1715 Fleet

Last week we road tripped to Sebastian, Florida to do a little vacationing and a little bit of treasure hunting. We didnt get out metal detecting nearly as much as I wanted to, but it was a nice family vacation. While in Sebastian we visited the Mclarty and the Mel Fisher treasure museums, which were pretty cool. The Mel Fisher museum had some very interesting artifacts, and even had a gold bar from the shipwrecks that you could hold. First day out all we hit was some clad, i found a fired casing (looks like 9mm), and alot of trash. But i am learning my new machine, a minelab safari, so im diggin everything. Next day got some more clad another casing and what looks like a bead from a rosary, possibly gold, and possibly from the 1715 fleet, potentially a great find. Next day out we got a really late start, we started detecting a few hours after low tide. My cousin Jay got a big signal using the garret ace250 so he called us over. Well we had pretty good signals too, and since we figured a cannon was found less than a mile from here a few weeks ago with gold coins in the barrel, lets dig! We had just enough room to start diggin from the tide, but our kitty litter scoops were severely inadequate for this application, so Jay went to the store to get some shovels. By the time he got back we had some of it exposed, but high tide was filling in every other shovel full. Ill be dammed if it didnt look somewhat like a cannon. We got pretty excited, i was a bit skeptical, but excited none the less. We decided to cover it up, mark the spot and return in the moorning. Well waking up at 4am was pretty miserable on vacation, but it was an hour ride from the house we rented. Got there nice and early, and had the gear we needed-except bug spray. Those dam no-see-ums or sand fleas they have by vero beach suck! its been a week and we are all still itchin like crazy! Well we got to the site and started digging. Do you think it was a cannon? hell no it was a dam truck axle! made me lmao, but at least we have a funny story to tell!

2009 Geode hunting

Me Johnny and Jay decided to go to Keokuk Iowa to hunt for geodes. This was a last minute trip, and it was only 2 days long. It was about a 4 1/2 hour drive and we stayed at the holiday inn. This was a great place to stay because they had a small geode exhibit with some exceptional specimens. The chamber of commerce was located in the same building, and they have a ton of info about geodes and where to hunt for them.....he even told me the mayor runs a barber shop in town and to go talk to him. It was a dreary day, rain on and off so we were forced to wear rain gear. We decided to start on a creek bed that was very shallow, some online research led us here. Unfortunately the national geode fest was the weekend before we were there, so the river bed was pretty sparce as far as geodes. Although, we did find a few there. After a few hours of hunting we decided to go to Jacobs geode mine in Hamilton, IL. There was only one other person there looking for geodes, and he gave us alot of pointers. We were there for about 4-5 hrs digging in the mud and we each had about 2/3 of a 5 gallon bucket filled with geodes. He charges 16$ per bucket filled and 40$ for buckets that he filled. We decided to split a bucket to make it so we each had a full bucket. We found alot of cool quarts geodes, some multi-chambered and large single crystal geodes. I also found a great citrine quarts geode with beautiful orange colors, which i gave to my neighbor. This was a fun trip and i actually have a few geodes on display in my front room. We are planning another weekend trip in april to check the other mines out in the area.

2009 search for The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine

On our Arizona trip we also took a day trip to search for the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine. It was more of a scouting trip to get to know the area than anything else. What suprised me the most was how vast the area is. http://www.desertusa.com/mag98/aug/stories/lost1.html has alot of good info on it. The mine/cache is supposed to be by Weavers Needle(picture). The hike up to weavers needle was a pretty intense hike up through the mountains. The elevation changed a couple thousand feet and the scenery was awesome. Once we got to Weavers Needle we walked around a bit and across the valley from the hiking trail we saw an opening on the side of a rock face....could that be the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine? We left the rappelling gear in the jeep, so we couldn't access the opening. It met some of the requirements for the clues to the treasure, but it was getting late. All i could do is mark it with the GPS and hopefully return at another time to further inspect it.

2009 Vulture City Mine

Last summer we took a road trip to Phoenix, Arizona in the Jeep. It turned out to be a really good trip with Johnny, Jenny, Kate, myself, and we met our cousins Kevin and Jeanna (who live in Vegas). I did a little research online on ghost towns and found this http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/az/vulturecity.html. It seemed like Vulture City had the most remains in the Phoenix area. Let me tell you, it was an awesome experience. First of all, it was in the middle of bum fuck and you got a purdy mouth.... The land is privately owned and i believe they charge 15 bucks a person, which was well worth it. When you first pull up it looks like a haunted desert scene straight out of Tales From the Crypt. The lady working in the shack was very nice, and she had several scorpions and a whole garbage can full of rattlers that she let us look at. They give you a little map of the area and its open season. I couldn't believe how many buildings and how much equipment they still had standing. Every building we went into had all the original stuff in it, just how it was when it was abandoned years ago. Some of the buildings were barely standing, ready to fall over almost. It is said that $200,000,000 in gold and silver were taken from the Vulture Mine, and there is still two to three times that amount of precious metal, still in the old mine!

New Blog

Hello, My name is Joe Terrell. I am an amatuer Treasure Hunter that loves to research and search for caches, coins, geodes, gold, gemstones and so on. Generally there are three of us out on adventures, John Terrell, Jay Terrell and myself. Occasionally Johns wife Jenny Terrell, and my wife Kate Terrell will also join us. Yes we are all kids at heart, you don't find to many 30 year olds out looking for treasure. Frankly, its what we love to do and i would encourage anyone to follow their heart. Haven't had to many significant finds yet, but as the great Mel Fisher always said - "Today's the day!" We have a few trips coming up this summer(2010), including hunting for Topaz at Topaz Mountain in Utah, another Geode hunting trip, and a few weekend trips to hunt for Jesse James caches. Thanks, and i hope you enjoy!