On Fenwick Island Delaware there is as quaint little seashell shop shop located in a small strip mall on Delaware Route 1. If you look a little closer at the building you will notice a second story which houses the DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum. If you blink your eyes you will certainly miss it as I did driving by so many times. Not only are there treasures beyond belief stored in the second story of that little building you can also buy or rent metal detectors to go out and find your own treasures. Next time I get down that way I will take some pictures of the outside of the building.

My first visit to the Shipwreck Museum floored me. I never seen so much gold in my entire life except for that one show on the Discovery channel about the treasure hunters of the Caribbean. This place marvels Fort Knox except for the security. Also, the best thing of all, it’s FREE! If you wish to leave a donation they have a cool donation box on the floor when you walk in.

You have to enter the seashell shop on the street level and if you are a very keen observer you will notice a flight of stairs located near the rear of the store right next to the pirate in the glass box. There is a little sign somewhere for the museum but I forget where it is. I have probably seen it so many times that it doesn’t regester in my brain any more. Just look for the stairs and you’re good to go.

When you get to the top of the stairs you can turn left and go into a little room that has a video playing about the founders and how they acquired all the treasures you are about to see. When you leave that room don’t forget to drop a donation into the box that you are just about to trip over….oops too late. Good thing it’s bolted to the floor.

The museum is not that big but there are millions of dollars worth of gold, jewelry, pottery and other artifacts. All the treasures were recovered from the Delaware coastline and shipwrecks that are scattered along the Delaware coast. Downstairs you can buy a map of all the known shipwrecks along the Delaware coast, there are thousands of them.

Every time I go to Fenwick Island, which by the way is not really an island, I have to stop at this museum. I always get the same thing from the others…aw common dad, not the museum again? I get goosebumps as soon as I walk through the door. I would love to take my metal detector on the beach and find the WORST EXAMPLE of treasure that they have in that museum.

There is a beach near Indian River Inlet that has been labeled “Coin Beach” because of all the old Spanish coins that wash up. After a good “nor-easter” you can walk along the beach and pick up Reales or pieces of eight up off the ground if you are lucky. These guys who own this museum have found hundreds of them. I have never been to coin beach beacuse you need a surfing permit, there is no road access.

If you are lucky you may stop by when they are giving a lecture or demonstration. When that happens they bring out the “good” stuff from the back. Have you ever draped a multi-million dollar Spanish conquistidore chain of solid gold links around your neck? It feels pretty good. The demonstrations of the electrolysis is pretty cool. It’s amazing how an ugly piece of black coral encrusted garbage can be turned into a beautiful archialogical treasure.

If you are a collector of antiquities don’t miss the showcase near the metal detactors where you can purchase some of the treasures that they have brought to the surface. Take a deep breath before you look at the price tags, however.

Either way I can feel my metal detectors vibrating in the closet. It’s WAY to cold to MD here in the frozen ground but it’s never to cold to swing in the loose sand. My present problem is I don’t have the time or the money to spend on gas to go down to the beach whenever the whim hits. When I get into my bay home I can drop whatever I’m doing and hit the beaches. I’m getting all tingly just thinking about that!

I am anxious to get some pictures of my finds on here. However, I don’t have anything interesting enough except maybe this ring I found at the park a few months back.

It’s white gold and has an interesting assortment of stones. I sold it to a coin dealer and he said the stones were apiusghfioawerah. That’s what it sounded like to my ears. Anyway I got $35 for it.

I would have loved to keep it but when your kids look at you with those puppy dog eyes woundering what they are going to eat you have to make sacrifices. I hate to dwell on the negative but we also had to sell our wedding rings to put some food on the table.

I can’t wait till I get to RING MECCA, I mean the beach. Then I will be able to start a collection to be proud of. The only other ring I found was many years ago when I had my Whites metal detector. It was the one I destroyed because I took it into the water one too many times. Actually the first ring I found was a very heavy gold class ring. I found that one at Lum’s Pond, another Delaware state park, and I found it in the swimming hole there.

I never took a picture of that ring so I can’t show it to. I will absolutely be taking pictures of all my finds from now on. Back then I didn’t have a digital camera. Now not only do I have a good SLR digital camera, Santa brought me a digital video camera. Nothing fancy but enough to show you pictures of the areas that I hunt. I will show you coin beach as soon as I get access. You can’t drive to coin beach unless you have a 4WD and a surfing permit. I have the 4WD but not the permit which is about $30 I think, I have to check the parks website. On top of that I have to spend $20 for a all-year pass to the state parks. I’m ok with the parks permit but my wife might give me a problem with the surf permit. We’ll see, heheh!

Oh, I almost forgot. I was going through some of my picture cards and I found some from when we went to the Shipwreck Museum on Fenwick Island. I’ll try to get those pictures on soon. I’m also putting them on my delawarepride.com blog so I’m not sure when I’ll get around to doing that. I’ve been doing a lot of Delaware Indian research and I’ve been concentrating on that for delawarepride right now. That should be done shortly.

Stick around because you really don’t want to miss those pictures from the Shipwreck Museum.

I WILL respect private property and do no treasure hunting without the owner’s permission.

I WILL fill all excavations.

I WILL appreciate and protect our heritage of natural resources, wildlife, and private property.

I WILL use thoughtfulness, consideration, and courtesy at all times.

I WILL leave gates as found.

I WILL remove and properly dispose of any trash that I find.

I WILL NOT litter.

I WILL NOT destroy property, buildings, or what is left of ghost towns and deserted structures.

I WILL NOT tamper with signs, structural facilities, or equipment.

This time of the year is only good for doing research. The ground is frozen here in the northeast and the beaches are too far away to get out. Well only an hour away but I can’t afford the gas.

I had an old metal detecting book that I can’t find any more that had a GREAT place to hunt. It was a place in Delaware where there was a pier going out into the Delaware Bay that they used to gamble on. I actually tried to metal detect in the water there once. I had an old Whites metal detector and I took it into the water and it died.

I now have fantastic equipment for water detecting and do you think I can find this book? Jesus, I must have dozens of metal detecting books and this is the ONLY one that I can’t find. THE most important book out of all my metal detecting books and it like disappeared into the either.

I have searched high and low for this book on the internet and I can’t find it. I would pay a hundred dollars for that book today if I could find it. I don’t remember what it was titled but it was something like places to metal detect  in Delaware or something like that.

I did countless hours of research on Delaware gambling especially on the Delaware Bay but nothing. I can’t believe I was there and I don’t have the faintest recollection about how to get back there. This is maddening to me.

All I remember from this book is that somebody was there and hunted in the water where the pier used to be and they were uncovering silver dollars by the bucket loads! I am sure there is something left there if only I could find a way back there with my water hunting metal detectors.

I’ll keep looking and researching until this wicked winter breaks. This is definately the time of the year to do research. It’s what keeps us northern metal detectorists sane during the winter. Reading the posts on metal detecting forums just adds to the agony because it’s usually the guys from Florida or Hawaii or Puerto Rico or the Bahamas that drive the boards.

For those of you who are in the same situation that I am I appreciate your pain. If your weather is warm all year round than all I can say is FUCK OFF! I don’t want to hear it. Well really, yes I do because I’m a glutton for punishment. OK, if you live in a warm climate you’re a lot fucking smarter than I am and my hats off to you. I was actually going to move to Florida until I got married. Have you ever tried to unstick a women farther than 50 miles from her mother? Good fucking luck!

Well marriage ended my Florida plans. We got married in Pennsylvania and I was ecstatic when she agreed to move to Delaware. It still gets colder than a witches tit in the winter but at least I can live closer to the beach. It’s so easy metal detecting in sand. I sometimes fall asleep thinking about beach hunting and I always find some good shit weather I am falling asleep or doing the real thing.

I’ll be back soon to bore you to death with my moaning until spring time. Then I promise some relatively interesting posts. Until then keep reading because I plan to bore you more with useless posts about how I can’t stand waiting for Spring and what I am doing until then.

My house is for sale and I have a signed sales agreement on a property right next to the beach. If only this house would sell. I have it listed for $60,000 below market value and no bites yet. I can’t wait to get out of here. I want to move so badly that I can’t think of anything else.

You see, metal detecting at the beach can be done any time of the year. Even if it’s 0 degrees outside you can metal detect on the beach if you bundle up. My problem is right now I am down to one car and I won’t leave to go to the beach and let my wife stranded. I had to sell my Expedition to make a few mortgage payments. The mortgage on this house is $1600 a month and with the state of the economy my home business is in the dumper. I used to make $40,000 a month until the economy took a shit, but since then I’m lucky to earn $500 a month.

If I don’t sell this piece of shit house by February they are going to foreclose. Bye-bye beach house. I got such a great deal on that beach house that if I lose it I may just shoot myself but I’ll have to borrow somebody’s gun to do it because I had to sell all my guns to pay a fucking mortgage payment.

This beach house is so cool. I get a woody just thinking about it. It’s a great place just 2 minutes from the bay and about 15 minutes from the ocean. It comes fully furnished and I’m not sure where I’m gonna put my own stuff yet. You can bet that I’ll find a place to put my metal detectors.

I’m just blowing off some steam with this post so if I depressed you a little with my situation then so be it. I don’t care one bit. When I finally get to my beach house my posts will be more uplifting. Until then just be prepared that I won’t be in such a good mood.

On one side is the Delaware Bay which turns into the Atlantic Ocean about 1/2 way down the state. The Delaware Bay is one of the oldest waterways used as an access to Philadelphia. There are thousands of shipwrecks in the Delaware bay and for years things have been washing up on the Delaware seashores from those wrecks.

One beach in particular sees so much activity in the way of old coins, pottery and ship driftwood that it has been labeled “Coin Beach” by the locals. For years now people in the area look out for a good “nor-easter”  to come around. When that happens thousands of tons of sand are removed from the beaches and lots of old coins and pottery and jewelry from those old sunken shipwrecks come to the surface. Metal detectorists for hundreds of miles away come to battle the elements with the hopes that they can walk away with a few pieces of eight or doubloons.

Delaware also has hundreds of parks and recreational areas and most of them allow metal detecting. Just make sure you check with the park officials because metal detecting is not allowed in a few of them. For instance, in certain parts of Cape Henlopen metal detectors are off limits only because there is believed that some burried mines still exist from the wars.

In Dover, the state capitol, all of the parks allow metal detecting. Sometimes they plant new grass so you have to abide by the “keep off the grass” signs. But there are like 15 parks in Dover so there’s always a place to hunt.

My favorite place to metal detect in Delaware is along the sea shore. Beach hunting usually does not uncover many old coins but there is plenty of jewelry including gold and silver rings, some quite valuable if they have diamonds attached. Gold necklaces and bracelets are also common. Also, hunting the beach is so easy because digging in sand is so much easier than digging in dirt. I can retrieve a 10 inch target faster in sand than I can a 3 inch target in dirt.

So grab your metal detector and come to Delaware. You will never leave empty handed and it’s quite possible that what you find can pay for your entire vacation!