Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
On the beach, you have two main divisions. There is the front beach that daily gets hit by the water, and there is the back beach that only gets hit by water when the tides and surf are unusually high.
Where you find things on the front beach will be determined very much by the shape and density of the items. The more the items have been exposed to the force of the water, the more complete the sifting and sorting of items will be. When the waves and tides are bigger, the sorting happens faster.
On the back beach, items will stay close to where they were dropped for longer periods of time since they are not exposed, except rarely, to the moving water. They do get moved some by things like people walking or running over them, and a back beach can get changed dramatically during a renourishment project, which is a special case.
An inland site, by comparison, is more like a back-beach because it is normally not exposed to anything like daily tides or waves. Unless there is a construction project or something, things stay pretty much where they were lost.
There are many similarities and differences between inland sites and beach sites when it comes to metal detecting. Comparing inland and beach sites can be instructive
No matter whether you are working a beach or inland site, there are certain tactics or strategies that you'll find helpful. One is keeping track of exactly where things are found. As I suggested yesterday, a site map can be helpful. You don't have to put it on paper or on your computer, but that can be helpful in some cases. Usually a beach hunt won't result in a site map that is very complicated - especially if you are working a front beach, or a busy beach that gets detected on a regular basis. You can often keep track of that mentally.
One thing you might consider if you are working a long-term site that involves a good number of targets is using markers. The markers can be little flags or marked stakes or spray painted lines or spots.
With some metal detectors you can log the GPS coordinates of various finds and things. However that might not always be the most convenient or effective way to get an overall view of the site. I've found it useful to be able to look over the lot I've been detecting and see where things were found and the relationship between different spots or areas. Flags or stakes can be very useful in a case like that. On a beacch, you can often look back and see where you dug things, even if you very nicely filled your holes. Then you can see if there is a coin line or coin hole, for example.
As you probably know, I've been enjoying working an inland site that has produced many railroad items. In my most recent hunts I cleaned out one area that held a lot of rusty nails and other small connectors, and another area that was packed with nearly a hundred railroad spikes. They were obviously dumped there as a group. Here are some of the spike removed from that small area.
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| Pile of Railraod Spikes Removed From One Hole. |
Since all of those spikes were heavily rusted, I didn't think there would be much use of inspecting them more carefully, but my wife took a look at some of the less rusted ones and noticed that they were marked.
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| "A" Mark Visible on The Head of Two Spikes |
If big John Henry hit one of these spikes with his hammer, I doubt the A would still be so clearly visible. In fact these spikes show no evidence of being hammered.
I've been wondering if the many railroad items found on this lot came from the time the railroad was originally constructed or from later repairs. This pile of spikes, some of which look like they were never used, seems to suggest the former, but it could be both.
The vast majority of items I've found on this lot seem to be railroad related. I've found very little else. There were a few items that I think are related to the power poles and lines, and a couple recent pennies, but very little other unrelated junk. Almost all of the non-railroad items have come from the northwest corner of the lot. It seems that the briars and thick vegetation has pretty much protected the lot in recent years.
I made another find that I thought was interesting. It was something I hadn't seen before - a miniature railroad spike.
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| Baby Railroad Spike. |
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| Irish Immigrants and Recently Freed Slaves Working Railroad Construction. |
Here is a link to a some interesting history related to the ballad of John Henry. It is also for the source of the above photo.
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I plan to soon get back to the wreck site that I think is a long-rumored but little known wreck site. Also will be getting back to the beaches. I got addicted to the Mystery of the Indian River Ridge lot. I'm so hot on the trail of that one, but I really need to explore the possible new wreck site.
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We have a west wind this morning, and a decent surf. Maybe enough to clear out some front beach dips.
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net