Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Four Railroad Spike Sledge Hammer Heads. |
I always say, if there is an piece of ground that is available to you, hunt it. You might not find the queen's jewels, but you might be surprised by what you do find, and you'll probably learn something from the experience even if you don't find anything good.
Yesterday I hunted a piece of gound not more than a hundred yards from my house that was recently cleared. It was nothing but a tangled mess of trees and vines, but Iwas eager to see what was there. Within the first 15 minutes I found these four hammer heads (above) together in one spot.
I was using the Minelab Equinox with iron response turned off. The hammer heads sproduced a 14 on the digital display.
The area has some power lines overhead that created a lot of static on the Equinox.
Come to think of it, the first target dug was the metal end of a shot gun shell. I just stuck it in my pocket.
After the hammer heads, I started hitting these twisted wire hoops, which measure about fourteen inches across. Also what looked like a barrel hoop, which I didn't get out of the ground because of all the roots growing through it.
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| Twissted Wire Loops. |
The last item found during what I would guess was a twenty minute hunt was the metal cup shown below. It looks like it had a handle that rusted and broke off.
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| Dug Metal Cup. |
That was my first exploration of the area. I will probably hunt it many more times. I think there are still more hoops and other big things to remove before I start getting more of the smaller items.
After a break, and after writing the above, I took a Garrett Ace out to detect the same area. I knew there would be a lot more stuff out there, including a lot of big stuff that I wanted to remove. Unlike the Equinox, the Ace had almost no static, even under the power lines.
With the Ace, it seemed like a different world. It reacted differently, and I was hearing different things than I heard with the Equinox. Nonetheless, I picked up some of the same kinds of things.
Here are some things I dug with the Ace. You can see two metal hoops with the nails still in place, plus another twisted wire loop. These hoops and wire loops were found on top of each other.
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| Hoops and Loop Dug From Woods. |
So what were the hoops and loops for? A little research turned up the following photo.
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| Wooden Nail Keg. |
The hoops and wire loops match those shown on the wooden nail keg shown above. It looked like the this wood keg could have rotted in place, and the hoops stayed where the keg originally sat.
If I use the Oak Island method of interpretation, the keg probably contained gold being carried by the Knights Templar, but if I'm more reasonable and if I put it associate the keg with the hammer heads, maybe the keg was filled with spikes. That is a working hypothesis anyhow. I don't know why the items were so far from the tracks, especially in such a thick woods, if that is what the area was like at the time.
Trying to get an idea of a possible timeline, here is what I found.
Before it became the FEC, the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Indian River was constructing a line southwards from Daytona Beach in 1894. Fort Pierce was reached on January 29, and West Palm Beach on March 22.
Anyhow, I was happy to find such an exact match for the hoops and loops. Since the hoops are intact and the nails are still in the hoops, I assume the wood just rotted away.
So far I have been surprised by the relative lack of individual nails.
I often advise covering land sites multiple times with multiple detectors. On the intial hunt, you are just getting an overall impression, developing a mental map of finds, and removing some of the big targets that would mask many other targets.
Here is a post on how to conduct what I call an intensive step-search.
It is good to detect different kinds of areas. You will always learn something when you detect different types of land. If you are a beach hunter, you'll find that detecting a land site can be difficult, especially if it is wooded. Your pinpointing skills will be tested. Recovery of items will be more difficult when you can't just sift a scoop of sand. All the leaves, twigs and roots can make it more difficult.
When there are power lines or other sources of ambient interference, you'll have to learn how to deal with that. You might have to select a different frequency, and you might learn that one detector will work better than another under those circumstances.
I like to cover the same ground with different detectors. You'll find items with one detector that you will miss with another. When you switch detectors, you'll discover advantages and disadvantages of each detector.
The Ace and Equinox detectors reacted to this situation very differently. The Ace was great with the power lines, but I missed the digital numeric output of the Equinox. If I made some adjustments, maybe I could get the Equinox quieted down around the power lines, but the Ace required no adjustments.
I'll be going back to this site several times. I haven't covered much of the open ground yet, and I know that so far I have only barely scratched the surface. I am beginning to form a mental map based upon the first targets detected. I missed many spots, including some that were still covered with vegetation. I know there are more hoops and loops to be removed before I get to focus on smaller targets,
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We are getting a south wind and two-foot seas. That is what is predicted for the next several days.
The tides are getting a little bigger. I'm hoping to catch a good low tide some time soon.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net