Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
A few days ago I posted this link My pioneer days in Florida, 1876-1898 (ufl.edu).
Maybe you've also heard about the old Jungle Trail north of Vero.
The Historic Jungle Trail is an 8-mile sandy road on Orchid Island - a barrier island along the Indian River north of Vero Beach. The road, now on the National Registry of Historical Places, was built in the 1920's for citrus growers to move their produce. To the north, the trail starts off A1A at Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge - America's first Wildlife Refuge (more below). To the south, it ends at A1A at Old Winter Beach Road. The well-maintained road goes through coastal hammock and is open to cars, but lightly used with few cross-streets or driveways. The hard-packed sand is fine for most bikes, with just a few soft spots.
Historic Jungle Trail, FL Biking, Hiking. E-Z Map, 20+ Photos. (100floridatrails.com)
From the northern end point, the trail begins in Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, the nation's first wildlife refuge established in 1903 by Teddy Roosevelt to protect birds from feather hunters. Bird feathers were widely used to decorate women's hats in the early 20th century, and Florida's barrier islands were teeming with the most vulnerable of species...
See also Historic Jungle Trail | Florida Trails | TrailLink.
As you know, some of the nearby beaches produced tons of very small caliber shot lead bullets. I've often wondered if they could be from plume hunting, which was popular at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. I really don't know about that, but I have no better explanation.
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A couple weeks ago we had some decent hunting that provided an excellent training exercise. There was just enough movement to create a few scattered coin holes. They weren't great holes. They didn't have very old coins in them, but there were some that had some age to them. The holes were scattered and you had to be able to read the beach to find them, unless you were lucky enough to stumble on them by pure luck.
When you are learning, it doesn't help much when targets are all over the place, but you do need enough targets so that you can identify distribution patterns. If targets are too scarce, you don't get enough data points to identify coin holes and lines.
South Florida is a good place for a relative beginner to learn metal detecting. You can find a few coins almost any time, and there are enough to provide a lot of observations. The coin holes and coin lines are frequent enough and dense enough to be easily identified.
You might not be much interested in modern coins, but you will learn a lot about your detector and metal detecting by picking up lots of coins and other modern items. It will also help you learn about patterns and how coins and other things are distributed by the movement of water and sand. One or two coins aren't enough to make an easily identifiable coin line. A lot of the time when you find an old Spanish coin, there will be very few - sometimes only one on a beach - which makes it impossible to identify any distribution patterns.
For a short time a couple of weeks ago, the finds were mostly modern, but the good spots were scarce enough to make looking for them a little challenging, yet there were enough good spots and enough coins that distribution patterns could be identified.
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There are still some modern finds being made. The following was just in time for Valentine's day.
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| Nice Gold Ring With Red Stone. |
One day I talked about fancy serial numbers. Jeff wrote about a bill that he treasures.
I have another category of rare currency serial numbers for you: it’s historical. I have a twenty-dollar bill that falls into that category. The serial numbers are JB, my initials; followed by 0, which could mean anything from my IQ to my net worth; followed by 1961, which was a famous year in Yankee history because Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were duking it out for the homerun title; followed by 54, which was the number of homeruns Mickey Mantle hit that year; followed by 7, which was Mantle’s number: followed by a star, which is an unusual designation on any note. I’ve had it for a number of years. I call it my Mickey Mantle note. I’m waiting for somebody like Bill Gates or Elon Musk, or even Billy Crystal – who’s a huge Yankee fan – to seek me out, and would be willing to part with a small fortune to own my twenty-dollar note. In the mean time it hangs on my wall until the day I’m down to my last twenty dollars. Jeff.
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A few days ago I showed some finds, which included what I referred to as a vest watch chain. Larry wrote and said it is just costume jewelry. Thanks Larry. I think that is right. At the time I didn't really look it over very good.---
Here is one thing to remember when the beaches are building. That sand is coming from somewhere. If you find out where the sand is leaving, you might find some good hunting.
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MagicSeaWeed is predicting another week of one and two foot surf. Too bad, but it might force you to do some other things.
There is always some place to hunt and something to find.
I'm in the process of clearing some overgrowth that I hope to be hunting someday soon.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net