Online Newsletter 7-20-10
Editorial
For all you fans of our annual Treasure Cache/Treasure Facts, we are now taking advance orders for the 2011 edition, which will be hitting the streets in December. Head over to the Treasure Store at www.losttreasure.com to place your order today.
In our Good Hunting! section you will see a photo of Captain Carl Fismer after receiving his Mel Fisher Lifetime Achievement Award over the weekend.
Unfortunately we don’t have a Feature Club or Favorite Finds for this issue, so help us by putting on your thinking caps to see if you know of a treasure-hunting related club that hasn’t been spotlighted.
And I know every one of you has finds you have made…so why not e-mail us the pictures and description of what you found, where you found it and what machine or equipment you were using?
Jay Pastor provides this issue’s Tip From the Pros, and be sure to check out the 2010 Calendar for the latest information on treasure-hunting events taking place all over the United States.
THers’ News this issue includes:
- Ancient Buried Ship Found at Ground Zero Site
- Another Fisher Goes After Atocha Treasures
- Historic Treasure Found in West Yorkshire Garden
- Exploring the Haunted Kansas Mine in the Patagonia Mountains
Until next time, just like the weather, our hobby is hot right now!
TH'ers' News
Ancient Buried Ship Found at Ground Zero Site
NEW YORK - The ship was buried as junk two centuries ago – landfill to expand a bustling little island of commerce called Manhattan. When it reemerged this week, surrounded by skyscrapers, it was an instant treasure that popped up from the mud near ground zero.
A 32-foot piece of the vessel was found in soil 20 feet under street level, amid noisy bulldozers excavating a parking garage for the future World Trade Center. Near the site of so many grim finds - Sept. 11 victims’ remains, twisted steel - this discovery was as unexpected as it was thrilling.
Historians say the ship, believed to date to the 1700’s, was defunct by the time it was used around 1810 to extend the shores of lower Manhattan.
“A ship is the summit of what you might find under the World Trade Center - it’s exciting!” said Molly McDonald, an archaeologist who first spotted two pieces of hewn, curved timber - part of the frame of the ship - peeking out of the muddy soil at dawn recently.
By two days later, she and three colleagues had dug up the hull from the pit where a section of the new trade center is being built.
A steep, hanging ladder trembled with each step down into chaotic mounds of dirt, dwarfed all around by Manhattan skyscrapers rising into the July sun. People sank in the mud as they walked and grasped pieces of the historic wood for support – touching the centuries-old ship that may once have sailed the Caribbean, according to marine historian Norman Brower, who recently examined it.
“It smells like low tide, this muck,” said McDonald as she stood on the weathered planks, sniffing the dank odor that hovered over them in the hot summer morning.
The ship harbors many mysteries still to be solved: “Where was it built? How was it used? Why was it sunk?” McDonald and archaeologist A. Michael Pappalardo made the discovery on recently at about 6:15 a.m., just as they started their shift observing construction in the pit at the southern edge of ground zero. The two work for AKRF, a New York environmental consulting firm hired to document artifacts discovered at the trade center site.
“We noticed two curved timbers that a backhoe had dislocated,” McDonald said.
Joined by two more archaeologists, they started digging with shovels, “and we quickly found the rib of a vessel and continued to clear it away and expose the hull over the last two days.”
Brower, the historian, works in Mystic, Conn. - renowned for its historic vessels.
He told the archaeologists that it was an oceangoing vessel that might have sailed the Caribbean, as evidenced by 18th-century marine organisms that had bored tiny tunnels in the timber.
The vessel’s age will be estimated after the two pieces that first popped up are tested in a laboratory through dendrochronology - the science of using tree rings to determine dates and chronological order.
Also unknown is what kind of wood was used to build the ship.
A 100-pound iron anchor was found a few yards from the hull, possibly from the old vessel.
There were also traces of human life nearby - “pieces of shoes all over,” said McDonald, who had no idea how they got there.
The ship likely got there because of the effort to extend lower Manhattan into the Hudson River in the 1700’s and 1800’s using landfill. Cribbing usually consisted of logs joined together - much like a log cabin – but a derelict ship was occasionally used.
The ship discovered Tuesday was weighted down and sunk to the bottom of the river, as support for new city piers in a part of Manhattan tied to global commerce and trade.
A similar find emerged a walk away in 1982, when archaeologists found an 18thcentury cargo ship on Water Street.
The remains of the latest discovery will be removed in the coming days, but the timber is so delicate it’s unclear how much of it will remain intact. The surrounding water acted as a preservant for the wood for centuries, McDonald said, but the remains began to deteriorate immediately upon contact with oxygen.
“We’re mostly clearing it by hand because it’s kind of fragile,” McDonald said, meaning shovels are used. Construction equipment could come in handy later in the process.
Mid July, archaeologists were quickly sketching, measuring and photographing the ship remnants to help them analyze the find later; the two pieces of timber that signaled the discovery were taken away immediately.
It was not clear from the 32-foot piece how long the whole ship might have been.
Another fascinating detail might emerge as work progresses: coins traditionally placed under a vessel’s keel block as a symbol of good fortune and safe travels.
But the team is already feeling pretty lucky. “I kept thinking of how closely it came to being destroyed,” Pappalardo said.
Somehow, the workers operating the bulldozers missed the bulk of the ship, catching only the two timbers as they excavated ramps that will connect to an underground parking garage at the rebuilt trade center.
Within the fenced-off, 16-acre site in downtown Manhattan, steel for a planned 1,776-foot skyscraper has risen 24 stories.
The memorial to victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, a multibillion-dollar transit hub and a second office tower are under construction.
More office towers and a performing arts center are also part of the original plan.
Courtesy of http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/ancient-buried-ship-found-at-ground-zero-site/19555210?sms_ss=email
Another Fisher Goes After Atocha Treasures
MARQUESAS KEYS - In 1985 aboard the Dauntless salvage boat, Jimmy Buffett sang atop a stack of silver bars while treasure hunter Mel Fisher and his crew swilled champagne to celebrate their jaw-dropping discovery.
After 16 years that included a U.S. Supreme Court victory and the death of his son, Fisher's dream had come true. In waters 55 feet below them, divers Andy Matroci and Greg Wareham had found a virtual reef made of chests full of silver coins, silver plates, silver bars, copper ingots, stone ballast and artifacts. It was the $450 million mother lode of the 1622 shipwreck, Nuestra Senora de Atocha.
July 20 marks the 25th anniversary of a discovery compared to the opening of King Tut's tomb, and Key West has been commemorating the occasion at its annual Mel Fisher Days celebration, concluding Sunday. But out at sea, the crews of the J.B. Magruder and Dare salvage boats continue to search along the 10-mile trail of the Atocha wreck for the rest of the Spanish galleon's buried booty - and a chance to complete the odyssey of the master salvage man, who died in 1998.
“We're looking for the stern castle, where there's another 400 silver bars and over 130,000 silver coins,'' said Sean Fisher, Mel's grandson, who was 7 when the treasure was found.
Fisher, who inherited some of his grandfather's charisma and enthusiasm, added: ``The stern castle is also where the church kept its gold and its taxes, and we don't know how much that was because the church was more powerful than the state. The church didn't have to say what they were bringing on the ship.''
Also left off the manifest and missing: about 60 pounds of emeralds from the Muzo mines of Colombia. Fisher said the gems, believed to have been smuggled on board in a 70-pound keg, are among the unknown amount of contraband sneaked aboard the Atocha to avoid the Spanish king's 20 percent tax.
The Atocha was the flagship of a 28-ship fleet traveling from Havana to Spain in early September 1622. Less than 48 hours into the six- to eight-week journey, a hurricane blew the Atocha and its sister ship, the Santa Margarita, into the reefs.
The heavy treasure of the Atocha remained where it sank, but subsequent storms scattered parts of the Atocha along a 10-mile, 300-yard wide trail that split into two branches at about the halfway point.
Last week, the J.B. Magruder was anchored at a site nicknamed Emerald City, where nearly seven pounds of the precious gems have been found. It is close to where the mother lode was found, in the Marquesa Keys, about 35 miles southeast of Key West.
The Dare was a few miles away, in the middle of the trail at a site dubbed the Bank of Spain, where thousands of silver coins have been discovered.
The two sites have been worked over. Still, the crews revisit them three weeks a year, when many of the 150 current investors are in town, because there's still a good chance of finding emeralds and silver coins, Fisher said. The investors help foot the treasure hunting operating costs of about $3 million a year.
Most of the time, however, the crews are searching for the stern castle - the back of the Atocha, where the wealthy noblemen, the clergy and the captain kept their valuables.
The crews include another Fisher grandson, Josh Fisher-Abt, 28. Jose “Papo'' Garcia, who used to treasure-hunt in his native Cuba, captains the Dare, and Matroci, one of the two divers who found the treasure, helms the J.B. Magruder.
THE PAYOFF
Sean Fisher puts the value of the Atocha's unfound treasure at a whopping “half billion,'' or about the value of the original find - the payoff in a quest that was fraught with troubles.
Mel Fisher's son Dirk, his daughter-in-law Angel and diver Rick Gage died when a salvage boat capsized - exactly 10 years before the Atocha discovery.
Fisher found himself in an eight-year legal battle over rights to the ship's treasure and was accused of scamming people out of money. He persevered.
“Every day my grandfather said: `Today's the day,' '' Sean Fisher said. “He believed it and had a way of making you believe it, too.''
Matroci and Wareham made their big find on the third dive of the day. Based on the previous day's work, they thought they were close to the “main pile.''
Matroci had charted all the holes and what was found in each. He had a hunch and told Wareham that instead of going straight to the hole, they should each swim a southeast route.
“I felt a tap on my shoulder, and turned. Greg's eyes were coming out of his mask,'' Matroci recalled.
Wareham led Matroci to a pile about 75 feet long, 20 feet wide and three feet high. They shook hands, then swam around the mother lode twice, savoring the moment.
“I knew once we surfaced, it was never going to be quiet down there again,'' Matroci said.
For Mel Fisher's modern-day treasure hunters, technology advancements, especially GPS, have made surveying easier.
In the mid-1980s, it often took an hour or more to pinpoint the location of one reading from a magnetometer, which indicated the presence of metal in the water.
“Back then we used to use a meter measuring system that plotted out oil rigs in the 1960s to try to find the magnetometer targets,'' Matroci said.
He estimated they wasted years checking out targets that turned out to be dummy bombs used for practice during World War II. One such dummy bomb was found on the mother lode.
But to dig up the layers of sand, shells and rock to get to the hard bottom, the treasure hunters still use Mel Fisher's and Art Harman's 1965 invention, called a “mailbox.''
It is a prop-wash deflector: Large pipes are placed over the propellers to direct the thrust of the ship's engines toward the sea bottom. This displaces sediment and exposes the heavier artifacts.
TEDIOUS WORK
Last week it took about 45 minutes for the Dare crew to use the mailbox to dig a hole about 12 feet deep and 30 feet in diameter at the Bank of Spain dive site.
Once the hole was opened, two divers jumped in. One checked the bottom for gold and other artifacts. The other used a metal detector to go around the berm of the hole, where lighter items like silver coins and iron get pushed to the side.
Inside were thousands of perfectly shaped shells and sand dollars the size of Frisbees, but no sunken treasure.
Less than 15 minutes later, the divers rose to the surface and another hole was dug about 20 feet away, making sure the two overlapped.
In Mel Fisher's day, the work was tedious, and it remains so. Treasure hunters can often go months or years without finding anything of real value.
“One thing I learned from Mel,'' Fisher said: “If you don't believe the next hole you dig is going to be the hole with all the treasure, you have no business being out here.''
Courtesy of http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/17/1733653/under-the-sea.html
Historic Treasure Found in West Yorkshire Garden
A silver ring dug up from a retired gasman's garden in Birstall has been declared treasure at an inquest in Bradford.
Edwin Booth, 77, is now waiting to see if he will gain a reward for his find, thought to be more than 400-years-old.
Mr Booth was digging his lawn on Sycamore Avenue when he found the ring, which dates back to the late 15th or 16th century.
Deputy coroner Paul Marks said the ring was "a fine-looking object" of "massive proportion" during a hearing in Bradford.
Amy Downes, of the British Museum, said the jewellery belonged to a wealthy landowner, although it could have travelled to Yorkshire with the imported topsoil.
Kirklees Museum and Galleries now want to buy the ring, meaning a reward equivalent to the market value would be paid to Mr Booth.
Courtesy of http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Historic-treasure-found-in-West.6425693.jp
Nova Scotia Island's Secrets May Never Be Told
After more than two centuries, Nova Scotia's Oak Island refuses to give up its secrets.
Rumoured to hold Captain Kidd's pirate booty, stolen Inca gold, documents proving William Shakespeare was a fraud and even the Holy Grail itself, the small wooded island off the province's South Shore continues to confound treasure hunters.
Dan Blankenship, the most persistent of the island's treasure seekers, says he hopes that changes to Nova Scotia's Treasure Trove Act will protect his right to keep looking for the riches he believes are buried on the island.
"I've got a plan about where I'm going to dig next," said the 87-year-old treasure hunter who jointly owns nearly 80 per cent of the island and has lived there for more than 40 years.
The Nova Scotia coast has been a stopping point for ships for centuries, spawning tales of pirates and others burying their ill-gotten riches on the small island for safekeeping.
The island has been a magnet for treasure hunters since 1795, when a local teenager began digging in a slight depression that he believed contained hidden gold.
The original excavation, now known as the money-pit, has cost millions of dollars and several lives over the past 215 years, yielding little more than some tantalizing clues and a legend that leaves Blankenship convinced that treasure is buried there ... somewhere.
Courtesy of http://www.vancouversun.com/Nova+Scotia+island+secrets+never+told/3295077/story.html
Exploring the Haunted Kansas Mine in the Patagonia Mountains
In 1946, Doris Siebold, a teacher in Patagonia, Arizona, gave her students an assignment. She asked them to collect and write down the folk tales of the Patagonia area for preservation. The collection was published in 1949.
The resulting treasure trove of tales from 61 years ago contains many gems worth reading. The Patagonia area is rich in history and folk tales alike. Many of those tales originate in the ghost towns of Mowry, Harshaw, Lochiel, Duquesne and Washington Camp in the Patagonia Mountains.
Today, we’ll explore the Kansas Mine near Washington Camp.You can see the chute on a drive down Duquesne Road, while driving through a narrow mountain pass toward Nogales.
Still perched on the side of the mountain on a dirt road, the mine has a story to tell. We’ll dig into this story to see what parts of the story can be substantiated.
Student Luz Rivera contributed this tale of the haunted Kansas Mine:
The Kansas Mine is a mine on the Nogales and Washington Camp road. It is about half a mile from the Camp. This mine has killed more men than any other mine in the camp. It has killed forty-eight men in eighteen years. The last man killed Mr. Tony Rivera of Nogales, Arizona.
The reason this mine kills so many men is because it does not want to be worked because it is believed that it has a large amount of buried treasure either in ore, zinc or lead. This mine was closed for a period of nine months because the miners stated that it was haunted by a young man who was drowned in it just before the last man was killed. – Folk Tales from the Patagonia Area, The University of Arizona Press, 1949.
A search through Arizona Genealogy records reveals that Antonio ‘Tony” Rivera was killed at the mine on January 28, 1941, eight years prior to the story being published by The University of Arizona Press. Rivera’s death certificate online states the manner of death as a disturbing one. His head was crushed by a falling rock. It had been only his fifth day working at the mine.
It is unclear while researching this story whether the student, Luz Rivera, was related to Tony Rivera.
The number of men killed at the mine was not verified via research. Searching through Mine Inspector records and death certificates did not support that many deaths. However, we can’t depend solely on records of the time. Records have been known to be lost or misplaced, or simply not recorded, especially as we research further back in time.
There was also no record of death by drowning in the years before Mr. Tony Rivera was killed. However, this doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen. Records reveal that there was a mine explosion that killed two men eleven months prior to Mr. Rivera’s death.
Pedro Camez, 23, and Robert Landers, 48, were killed in an explosion at the mine on February 21, 1940. It is possible that the manner of death nine years later was mistaken by the informant of the tale. It is also possible that someone did drown at the mine, as reported, but there is no record of the victim. The young man haunting the mine could have been Camez, if the story of the haunting is true.
The nine month closure of the mine could have been caused by the explosion. It was also not uncommon for mining to cease operation periodically for various reasons.
If it was closed for nine months due to a haunting, there would be no record to substantiate that claim, there is only oral history to consider.
Doris Siebold asked her students to name the informant of each story submitted to the book. This story is attributed to “Many Informants”, which does lend some credibility to the lore.
Whether the mine is haunted or not, this story and others are fascinating.
The Patagonia Union High School and the entire community is fortunate to have had a teacher like Doris Siebold. She had the foresight to preserve the area’s rich history and folklore for many generations to come.
* Correction: The date that the folk tale collection project began was 1946, instead of the 1949 date posted in the original version of this post. The University of Arizona Press published the collection in 1949.
Courtesy of http://tucsoncitizen.com/paranormal/2010/07/18/exploring-the-haunted-kansas-mine-in-the-patagonia-mountains/
Havasu Resident Leads Expedition to Famous Shipwreck; Crew Makes ‘Significant Find’
Pitch black, icy water, 230 feet below the surface and inside a 54-year-old collapsing ship.
That combination would scare most people, but for Havasu resident Joel Silverstein, the dive down to the famous Andrea Doria shipwreck is as good as it gets.
“You have to be able to work in the dark, you have to be able to work alone and you need a fair amount of resolve. This is a very dangerous location and fatalities do happen,” said Silverstein, vice president and COO of Havasu’s Tech Diving Limited. “Sometimes it’s flat calm and perfect down there. Other days it’s a washing machine.”
But the famous ocean liner shipwreck that sunk in 1956 after colliding with the Swedish liner Stockholm in the waters off Nantucket still gives up treasures, Silverstein said. On June 25 aboard Capt. David Sutton’s R/V Explorer on the Silverstein/Sutton 2010 Andrea Doria Expedition, New Jersey divers Ernest Rookey and Carl Bayer located and recovered the “crow’s nest bell” from the Andrea Doria. The bell is considered to be “one of the most significant finds in the history of the wreck,” Silverstein said.
“This is an outstanding and historic find,” said Silverstein, the expedition leader during the find, in June. “In my 18 years of diving the Doria, this is probably the most significant artifact found.”
Andrea Doria historian and author Gary Gentile, who found the wreck’s stern bell in 1985, was also aboard the Silverstein/Sutton expedition.
“There was never any proof that a crow’s nest bell existed until today,” said Gentile in June.
Gentile has been diving the wreck since 1974 and has more documented dives on the Andrea Doria than any other diver, according to a press release. Fewer than 1,000 divers have visited the wreck from all over the world and 13 have lost their lives. Silverstein said the dangers, depth, isolation, freezing temperatures and strong currents have combined to earn the Andrea Doria the nickname as “the Mount Everest of dives.”
“The danger and the intrigue of finding something significant make it one of the most famous dives in the world,” Silverstein said, adding that he’s made 14 dives on the wreck since 1992. Silverstein’s wife and Tech Diving Limited President Kathy Weydig has made several dives as well. “We take a lot of precautions before heading out and safety is our absolute first priority. Finding artifacts is actually easier now than it used to be because it has collapsed and they’re just spilling out. Most divers don’t enter the inside anymore.”
Finding the crow’s nest bell was a combination of “great skill and a little bit of luck,” Silverstein said. The 75-pound bronze bell, which holds the Andrea Doria name, was largely covered in sand and debris on the ocean floor when Bayer and Rookey first saw it.
“The currents are so strong and move back and forth, so some days it’s covered and some days it’s not,” Silverstein said. “But we had flat seas, calm conditions and big fish (Maako sharks) and everything else that makes this a once-in-a-lifetime dive.”
The feeling of seeing the bell on the surface after Bayer and Rookey collected it is a feeling Silverstein said he won’t soon forget.
“So I’m standing on the deck with the others when this bag comes up and we look at it and we’re all star struck,” Silverstein said. “We’ve been diving this thing forever, and these guys on their first trip find the bell. And at that moment we knew this bell would change them for the rest of their lives.”
Sutton agreed.
“This was their first expedition to the Andrea Doria,” Capt. Sutton said in June. “Andrea Doria expeditions are hard-core adventures. A discovery like this one just makes it all that more special.”
But the most memorable moment on the trip, Silverstein said, was the moment when Sutton rang the bell eight times to signify the changing of the guard.
“From what we can gather, this bell was used on the crow’s nest to signal fog. So it’s quite possible that the last time it had been rung was when the Doria was about to collide with the Stockholm in the fog,” he said. “So when he hit it, it was the first time the bell had been struck since it sank in 1956. It was pretty moving when you realize that almost 1,700 people almost lost their lives in the shipwreck. When you hear a sound that hadn’t had a voice in over 50 years, it’s pretty emotional.”
Rookey and Bayer recently said they considered selling the bell, but expect to put it on permanent loan to be featured in diving exhibitions following its restoration.
“It’s a significant find because it has the words Andrea Doria on it, so it’s more important than the dishes and trinkets found on previous expeditions,” Silverstein said. “In the world of maritime collectors, the bell could probably yield upwards of $50,000 if it was sold.”
Those interested in learning more about the expeditions to the Andrea Doria and those looking for photos of the crow’s nest bell are encouraged to visit www.techdivinglimited.com. To hear and see Sutton ring the bell, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ_ipSJPvEE&feature=player_embedded.
Courtesy of http://www.havasunews.com/articles/2010/07/18/news/doc4c427ea9bd586483084762.txt
Tip From the Pros
A typical permission form is shown.
Reduce Your Paperwork
By Jay Pastor
Permission forms signed and stamped by the park authorities are necessary in many cities and counties to allow you to metal-detect local parks. There’s normally no problem obtaining such forms, which, for the most part, require you to read the applicable itemized regulations, agree to observe them, and sign below. You are then given a stamped copy, usually good for one year. Another copy (typically clearer and on better paper) is kept on file in the park office.
Unfortunately, because the copy you get is almost always flimsier and less legible than the one they keep, the paper typically gets wrinkled, torn, and faded. If you carry it with you on outings, it also often gets wet and dirty. That can’t be helped; it comes with the territory. Yet, a park employee may ask, unexpectedly, for you to produce it, and you are required to do so if you want to stay.
You could make a second copy to carry with you, but the forms are normally on 8-1/2 X 11 inch paper or cardboard, which is a nuisance. I’ve found that it’s handier to make a reduced copy, about the size of a 3X5 inch index card, and cover it with clear plastic (Contact plastic or packaging tape), which both protects it and imparts some firmness. I keep the original, in a plastic page protector, in the car, and carry the small one with me in some handy pocket. Anyone who knows enough to ask to see it would also know what it is even though the print is small. Although I’ve met with this request several times, the small card has always been adequate proof. No one has ever asked to see the original, although I always offer to produce it.
Calendar of Events
JULY
24th – 25th – Nekoosa, Wisconsin. MidState Metal Detector Club’s 14th Annual Open Hunt and State Championship at the Deer Trails Park Campground (please note the hunt location has changed). Contact Steven Miller, N3091 CTY RD B, Hancock, WI 54943, or e-mail stmill@uniontel.net
26th – August 1st – Vallonia, Indiana. Southern Indiana Treasure Fest 2010 sponsored by Pepsi-Cola at the Starve Hollow State Recreation Area south of Brownstown on HW 135. Jackson County Fair all week. Events for all ages every day! Free Kids Hunts ages 3-12, and Jr. Hunts ages 13-15 for $10. The week’s events sponsored and/or provided by Bounty Hunter, Fisher Labs, Garrett Metal Detectors, The Lincoln Hills Treasure Hunters Club, White’s Electronics, The Hoosier Hills Treasure Hunter’s Club, Real Treasure Hunters, Teknetics, Cannonball Express Metal Detectors, Wick’s Pies, Wray & Co. Treasure Shop, Tesoro, and The Down n’ Dirty Diggers. For more info, contact Chad Beesley at (812) 966-2137 or Terry Rittenhouse at (765) 857-2400.
AUGUST
7th – Orting, Washington. The Puget Sound Treasure Hunters Club, Tacoma, Washington, is sponsoring their annual Lenny Phay Memorial Hunt, “Silver Bonanza,” rain or shine. Two major silver hunts, one a silver dime hunt and the other a big silver hunt, plus a detector and a treasure chest raffle. Fun for the entire family, to include youth hunts. For more info, contact Jim Ratcliff, Sr. at (360) 556-3914 or Jim Ratcliff, Jr. at (360) 556-4009, e-mail scouthobby@comcast.net or visit http://sites.google.com/site/pugetsoundtreasurehunters/home
7th – 8th – Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. 28th Annual Black Diamond Treasure Weekend sponsored by the Black Diamond Treasure Hunters Club at the Plymouth TWP. Recreation Field on Route 11. For information, send self-addressed stamped envelope to B.D.T.H.C., P.O. Box 1523, Kingston, PA 18704, or go to www.bdthc.org to download the flier. Send e-mail requests to treasure1@aol.com or phone Byard Derr (215) 536-0796, George Walko (570) 287-3602 or Ron Denman (570) 288-7787.
21st – Cisco, Texas. The Gray Ghost Nite Hunt at full dark. Silver dimes and collectible coins of all kinds. No lights of any kind for the first 30 minutes. No digging tools needed; coins will not be buried. Penlights and small headlamps are allowed after first half hour. Location is on private property and will be revealed at the time of the hunt. Assemble at the Lela Lloyd Museum, 116 W. 7th, at 7:30 p.m. and be escorted to the hunt field about 8 blocks away. Do not park on the grass. Entries limited to 35. Entry fee: $35. Deadline for registry is July 21. Call Jerry Eckhart at (254) 631-6809 for entry form, write 704 Avenue I, Cisco, TX 76437, or e-mail jmeckhart@sbcglobal.net
28th – 29th – Concord, New Hampshire. The Capital Mineral Club’s Gem, Mineral & Jewelry Festival at the Everett Arena, 15 Loudon Road (1,500 feet east of Exit 14, I-93). Sat., 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission $5, children under 12 free with an adult. Dealers, displays, raffles and hourly and grand show prizes. For more info, log onto www.capitalmineralclub.org
SEPTEMBER
4th – 5th – Foresthill, California. Annual Foresthill Heritage Celebration, California State Gold Panning and Lumberjack Championships, and U.S. National Gold Panning Championships at the Old Foresthill Memorial Park. American Legion Post 587 Annual Pig Roast, music, family events, gold panning, food and craft vendors. Heritage 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, Championships Saturday 8 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information, call (530) 367-2891 or log onto www.goldhounds.com
10th – 12th – Derby, New York. The 25th Annual International Treasure Hunt at Wendt Beach Park on Old Lake Shore Road, 5 miles off Exit 57A on New York I-90. Rain or shine, silver and gold hunts. Registration both days from 8:30 - 9:30 a.m. Free camping available, no hook-ups or dump station. For information, call Joe, (716) 632-6129 or Louie, (716) 434-3712, write 5327 Ernest Road, Lockport, NY 14094, or log onto NFRHA.com
11th – Milan, Michigan. Michigan Treasure Hunters’ 37th Annual Open Hunt at the KC Campground. For more information, contact Vincent Tremain, 15552 Stonehouse Circle, Livonia, MI 48154, or visit www.michigantreasurehunters.com
11th – 12th – Boonville, Indiana. Lincoln Hills Treasure Club’s 4th Annual Treasure Hunt at Scales Lake Park on the sandy beach, sponsored by Robert Jackson. Entry fees put in the hunt as silver dimes. Prize donations welcome. Free Kids’ Hunt, Teens’ Hunt $10. For more info, contact Robert Jackson at (812) 925-3280 or (812) 305-0295.
18th – Knox, New York. 40th Annual Club Hunt with over $5,000 in prizes, sponsored by the Empire State Metal Detector Association, at the Knox Firemen’s Park. For info and registration form, go to www.esmda.org. For more info, contact Bob Lavoy at metal@nycap.rr.com or call (518) 356-0564.
19th – Lathrop, Missouri. 34th Annual Open Hunt sponsored by Mo-Kan Search and Recovery Club at the Lathrop Antique Show Grounds. For more info e-mail Terry Theiss at outboundace@hotmail.com, call Chuck Clevenger at (816) 436-0697, or visit the
club website at www.mokansr.com
25th – Pearblossom, California. 1st Annual Outpost Shootout co-sponsored by A.V.T.H.S. & the Outpost at 34141 116th St. E. The shootout is a day-long event, 9 a.m. –5 p.m., for those in the metal detecting hobby, veteran and newbies, and anyone interested in learning more about detecting & treasure hunting. There will be displays of metal detected treasures & information on detectors. Demonstrations will be given. Featured events of the day are planted coin & token hunts-some require a fee to enter. In addition, The Outpost and other sponsors will add more coins and prizes to the hunts. For more info, contact Scott Sandahl at sandahlfamily3@sbcglobal.net
25th – 26th – Mt. Vernon, Illinois. The Tri-State Metal Detecting Club will host its Annual two-day hunt loaded with silver coins, unique hunts, prizes, raffles, and lots of fun! For more info, contact Justin Stevens at (618) 201-1853 or by e-mail at tds62864@hotmail.com
26th – 27th – Java Center, New York. Genesee Valley Treasure Seekers, Inc.’s 10th Annual Hunt at the Beaver Meadows Campgrounds. Prizes include detectors, and gold and silver coins. Events benefit the American Cancer Society. For more information, call John Howard at (585) 663-7368.
OCTOBER
8th – 9th – Cullman, Alabama. 37th Annual Deep South Open Treasure Hunt, sponsored by the Warrior Basin Treasure Hunters Association and Garrett Metal Detectors, at Smith Lake Park. Prizes will include gold and silver coins, metal detectors, old coins, relics and tokens. Discount cutoff dates are 6/10 (up to 35% discount) and 9/30 (up to 15% discount). Sign up a new guest and save another 10%. Contacts: Joe Box: ulozifind@windstream.net, (205) 640-4116, Cell (205) 451-7693; Eddie Bradley: eddieb@wbtha.com; Lawrence McKelvey: lmckelvey@charter.net. Get all the details at http://wbtha.com/HuntPages/DSTH/DSTH2010/dsth.html
10th – Belmar Beach, New Jersey. 23rd Annual Open Beach Hunt sponsored by the Deep Search Metal Detecting Club. For more information, visit www.DSMDC.org or contact John Helders at (732) 572-1367 or e-mail Russell at marketmanruss@aol.com for a registration form.
16th – Irving, Texas. The Lone Star Treasure Hunters Club will host its 36th Annual Open Hunt at the Mountain Creek Preserve from 8:30 – 4:30. Six hunts with lots of prizes, a cake auction, and a raffle. Headphones required. For more information, log onto http://www.lonestartreasure.com/LSTHOH201036th.pdf or contact Huntmaster Robert Jordan, 1705 Pecan View, Garland, TX, 75040, (972) 530-5832, e-mail bobby.jordan@tx.rr.com
16th – Aiken, South Carolina. The 1st CSRA Metal Detecting Annual Hunt, 10 a.m. Location will be announced by e-mail to all who register. Several nice prizes, including gold and silver coins and a metal detector. Come join the fun. Lunch will be provided. Visit
www.csrametaldetecting.webs.com for more info. Registration fee is $60 before Sept. 15th, $75 after. Call Joey or Kandi for more info at (803) 640-0755.
24th – Galveston, Texas. Houston Archeology Recovery Club’s 29th Annual Open Beach Hunt at Stewart Beach. For registration visit http://www.texascouncil.net and click on Member Events. Contacts: Buster Toland: 281-345-6899, gailrmt@sbcglobal.net , or byron_whitaker@yahoo.com
30th – 31st – Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Open Hunt 2010 sponsored by the Lancaster Research & Recovery Club, in partnership with the Susquehanna Valley Metal Detecting Club, at the Lancaster County Central Park’s Environmental Center. Registration starts at 8 a.m. each day. All silver hunts - one each morning and afternoon, rain or shine. There will be a Kids Hunt (up to age 12), a Free Fun Hunt, and an Optional Gold Hunt. Questions? Call Mike or Sue Race at (717) 355-0691, or e-mail msrace@hydrosoft.net
E-mail upcoming events to managingeditor@losttreasure.com
Good Hunting!
