Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
I'm going to try to do something that will be difficult for me. I woke up thinking about the many places I've metal detected and especially those that have produced shipwreck treasure coins. It is easy to get in a rut, but there are always new places to explore. I'm going to give you a laundry list of beach sites that I've detected that have some possibility of producing shipwreck treasure coins when the timing is right.
Men are like lab rats to a large extent. Many of the same principles apply. Reward and punishment are powerful factors for men and mice alike.
People tend to hunt most where they've made finds and they find the most where they hunt most, so it becomes something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you believe a location is a good one, you will hunt there more, and as a result you will probably find more there. But as you spend more time on the locations where you have been successful in the past, you can miss some other locations that might be just as good or better. The world changes, and beaches change, so to remain successful, you have to change and adapt. I recommend the book, Who Moved My Cheese?, which was a best selling book for business people that talks about the necessity of changing strategies in a changing world. What worked best in the past won't always work best in the future.
Beaches change over time, which means detectorists also need to change. A beach that has been productive for along time can become less productive because of natural or man-made changes. \
Two of the biggest factors in my metal detecting success formula are time-on-task and location. Most people will tend to hunt closer to home. Travel is time consuming and is becoming more expensive. If you have a good location to detect that is also close to your home, you have a big advantage.
When I lived down south I mostly detected from the Keys to Pompano Beach and later on occasionally made quick trips to the Treasure Coast.
I've detected only a few times in the middle to lower Keys. Outside of what I read in books, I had little knowledge of those beaches and there was a low probability of success. It helps to know a beach well, so driving to a distant location and taking a blind shot at a beach you don't know very well is a low probability proposition, but it can be fun and occasionally productive. I think it is a good idea to become familiar with a lot of sites and add them to your list of possibilities.
Key Biscayne was a shorter drive for me when I lived down south, and I liked to detect there. I got to know it well and was able to visit frequently and whenever the conditions were promising. Key Biscayne was a lot of fun after Hurricane Andrew. Treasure coins had been found on Key Biscayne and at other beaches around there.
I avoided South Beach, but detected a lot of Dade County above there. There are some old shipwrecks around that area, including a couple around Haulover, but the good modern items around there were plentiful as well. Talking about beaches changing, though, one of my favorite detecting areas for modern items was near Haulover. That beach is now covered with a few hundred yards of sand. When I was down there and detecting there a lot, it was cut way back so you could find years of accumulated finds even if they were modern.
Most all of the Dade and Broward beaches provide good detecting, but I'll skip over some. Silver shipwreck coins were found around Hillsboro Inlet and Pompano Beach. Also around Boca Raton Inlet.
Jupiter Beach, as you probably know, has produced reales. It was a very fun beach, but a good drive for me. I haven't been down there for quite a while. I don't know if I've been there since 2004. Maybe once, but I used to stop there when I lived down south and traveled to the Treasure Coast. As you probably know, they dumped a lot of sand on that beach in recent years. It used to be much more natural. A fun place to detect for both modern and shipwreck treasure.
I never detected Juno. Not for any particular reason.
I used to detect Jensen a lot but haven't been down there much in recent years. Check out the book Treasure Coast Gold. It is a novel, but there is truth behind the fiction. The research for the book is based upon some interesting facts that would interest any treasure hunter. The author used to pitch his book in a book store, in the Treasure Coast Mall. He had some interesting historic maps and research material.
There are some interesting places between Jensen and Walton Rocks, but I'll skip to Walton Rocks. There is a more modern wreck to the south and to the north, as you probably know, is the Power Plant Wreck.
Then there is Frederick Douglass and John Brooks. Very good beaches, that seem to be in a slow period - I think largely because of all the renourishment sand being dumped south of the Fort Pierce Inlet. At the north end of Brooks, it was cut way farther back at one time. I remember one time it was cut all the way back to the trees right in front of the condos to the north. There was a line of tree stumps at the water line and a concrete foundation was uncovered - maybe belonging to the WW II observation tower. I didn't see it right after the 2004 storms. I missed that because of other responsibilities.
The there is Pepper Park, which has been pretty sandy for a while.
Sandy Point is a very long walk.
Rio Mar was once cut back much more than now too. It was nicely eroded maybe ten years ago or more.
A lot of detectorists don't know that cobs have been found right in front of the Holiday Inn in Vero. I remember watching the grass in front of the Holiday Inn fall into the water during one rough spell before cobs were found there but don't remember which storm that was. It was quite a few years ago.
The Turtle Trial, Seagrape, and Wabasso, and up to the Sebastian inlet are all heavily detected these days.
I haven't done Golden Sands and Treasure Shores much but good things have been found there.
Bonsteel Park is frequently detected but I don't go there much anymore, simply because it is farther from home. As I said, I cut down on my ranging in recent years. I don't have a lot of time to detect, so cut down on my traveling.
I've never detected Melbourne, which of course is a good area for Treasure Coins. Some of the more interesting salvage finds from this season were made up there.
I also always enjoyed detecting areas other than the Treasure Coast when I did business travel and detected Pensacola and the surrounding area a lot but made mostly modern finds there. It was always fun though.
I won't mention more distant domestic and international sites now, but the point is there are a lot of places to detect and they can go through hot and cold periods, so don't be afraid to explore. And don't get too focused on one or two beaches. You'll never know when a beach that hasn't done anything for you in the past will get hot.
There is one beach I detected a lot in the past without much luck that suddenly produced some exciting finds just last year. Don't write off a beach just because you didn't have any luck right away. Some beaches can conceal their prizes for a long time before you hit it just right. You might then have a new favorite beach.
It is a dilemma. You can't be everywhere and you have to make your choices. You can play the hot spot, which is a good strategy, but things will eventually change, and you will need to change too at some point.
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |
A smooth surf can allow you to get farther out than you could when the surf was bigger. That can be just what you needed, especially if you have some good low tides too.
It looks like we'll have some bigger surf next weekend.
I often see people fishing on the beach but not catching much. I noticed lately that there were a lot of fish being caught. JamminJack mentioned the same thing.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net
New clues from studying historical non-returning boomerangs (cosmosmagazine.com)