Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Source: Eau Gallie Beach (kmialumni.org) |
One of the oldest traditional military prep schools in the United States, KMI (Kentucky Military Institute), was maintained in the vein of the Virginia Military Institute, in that all of its students were classified as cadets. It was founded in 1845 by Colonel Robert Thomas Pritchard Allen (September 26, 1813, to July 9, 1888) and chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1847...
KMI wintered in Eau Gallie, Florida, beginning in 1907 (when it bought that ghost town) to 1921 (when the Eau Gallie campus burned to the ground).
Due to financial troubles, the Florida campus moved many times in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was closed in 1924; it reopened the next year. It moved to Venice, Florida, in 1932, where winter classes were already being held...
Source: Kentucky Military Institute - Wikipedia |
| KMI Cadets On Indian River. Source: Source: Eau Gallie Beach (kmialumni.org) |
But that is just the background. Now we'll get into the ghostly metal detecting part of the story.
As retold in the 2012 Fall/Winter issue of the Indian River Journal, a 21-year-old detectorist, Jeff Stahre, was told about three ghosts that appeared to Lester Harrison and his mother at their home on the north side of the Eau Gallie River. That was in 1978.
Two of the ghosts were soldiers and the other, was described as an "Indian." So Jeff, started researching to see if there was an old fort once located in that area. He didn't find a fort, but he learned about the Kentucky Military Institute, which was once located just across the river from where the apparitions appeared.
So Jeff and his friend, Dick Johnson, hunted the banks of the Eau Gallie River and the KMI campus site . They found a variety of artifacts, which were donated to the Brevard County Historical Society.
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| Source: Indian River Journal. See link immediately below. |
See also Eau Gallie Florida (kmialumni.org) for many more photos.
You'll find a lot of great information and photos if you take a look at these sites.
Listen to old stories and do the research. The story may or may not be completely true, but if you do the research, you'll undoubtedly learn something of value.
One note of metal detecting the banks of the rivers. First, it is usually private property, and secondly, it will usually be very junky and difficult to detect.
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A few days ago, I noticed a couple fellows trying to use a Garrett Ace directly under an electric pole. They thought their detector didn't work, and I found out that the batteries were drained, but even if the batteries were perfectly good, the metal detector would not work well in that location because of all the cables in the area, both buried and elevated. They thought the detector wasn't a piece of junk and wasn't working correctly, but it really wasn't the detector's fault.
Their father had lost his wedding ring in the area when moving a tree that had blown down in a recent windstorm. So far it has not been found.
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Expect a four-to-five-foot surf Sunday and Monday, then decreasing for a few days.
Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcasst.net