Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Source: See link below. |
One of the most exciting archaeological finds in the history of Irish art was unearthed on Tipperary's Derrynaflan Island by a man and his son using metal detectors...
The silver chalice and paten are decorated with outstanding examples of ancient Celtic goldsmithing, O'Connor explained. Fine interlaced gold-wire work called "filigree", illustrated on postage stamp-sized intricate art scenes around the edge of the paten, is in a style distinctive to Ireland. The paten is also the only example of its type to survive from early medieval Western Europe...
Here is the link for more about that.
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| Washout and New Fill Dirt Along the Indian River. |
I recently noticed the washout shown above. It is an area where a good number of old bottles showed up in the past. The fill dirt is the whiter material and was brought by truck from an unknown location. Of course, the browner sand is the old sand. A lot of old bottles were found near the water below the area.
This is one of the small areas that was not lined with concrete blocks when they hardened the banks after the storms of 2004, which caused a lot of erosion and washed out the road above in a few locations.
Down the road, about a mile or so, was another washout. At that location, unlike the area above, the washout produced a LOT of old conch shells, which I think possibly came from an old indigenous mound.
Here is a little history about that area.
Another of the early settlers to the Indian River Ridge area was Elon Eldred who arrived here around 1879 from Carrolton, Illinois – also with the intent, and success, in establishing a Pineapple plantation in the area south of Midway Road - which would become the location of the White City Depot of the FEC Railway. The Eldred House was built in 1893 at what is now 6101 South Indian River Drive. Mrs. Marial Minton, a direct descendent, currently resides at this location and has in her possession a framed copy of the July 24, 1895 deed from Hal S. Thomas and Julia Eldred Thomas to the Board of County Commissioners of Brevard County, selling 13 ¼ acres (for one dollar) thru the Eldred lands “along the Indian River on top of the bluff and about 20 feet back from the top thereof” for the purpose of constructing what is now South Indian River Drive.
From an article by John Pennekamp in the “Herald” – 9/16/68
From an article by John Pennekamp in the “Herald” – 9/16/68
Comments Wenzel J Schubert, a “native born, old time East Florida Cracker”…Seventy years ago (1898) I stood on Grandfather Tancre’s front porch at Ankona … and watched a gang of laborers chopping down and grubbing out several fine old trees as they cut the new “county road” right across the middle of our front yard. This narrow, single lane, dirt road that tunneled through the dense river bank hammock growth was Florida’s first East Coast Throughway. That Fall, Brevard County finished it as far south as Stuart, where Dade County took over and cut it eventually through to Miami and Homestead.Over the years since it’s initial cut thru as a “sand trail” the road through our front yards has been variously identified as Riverside Drive, The Dixie Highway, U.S. Highway 1 (prior to construction of the “new” U.S. 1 approximately 4 miles inland), State Road 707, and currently County Road 707 and South Indian River Drive...
The washout that produced tons of old conch shells is not real far from the historic Eldred House referred to above.
I thought the shells could have come from an old mound that the road went through, or an old mound could have been excavated for road fill, which was not uncommon in the old days. Or maybe there is another explanation.
I did some more research and found what I was looking for. You'll see it below.
March 5, 1845 - Florida granted statehood
Early plats (Ref. The Ransom Plat dated February 1897, PB 1 Page 198) indicate this "public road" being West of the FEC RR through the Sand Pine
Scrub.
January 6 , 1855 - St. Lucia County renamed Brevard County
1855 - 1858 - The period of "The Third Seminole War"
In the Late 1870's and early 1880's the first of the permanent residents settled along the southwest shore of the Indian river in lower Brevard County (which would become St. Lucie County) ... 10+ years before there was reliable inshore transportation on the (then freshwater) Indian River adjoining our front yards ... 15+ years before the Railroad pierced through our backyards ... and 18+ years before Brevard County slashed out what would become South Indian River Drive through our front yards. Among the first of these earliest permanent settlers were Capt. Thomas E. Richards and family from Newark, New Jersey who settled in and named the Eden Community, The Ankeny Family who settled in the area which became the Ankona Community, and the Elon Eldred family from Illinois who settled in what would become the Eldred Community.
September 1890 - Henry Morrison Flagler through his "Florida Coast Line Canal & Transportation Company" was granted 36,103 and 3/100 acres within the St. Lucie County portion of Brevard County in September 1890 for the completion of 134 1/2 miles of canal work (which would become part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway) from the "Haulover" near Cape Canaveral to Jupiter.
1892 - 1894 - Henry Morrison Flagler extended his railroad "The Florida East Coast Railroad" from Daytona to West Palm Beach. The railroad arrived in Ft. Pierce in January 1894 and West Palm Beach in March 1894.
1895 - Lands were being purchased for a roadway along the West bank of the Indian River, what is now "South Indian River Drive - "The Drive", by Brevard County. One sale, for $1 to Elon Eldred, deeded 13 1/4 Acres through his lands "along the top of the bank and about 20' back therefrom" for the road. By the Fall of 1898, the original (horse and buggy) sand trail had been cut through to Stuart where Dade County picked it up and eventually completed it to Miami and Homestead.
This Sand trail was later stabilized with oyster shells from local indian mounds, and in 1910 the first Model "T" struggled down the road from Ft. Pierce to Stuart....
From the 1850 census, St. Lucia County: Most civilians have departed the area and not yet returned. (The Susanna Settlements were abandoned following the "Indian massacre" of a store operator in the White City area.) The majority of the St. Lucia County population, 22 dwellings in this "division" of the census, consisted of soldiers barracked at Ft. Pierce.January 23, 1851 - The Florida legislature appropriated $1000 to build a wagon road from Ft. Dallas at the North end of Biscayne Bay to Ft. Capron on the Indian River in St. Lucia County
Early plats (Ref. The Ransom Plat dated February 1897, PB 1 Page 198) indicate this "public road" being West of the FEC RR through the Sand Pine
Scrub.
January 6 , 1855 - St. Lucia County renamed Brevard County
1855 - 1858 - The period of "The Third Seminole War"
In the Late 1870's and early 1880's the first of the permanent residents settled along the southwest shore of the Indian river in lower Brevard County (which would become St. Lucie County) ... 10+ years before there was reliable inshore transportation on the (then freshwater) Indian River adjoining our front yards ... 15+ years before the Railroad pierced through our backyards ... and 18+ years before Brevard County slashed out what would become South Indian River Drive through our front yards. Among the first of these earliest permanent settlers were Capt. Thomas E. Richards and family from Newark, New Jersey who settled in and named the Eden Community, The Ankeny Family who settled in the area which became the Ankona Community, and the Elon Eldred family from Illinois who settled in what would become the Eldred Community.
September 1890 - Henry Morrison Flagler through his "Florida Coast Line Canal & Transportation Company" was granted 36,103 and 3/100 acres within the St. Lucie County portion of Brevard County in September 1890 for the completion of 134 1/2 miles of canal work (which would become part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway) from the "Haulover" near Cape Canaveral to Jupiter.
1892 - 1894 - Henry Morrison Flagler extended his railroad "The Florida East Coast Railroad" from Daytona to West Palm Beach. The railroad arrived in Ft. Pierce in January 1894 and West Palm Beach in March 1894.
1895 - Lands were being purchased for a roadway along the West bank of the Indian River, what is now "South Indian River Drive - "The Drive", by Brevard County. One sale, for $1 to Elon Eldred, deeded 13 1/4 Acres through his lands "along the top of the bank and about 20' back therefrom" for the road. By the Fall of 1898, the original (horse and buggy) sand trail had been cut through to Stuart where Dade County picked it up and eventually completed it to Miami and Homestead.
This Sand trail was later stabilized with oyster shells from local indian mounds, and in 1910 the first Model "T" struggled down the road from Ft. Pierce to Stuart....
So we see that the road was hardened by using "shells from local Indian mounds." The shells I most noticed were conch rather than oyster shells.
The concentration of conch shells could also be from conch harvesting by settlers along the drive. It is now illegal to harvest conch in Florida.
If you are lucky enough to be born in Key West, Florida, you are considered a “Conch” (pronounced “konk”) or a native to this beautiful island. At one time, the blue waters of the Florida Keys were littered with the queen conch (Strombus gigas). Over-harvesting in the 1970’s prompted the Florida Legislature to place a moratorium on commercial harvesting and ultimately banned harvesting of the mollusk all together in 1985. (Is it legal to keep queen conch shells? | Robertson & Hunter, LLP)
I am not able to determine for certain the source or age of the conch shells, but my more general point today is to check out around washouts and inspect fill material that can possibly provide important clues to the area.
I suspect that I might be able to get a better read on the age of the shells with a little more study.
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| Source: SurfGuru.com. |
So Friday we might get a 4 - 6 foot surf.
It is not unusual to get some good metal detecting weather in March or as late as April.
Earlier today I mistakenly had an old NHC warning. It was an old warning, so I removed it.
Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net