Treasure Hunting

A California man by the name of Nathan Smith attempted to hunt for treasure on a Texas land owner’s property. The wreckage supposedly contains abandoned gold and silver, as identified by Smith’s metal detector. The treasure hunter claimed to have found a “19th century ancient shipwreck” near the Mission River outside of Houston, Texas.

The interesting thing is, Mr. Smith got the idea of treasure hunting by watching the movie National Treasure with Nicholas Cage. His goal was to finance his music and film career by hitting the jackpot. The jackpot in this case was the once famous Barkentine vessel that was lost in an 1822 hurricane over South Texas.

So how did he find the spot for this lost treasure? Google Earth! Yes, the free to download Google application was responsible for helping Smith locate the apparent shipwreck. He is said to have checked up on the location using Google Earth, everyday to monitor its changes. The spot apparently had a “shoe print” design and bared the resemblance of a boat.

The U.S. District Judge (David Hittner) in the court case had this to say in a report:
“Smith has received no artifacts, and presents no evidence, other than his own testimony regarding metal detector readings, that anything of value or historical significance actually exists where he claims it exists.”

So interesting enough, the case was ruled against Mr. Smith for not having enough evidence to support his claim. Nathan Smith plans on applying the Maritime Law “finds” and “salvage” to go back to the site. His goal is to use more powerful equipment and find solid evidence to back his claim. So what are your opinions in this case?

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Kellyco Metal Detectors is now exclusively selling the Golden King Detector in the US! For those of you not familiar of the Golden King Detector, it is made by Nokta Engineering. Nokta Engineering for years, has been developing and producing products for the military, civil, and technical systems around the world.

By all accounts this machine looks to be the most advanced, powerful, and innovative system I have seen in a very long time. What really made my ears perk up was this quote from Kellyco’s page:

“this is the ONLY system in the world to process images of targets in REAL-TIME as you they are discovered.”

Finally! A system that can graphically represent what you are detecting in real-time. This is the future people, and its all uphill from here.

Let’s take a little look at the specs:

*Processor: ARM9 Micro-Processor (a company of Microsoft, ARM processors are used in high end technology today.)

*Ram: 128MB RAM. Ok, this thing has RAM too for faster processing? Sounds like a mobile computer-metal detecting powerhouse!

*Operating System: LINUX. Yes, its true. The Golden King Detector has its own operating system!

*Monitor Screen: 7″ TFT Color Screen. What can I say here, a color screen with enough room to see what you are doing… excellent!

*Battery: Lithium-Ion Battery

*3D-Result Function: Deep Processing Radar technology that allows you to process signals in 3D in real time.

*Detecting Depth: 8 Meters. That’s over 26 feet in which the Golden King Processor Radar Plus can detect and analyze signals!

*Menu with interactive signs and symbols: This sounds like a really cool idea, you can find symbols of historical importance using the Golden King and find out what they are without a book or computer.

*Other notes: This system is capable of detecting both metal and non-metal objects. I know a lot of people that have lost items that contained no metal. This feature is huge and will attract many people I think.

Well that about sums up the important stuff. Again, if you want more information go check out Kellyco’s page here. In all we are looking at a very powerful machine that is capable searching and real time processing out on the field. The Golden King Deep Processor Radar is practically a computer and will revolutionize the way we metal detect in the future. Stay tuned for more info about this product, I’m sure there will be more to come.

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Hi all! I just wanted to give a shout out to Garrett Metal Detectors. We can be rest assured that the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be much safer now. According to the Vancouver Organizing Committee Garrett Metal detectors will be providing 1,650 metal detection products (550 walk through and 1,100 hand-held security detectors.)

Garrett has provided metal detectors for the Olympics since 1984 in Los Angeles, this was sparked by the tragedy of the 1972 Munich Games which created an intense movement for increased security at the Olympics. Garrett Metal Detectors were able to create the MagnaScanner, the company’s first walk-through metal detector. In comparison to today’s figures, they supplied 60 walk-through detectors and 1,000 of Garrett’s Pocket Probe hand-held detectors, as well as training. Source: www.Garrett.com

Garrett will also be the exclusive supplier of metal detectors for London 2012. Garrett Metal Detectors has supplied for the following Olympics as well: Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, Atalanta 1996, Nagano 1998, Sydney 2000, Salt Lake City 2002, Athens 2004, Torino 2006.

I think its great that we can look back and see the great things metal detectors do for us. Unfortunately, this is a world in which we have to protect ourselves from harsh realities of terrorism and threat. These devices help us wash away those fears during the games, and focus on the games themselves which promote peace and equality of man. Thank you Garrett for making the world that much safer for us, and helping promote safety around the world.

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A man by the name of Robert Gismondi was eating at a Daytona Beach restaurant when he accidentally dropped his $370k Ring off the pier. He said he was reaching into his pocket to answer his phone when he pulled his hand out the ring slipped off, and made a splash in the water below. Gismondi is offering a reward in the THOUSANDS for finding his ring. You might have to contend with his insurance agency, but I would act quick as they are probably slow to act.

Ok, so for you treasure hunter divers out there lets go over some clues to help you find that treasure:

-Location is: Main Street Pier in Daytona Beach
-Band is said to be white gold.
-Diamond is large orange color.
-Pier worker was told where it dropped. (With a little questioning and detective work you may want to find out where on the pier it fell at to narrow your search)

As I see it the ring could either be washed out with the current, or more likely buried in the sand around the pier. Either way I would wait for calm weather as diving under piers is extremely dangerous and the water will be more clear to help find the ring. So what are you waiting for!?

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A woman in her 80’s was recently reunited with her 51 year old high school ring. This ring had traveled to Germany and Japan during WWII, and unfortunately was lost in a trench that her husband was digging off the front porch. A man by the name of Arnold Couick overheard the woman’s story at a restaurant and offered his services with his metal detector. Mr. Couick decided to bring his friend along Mike Pyler who also is a avid detectorist.

The ten carat gold ring was found within 1 hour of searching and was only 2 inches deep. Now funny enough it had only cost 9 dollars and change when it was purchased. The money of course wasn’t of concern, but the memories and meaning behind the ring.

I think this says a lot about our hobby… Sometimes we can connect the past to present, or even reunite old dreams to loved ones. I remember finding an old race car toy that I had owned as a child with my metal detector a couple of years ago. Even though I had forgotten completely about it, I immediately remembered my favorite toy as a child and how much happiness it brought me. That same car is now on my desk and can cherish those memories. Good for you guys for finding that ring, I hope it brings good memories back to life.

If you would like to read more about the story the information was taken from this article.

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The Guatrain is a long railway project being constructed in South Africa. Supposedly there is a story milling about today *wink wink* how there has been a large find of gold coins that have halted the project all together. This is a 25 Billion dollar project that employs around 63k jobs, imagine all of that halted for a treasure discovery.

Construction of the Gautrain in Johannesburg has been halted for six months after workers found a large quantity of gold coins minted between 1892 and 1898 at the construction site in Rosebank. Excited historians believe the coins could be the missing Kruger millions.

Historians pointed out that they will need to further comb the area for any additional coins or other clues. Work on the Gautrain will be suspended from today.

Source: SABCNews

So what do you think? Real or someone is pulling our chain with this story on April Fools Day?

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We’ve mentioned geocaching on this site before, but Parks Canada is doing its part to help spread the word about this exciting activity.

Parks Canada has opened, and encouraging the use of, all of the national historic sites, national parks, and national marine conservation areas that they manage. New guidelines have been developed that will encourage wide and meaningful participation in this activity, which you can view here: Guidelines to encourage geocaching

It seems Parks Canada is asking the caches to be interesting stories about a favorite park area, hoping it will spread the enthusiasm for the parks and geocaching.

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