the Keys, so you need to consider the weather and road conditions. The highway is not very high or far from the water in some areas.
When you visit areas that are new to you, you have to be careful to not get yourself into trouble especially when there are weather advisories.
It is up to you to observe the rules and regulations and behave safely and wisely.
I'll always remember stopping at Art McKee's museum one day when there were no cars in the parking lot at the time. Art came out and talked. Art was a friendly guy, and if you were lucky he would give you a personal tour. Of course the museum is not longer in operation, and I don't know if the building is still there or if it has been converted to something else.
As you probably know a lot of treasure has been found in the Keys. They have a long rich history and there are many treasure stories. There are many wrecks along the Keys and many stories of Blackbeard.
As one example, the workers at the Key West cemetery once dug up a chest along with lots of loose treasure coins and jewelry. There are many stories of chests and bullion bars being found in the Keys.
A fellow I met on the beaches of Fort Lauderdale many years ago, Arkansas Bill, found some big silver bars in the Keys. Bill lived in a van and traveled around metal detecting. He would normally hit Fort Lauderdale around Spring Break. I got to know him from there. He was one of those characters back in the day that you would never hear about. He initially tried to pass the bars off as lead, but they were silver. Like I've said before, a lot of the more serious detectorists back then were very secretive. They weren't trying to get attention. Just the opposite.
Anyhow, there were, and I suspect still are, some treasure coin beaches in the Keys where people pulled over and did some metal detecting. They were just feet from the highway.
One of the places I always detected when down that way was good for modern jewelry instead of Spanish coins. You could pull off the highway and walk out into the water. I think it might have been Matacumbe Key. If not, it was around there. It didn't look like a good place to metal detect. It was weedy and muddy. The bottom was so muddy you would sink in to your ankles every step you too., but every time I was there I would find some modern gold. It worked because if you had a ring on and stuck your hand in the mud, you would definitely lose the ring. I could imagine people first losing their footwear to the suction, and then sticking their hand to get their footwear and losing a ring.
I just wanted to issue some precautions. The Keys are always interesting, even if it is a long drive, but be sure to do some research before going. Be sure to check the weather and road conditions first if you ever decide to try it.
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You might know about Frank Hudson's treasure books. He gives a lot of leads for detecting sites in the Keys. Some say that they aren't very accurate, but I received an email from one reader who said he investigated one of the leads and found the book very accurate and helpful.
Here is the link to that post.
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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net