Incredible Metal Detecting Discoveries: True Stories of Amazing Treasures Found by Everyday People by Mark D Smith Read Free Book Online Page A

hoards are incredible finds, and the ones I
have included account for a very small number of hoards that have
currently been found using nothing more than a metal detector. There
are plenty more out there waiting for you to dig them up.

Frightening Finds
    With metal detector in
hand we busily comb through parks, lakes, rivers, oceans, fields,
woods or forests scanning for bits of history that we call treasure.
Those lost pieces of treasure could be anywhere, and every single
piece of treasure no matter how big or small comes with some sort of
history attached to it. It is only a matter of time until some poor
unfortunate soul manages to dig up some treasure that comes with a
darker history. A history that should have stayed buried.

    I have recovered a few
somewhat “creepy” finds myself. A tooth here. An entire
set of teeth there and even human bones. Granted these finds were
nothing like the stories that follow. Although I will admit that each
one of them sent a chill down my spine. There is nothing quite like
seeing an entire set of teeth laying in the bottom of your beach
scoop as you stand neck deep in dark murky water. Once you realize
what it is, your mind starts to wander. It leaves you with an
unsettling feeling to say the least.

    Let's take a trip to the
darker side of metal detecting and uncover some real life finds that
have made full grown men think twice about digging again. Some of
these stories are a little on the dark side. Consider this your
warning. If this sort of thing bothers you, then you may want to skip
over these true frightening metal detecting stories.

The Beach of Death
    Let's start this section
off with a personal story of my own that left me feeling a little
uncomfortable.

    One of my favorite places
to metal detect is the beach. When conditions are right, there is
nothing to complain about. You have the beauty of the ocean, the warm
sun, bikini clad beauties and miles of treasure producing sand. That
is not what the beach conditions were like on this day.

    I was hunting a small
stretch of beach on the east coast of Florida. Even in the winter,
you could usually wear a pair of shorts and a t-shirt while hunting,
but this day would be a little different.

    There was a cold front
that was supposed to move through the area in a few days. As usual,
the weatherman was a wee bit inaccurate. (no offense to any
meteorologists who may be reading this) The cold front made a
overnight surprise visit, and of course this caused the temperatures
to drop quite significantly. I would not be able to hunt in a pair of
shorts and a t-shirt. I would need shoes, long pants and a jacket if
I wanted to hunt comfortably in this cold weather.

    I arrived at the beach two
hours before low tide. This should give me plenty of time to comb
through the wet sand. When I walked onto the beach, I could not
believe my eyes. There were dead fish everywhere. They were so thick
on the beach that it became difficult to walk. It was even more
difficult to swing a metal detector.

    Apparently the cold front
caught all of the local fish by surprise as well. Normally these fish
would have migrated south to much warmer waters, but this freak cold
front caught them all off guard and killed them.

    These were no baby fish
either. There were some that were as long as my leg and as big around
as my torso. Some of these dead fish would have been record breakers
had they been caught on a fishing pole.

    Still to this day, I have
never seen anything quite like this. For miles down the beach, there
were thousands of dead fish. Did that stop me from metal detecting?
Of course not!

    I meandered through the
beach of death swinging my metal detector in between all of the fish
carcasses. I noticed a few low spots on the beach and made my way
towards them.

    I started getting signals
as soon as I got to the first low spot. I was happily digging up
modern coins among all the dead fish. If there was a dead fish in the
way, I would just move it