Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| One Beautiful Cache Found by Gold Panners. Source: Found on Twitter and submitted by Joyce H. |
Besides the beautiful old gun and great coins, notice the $500 bills. Adjusting for the change in purchasing power each one of those would be the equivalent of about $13,000 in today's money. That is a valuable cache, and the kind of thing many detectorists hope to find. This shows that it still happens.
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Alberto S. was wondering about the buried spikes. He learned that iron objects were buried to promote growth of fruit trees and wondered if that might have been the purpose of the many buried spikes I've been finding. He asked if there were fruit trees on the lot.
Iron is buried to promote growth of trees. I found the following from the HobbyFarms web site.
I heard a piece of folk wisdom from an Irish gardener. Her sapling apple tree was struggling, and a local woman told her to bury a piece of scrap iron at the base. By the next year, the tree was thriving.
Stories and superstitions like these from gardeners and farmers abound. They’re obviously not based on hard science, but they often come from observations that have been passed through generations.
In this case, what an old piece of scrap iron can add to the soil at the base of a seedling apple tree is rust or iron oxide, which is an under-appreciated plant micronutrient. Iron deficiency, also called iron chlorosis, causes a yellowing of the leaves, and overall lack of vigor. It is often especially prevalent in acidic soils or soils with an excess of copper, manganese or phosphorus...
A Quick Way To Boost Iron In Your Soil - Hobby Farms
I have found iron at the base of planted trees before when detecting up north. It seemed to me that it was put there for this reason. However, in the lot I'm detecting, I suspect, as JamminJack has written to me before, that the railroad workers simply buried items that they wanted to discard. Nonetheless, I have noticed that Surinam Cherry trees (also known as Cherry Hedge trees) were growing right over large piles of spikes. There are many of them on this lot, but my impression is that they are growing there naturally. Many of them are growing where there are no buried iron objects.
Interesting idea. Maybe you've found iron objects buried at the base of fruit trees. I once found one iron object under a tree up north that I thought was put under the tree for that purpose.
Joe D. agrees that the railroad items I'm finding were probably just discarded by the railroad workers. He mentioned that you might not be able to sell railroad items for scrap, otherwise people would be stealing the rails etc. It is trespassing to go on the railroad right-of-way.
(From the Federal Railroad Administration: It is illegal to access private railroad property anywhere other than a designated pedestrian or roadway crossing.
Alberto mentioned that railroad spikes are selling on the internet. and sent some ads he found. Used railroad spike are sold for crafts. I also learned that they are also used in witchcraft.
You can see many spikes currently listed on Etsy. Here is a link.
Antique railroad spikes | Etsy
Also there are tons of them for sale on eBay, but I suspect that since they are so common, you'd be better off turning them into something else. Maybe coat hangers. Below is a handforged railroad spike knife offered on the internet.
Personally I'm always looking for ways to reuse or repurpose rather than scrap dug items. I've noticed that some of the rail anchors make a good heavy iron J and I've seen coat hangers made from spikes. But it is more the history that I'm after, and I'm also expecting a few more interesting thingse after the big stuff is cleared out. Maybe some coins or something like that. I'll switch to a deeper seeking detector then. For now the Ace is doing good work, and it isn't affected at all by the nearby power lines.
If the items were simply discarded, as I think is the case, I still wonder why the items are so far from the tracks rather than closer to the tracks on railroad property? The owners of the property would have a valid gripe against the railroad for littering in my opinion.
Speaking of litter - I've recently dug a couple of liquor bottles on the lot. One has a metal cap and the other a metal rim.
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Anchor Points to Treasure.
In 2005, Gary Randolph, captain of the Huntress salvage vessel, located a part of an Atocha anchor at the southern extreme of the Atocha site. The Bower anchor, as found in 2005, was only partly complete. If complete it would be about 13 ft. tall. The shank points directly towards the center of the Atocha site.
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The Treasure Coast beaches that aren't being replenished are being visited by good numbers of locals and lingering snowbirds. As a result there are still some finds to be made.
Below is one recent find.
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| Gold Bracelet Find. |
I was surprised that it is gold. I didn't think the connectors looked very good. The stones haven't been tested yet.
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The tides will be big Sunday, but with the offshore wind the surf will be only about one foot.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net