Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Virginia Key and Key Biscayne. |
Besides the Colored Beach Wreck near Fort Pierce, I did a lot of metal detecting at some other Colored Beaches that were near more heavily populated areas. One was on Virginia Key just across the causeway from Miami, and another was at John U. Lloyd Park near Hollywood, FL. When I was detecting there, those two beaches weren't visited by many people, and were not kept up well, but I found them interesting, and they produced good numbers of older U.S. coins. Those beaches were seldom detected by others. I would check out-of-the-way overgrown areas where few others seemed to go, and as a result I found those coin areas that were once Colored Beaches.
I've mentioned Virginia Key in previous posts and once pointed out some of the different detecting areas I found there. More recently, Virigina Key has been renovated and is now a much more popular and heavily visited area.
When I remember that area, I think of the several different detecting zones. Virginia Key was a place where a few TV shows were made. As you work down the picture along the right side, there was a rock groin, inside of which was a deep hole in the otherwise shallow water where a lot of modern gold jewelry could often be found. In the shallower water outside of that and next to the where the seaweed grew was a sand bar where people would lounge and leave nice gold jewelry. The gold there was less concentrated than in the deep hole, but it was easy detecting. Those were more recent losses than the silver coins from the beach areas used more during the segregation era. The overgrown areas around the picnic area produced a few artifacts from much older times. That is the general area where I have the "1" on the picture above.
Then as you work your way around the beach, there are several rock groins were I never found much of anything. Eventually you get to the area heavily used in the days of segregation but not at all when I was detecting there. It was like a ghost town, with a few skeletal building structures such as the one use for a merry-go-round and train ride as well as concession stand in earlier days.
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| Merry-Go-Round On Viriginia Key. Illustration from link below. |
Just the shell of the building for the Merry-Go-Round was there when I was metal detecting there. The horses and all that were gone.
Below you can see where I see that area when it was heavily used.
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| See link below. |
For me, this wasn't one of my first choice detecting areas, but it could be fun when I had time and was passing by. I might stop there on the way to or a spot where better things could be found. I'd pull of the highway and park by the bridge. At the time it was dangerous to park there. It was a high crime area so precautions were necessary. But taking the necessary precautions and remaining vigilant, you could park and walk along Bear Cut past a sea wall until you got to what was in the past a busy area. You could see the remains of old wooden groins in the water. The best spot was on an area protected from erosion by some bushes, but when those dunes did erode there were nicely preserved silver coins from the 30s - 60s that would come out of the dunes. That was a small but very productive area for silver coins that made for some efficient hunting when the dunes were eroding. The shallow water and beach around the groins produced very little and almost not gold.
Check this link.
The Story behind Miami’s Colored Beach - Historic Virginia Key Beach Park
By the way, Viginia Key also produced a few shipwreck artifacts.
Key Biscayne had even more detecting zones than Virigina Key and some of those areas produced higher value targets. I'll go though some of those zones quickly.
At the far end of Key Biscayne was an area where treasure chests were once found. That area had pretty much eroded away and a sea wall was built. The interior at that end of the island was once a coconut plantation, and artifacts could be found there as well.
Moving closer to the lighthouse, you could see remains of the old well that was visited by some of the earliest ships to the area. Around the lighthouse was a battle site where the indigenous burned the lighthouse and killed the keeper. Musket balls could be found there.
Right next to the lighthouse was a narrow swimming area next to the parking and picnic tables. That shallow water produced a lot of modern gold of slightly better than average value.
As you work back around the bend there was another beach inside the park that was not as good, but OK for detecting. That area didn't produce as many finds and not as high quality.
Then you keep going along the beach, exit the park and start detecting in front of the condos. Not bad, but not great.
There was an abandoned building. The beach there occasionally eroded and produced some decent detecting,
Next came the beach club. Decent detecting in and out of the water there too.
Then you get to a better area for detecting. There was the Sonesta Beach Resort. Some kind of nautical wreckage was under the beach at the head of a sandbar. The beach was OK detecting, but the shallow water was very good. It was a small well-defined area that produced high-quality finds if you were sharp. They weren't the easiest. There was competition, but you could pull some high quality stuff out of there if you worked it well.
Then you come to another stretch of condos. Not very good detecting there.
Then you come to Crandon Park. Many people detected there. Most detectorists focused on the area by the sand bar where a lot of swimmers waded out, but it could be worth the time to check the wide open area around there as well. In fact, I preferred the area around where most people detectec. It was a big area to cover but could be worthwhile.
Keep going back towards the causeway and you come to an area where old coins as well as other nice things would frequently erode out of the beach. There was evidently once a parking area or something around there in the past that continued to produce old finds (coins and other) as the beach eroded. Strangely, it seemed few detectorists discovered that nice honey hole of older stuff. The water just off there produced some great stuff too. I never saw anyone else detect there either.
Then there was a long stretch, where gay guys liked to sunbathe. You could find stuff there when no one else was around. In the past there were shipwreck coins reported in the shallows there too.
Keep going to a coral point. When eroded many older silver coins could be found there. After Hurricane Andrew there was a virtual carpet of silver on the uncovered coral outcropping.
Through the mangroves and around the bend almost back to the causeway and along Bear Cut, old U.S. coins were plentiful. They were usually heavily corroded though, due to rotting biological material. That little area is also the area where I found my first old bottles after Hurricane Andrew.
So there you have a quick overview of the detecting zones I found on Virginia Key and Key Biscayne. Of course, it has changed since I was there.
There are several things to point out. First, don't neglect areas just because nobody seems to go there. The area could have been used a lot in the past. They might not look promising on the surface, but you it helps if you know what went on there in the past. The Colored Beaches provide a good example. But even those beaches could produce finds from even older periods of time. You might only learn that by checking it out.
Secondly, if you know the areas along a stretch and know what they are likely to produce under various conditions, you can efficiently select your target zones. You might set out to your preferred detecting spot but find it not producing and move on to another convenient spot along the way. Maybe as you drive by you notice some erosion and decide to check it out. You have numerous choices, so depending upon the conditions and what you see, you can either stop or move on to the next spot. There are a lot of variables, but if you know your spots, what they produce and under what conditions, you can make good choices.
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| Fort Pierce Thursday Evening. From Surfguru.com. |
The beach looks about the same this morning.
But check this out. Sunday we're supposed to have a five-to-six-foot surf. That will be a welcome change, especially with the continuing high tides we are having.
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| From SurfGuru.com. |
Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
when my dissertatio