Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
As Cody Goddard walked along Matoaka Beach in the Chesapeake Bay, he hoped to find fossils, maybe some ancient shark teeth. Instead, the Pennsylvania man stumbled upon a 12-million-year-old whale skull.
According to Chesapeake Bay Magazine, Goddard and his family were visiting Maryland in October 2022 when they decided to go beachcombing. As they walked along Matoaka Beach, Goddard suddenly noticed a large block of sediment on the beach with a piece of fossil sticking out.
He alerted Stephen Godfrey, Curator of Paleontology at the Calvert Marine Museum, who rushed to the scene. After examining the chunk of sediment, Godfrey confirmed that Goddard had discovered a whale skull from the Miocene era, later estimated to be 12 million years old...
Here is the link for more about that.
A Beachcomber Just Stumbled Upon A 12-Million-Year-Old Whale Skull In Maryland
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One day a couple weeks ago, I awoke early in the small ancestral home nestled in the wooded hills of West Virgina before the birds began their morning songs when it dawned upon me the significance of the event I had participated in the day before.
The home was built in the early 1900s by my wife's grandparents on the green slopes that reminded the newly arrived Slovenian immigrants of the place they left behind. My wife's mother lived in her childhood home most of her life, passing away just a few years ago at the age of 96. The little old house then passed on to my wife.
While her mother resided at the home, she would host the younger generations who visited each holiday. She would dote over the youngest and present gifts, as humble as they were.
My wife and I now maintain the ancestral home and were recently visited by the newest of the family members, a bright little wiry one year old that reminds me very much of his grandpa. The child and his parents were gladly received during his first visit to the house where his mother and grandmother and great grandmother were similarly received in their youth. It seems my wife has assumed the role of her mother and now presides over the family visits to the ancestral home.
It was only when I awoke that morning that I realized that four generations were at the house that day. It felt like the two earlier generations were there in some way as well. They started the generations-old tradition, which was continued now in their absence.
You might wonder why I mention this in a metal detecting blog. The reason is simple enough. It is because metal detecting is about making connections. Finds connect people and times. I'll explain.
I've metal detected the grounds around the ancestral home, including where the original immigrants cleared a yard, grew orchards and vegetables, walked to work and where the youngsters of succeeding generations played and roamed and grew. I found their tools, such as an ax head used to clear the trees, and toys, such as the Orphan Annie secret decoder and cast metal train engine.
When properly researched and considered, finds are people and their times. They are tangible touchpoints that revive and fill out the stories.
When I married my wife, I didn't know her family history, which has become so much of mine. I didn't know the area she was from, and it was much later that I learned that my own family roots are connected to the same ground.
My ancestors came to the same area in the 1700s. I was fortunate to find books about some of my ancestors from the preRevolutionary war period and what was then the western frontier. They came from the east by wagon train, traveling over the Appalachian Mountains and along with the other pioneers built a fort in the Wheeling WV area. Lewis Wetzel, and his brother John Wetzel, my ancestor, were captured by the Native Americans as children when their parents were killed, but they escaped and continued to roam the area. Some books describe their adventures, and I recognize some of the landmarks. My ancestors and my wife's family most likely trod the same old path as we still do now.
The first generation of my wife's family walked that path on the way to work, The younger generations used it to walk to town and school. A few years ago, my wife and I took two of the now deceased elders of her family for a walk down that path they knew so well for the last time.
When I'm wandering the woods that surround the path, I can imagine my ancestor stealthy moving through trees with his famous musket that shocked and amazed the Indians because it seemed the gun was always loaded. I've detected those hills too and found horseshoes, wagon parts, and arrowheads that connect me to those times.
People are the beginning of this story, as well as the end. I think about that curious lively one-year-old that I recently met and wonder what he will see.
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| Fort Pierce Inlet Surf Forecast from Surfguru.com. |
Back to the Treasure Coast, we still have a small surf and there are some slightly negative low tides.