Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
 |
| Railroad Track Anchors. |
Yesterday I reported on a hunt I began on a partially cleared wooded lot. I found some railroad sledge hammer heads and some hoops and twisted wire from what was probably a rotted nail keg. I guess the wood could have been burned rather than rotted, but in any case, it was no longer present and I saw no evidence of burning.
So I decided to search the same lot a little more on Friday morning. I decided to use the Garrett Ace, a cheap little detector that does a nice enough job on dry land. it did great ignoring the power line interference, but one thing I didn't mention about it yesterday is the small coil, which can be a good choice when working between trees and bushes and in tight spaces, although contact with vegetation often causes false signals.
It didn't take me much more than a few minutes to make some more finds. I found my first coin from the lot - a banged up penny that was destroyed beyond dating.
Then there was a group of what I learned through research are called rail anchors. They were also in a group like the sledge hammer heads that I found yesterday. Six of the rail anchors are shown above. I know there are a least one or two remaining in the same hole. I'll get them out some other time.
Then came a bit of a surprise. This piece of a two-sided enameled sign was dug up. When I first felt it I thought it might be an old license plate.
 |
| Two Sides of Same Piece of Old Sign. |
I'm still hoping that the other piece of that sign can be found. If nothing else, I'd like to know what it said.
Saturday morning I returned to the same site with the Garrett Ace. I was going to head to the area where the sign was found but got distracted and never got there.
The first find this morning was a twenty-two shell. Next came a couple more hoops and twisted wire - evidence of another wood keg.
Then I hit a hole that kept me busy for a while. You'll see why.
I found one of these tie plates yesterday and forgot to mention it, but found two more this morning.
 |
| Railroad Tie Plates. |
Next were some spikes, bolts and rail anchors.
 |
| Miscellaneous Railroad Hardware. |
Funny how often like things are found together. First I found bolts, then later I found a group of nuts, then later, I found a group of bolts with the nuts still on them.
 |
| Fish Bolts and Nuts. |
Here are the names of the parts from railway-fasteners.com.
Most of those came from one BIG hole. I don't know why so many parts are so far away from the tracks.
I'll continue searching this land. It is the type of place that when you look at it you don't have reason to believe it will yield anything, but it has been interesting, and I'm eager to hunt it some more. My hope is to find more of the enameled sign, some marked railroad parts and some other types of things. My search strategy involves first removing a lot of the junk that might mask other things. So far I have found very little junk other than the railroad iron - just a couple nails and a couple pices of foil. I'm sure there will be more of that when I'm done picking up the railroad items. Unfortunately it has been so rusted that if there were any marks, I couldn't find them.
I'll stick with the Ace for a while, and then switch to another detector.
I've also been back to what I'll call the west shipwreck site, where I found an interesting looking item that needs cleaning.
---
 |
| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |
From the surf predictions, it looks like there is a long-shot that we might get an increase in surf next Friday or thereabouts. Good chance it won't happen, but still hoping.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net