Tip from a Professional Treasure Hunter - Old Forts

 

Tips From a Pro - Hunting Old Forts

From: the late professional treasure hunter Robert F. Marx

"Besides the many old forts which are now National Monuments or State Historical sites, off-limits to treasure hunters, there are thousands of others in ruin. In some cases only the sites now exist and no traces of the original structures are visible; most of these sites are not off-limits. Old forts are similar to ghost towns in that they had private dwellings, stores, shops, trash dumps, wells, and outhouse pits in addition to military buildings. Around the old barracks one usually finds weapons, shot, cooking and eating utensils, smoking pipes, buttons, watches and chains, jewelry, and scattered coins. The big bonanza are the places where soldiers stashed their individual caches of coins. Military men had two problems: how to safeguard their valuable from their comrades and where to keep their money when they went off on long patrols from which many never returned. Because most forts were overcrowded and privacy was practically nonexistent, soldiers generally hid their small caches outside the fort, usually within walking distance, in and around places which could be easily relocated. The most likely spots to search are near the base of a tree or in or near a prominent natural feature. A Fort Pierce, Florida treasure hunter specializes in finding the small hoards left behind by soldiers. Working a number of Seminole War period fort ruins he has turned up over $100,000 in coins and jewelry. (1978 values) His largest find consisted of 44 gold, twelve silver, and one brass coin, as well as a gold wedding band and a silver pocket watch, which he found under a pile of rocks about 100 paces from the fort ruins."

Photo is of Presidio San Saba at Menard in central Texas. This site is a state historical landmark so its off-limits to treasure hunting but there are many other old Spanish and other forts in Texas that are on private land and can be detected with permission from the landowners. A lot of these have never been found or documented.

 

 

 

Tip from a Professional Treasure Hunter - Ghost Towns

 

Treasure Hunting Tip from the late professional treasure hunter Robert F. Marx.

Ghost Towns

"Many modern treasure hunters prefer exploring ghost towns to any other type of site for the simple reason that they are easy to find - many are still shown on current road maps. There is always the possibility of finding a buried cache of treasure. Besides, you never come home empty-handed as you are sure of finding at least some interesting, and sometimes valuable, artifacts and a few old coins. There are thousands of ghost towns from Maine to California..."

***

There are A LOT of them right here in Brown County and neighboring Central Texas counties! Get busy! 

Take a look at this 1907 postal map of Comanche County for example.

 

Get Ready! Speed-Gold-Panning Workshops Coming Up!

 

I announced plans to hold some speed-gold-panning workshops this spring for interested Central Texas Treasure Club Members at our February CTTC meeting. The first one will be held some Saturday in May.

I decided to share these secrets, that I learned from the then-World Champion Speed Gold-Panner and professional treasure hunter Richard Ray in 1984, with dues-paid Club Members who want to learn. I've used this technique successfully to pan gold for many years. Once you learn these secrets, you can forget about the old, slow methods of panning gold that you've heard about your entire life.

There will be only 2 requirements to sign up for these free workshops.

1) You must be a dues-paid Central Texas Treasure Club Member.

2) You must have or buy a 14" Garrett Gravity-Trap (Gold Trap) Gold Pan like the one in the photo. This is the ONLY gold pan that you may use as it's the kind I learned with and the only kind I can teach you how to use successfully and it must be the 14" pan.

Each workshop will include only 3 Members and myself and will be held at a flowing Brownwood or Brown County creek. If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments. I will go over this information in our CTTC February Newsletter that I will send out in a few days and I'll start making a list of those Members who meet the requirements and want to participate at our March 3rd meeting.

You can find these pans on ebay but I believe Garrett offers the best price.

 

 https://garrett.com/garrett-14-gold-trap-pan/ 

 

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club 

 

 

 

The Importance of Research by Charles Garrett

 

The Importance of Research

"Research is a key to successful treasure hunting. Without proper and adequate research, you are shooting in the dark. Your efficiency and likelihood of successful recovery increases proportionately as the amount of your research increases. Without research you may not be as successful as you should or could be since 95% of a successful recovery usually depends on research. Always remember that you must go where the treasure is located. Even the world's finest metal detector can only inform you about what is beneath its searchcoil."

Charles Garrett 
 
 
 

Central Texas Treasure Club Meeting Tonight! Tuesday, February 3rd.

 Central Texas Treasure Club Regular Monthly Meeting Tonight! 6:30 p.m. at the old Early Chamber of Commerce Bldg. at 104 E. Industrial Blvd. in Early, Texas. Our monthly meetings are held on the first Tuesday of every month at this time and location. Visitors are always welcome and encouraged to attend!

See you there!

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

 

Central Texas Treasure Club Library Additions & New Policy

 

Central Texas Treasure Club Library

I will be adding some more treasure hunting/metal detecting books to our Club Library over the next few months. Only current dues-paid Members may borrow these books. The one that will be added for the February 3rd meeting is a fascinating book - "Follow the Signs - A Treasure Hunter's Handbook" by Dayne Chastain. We gave some of them away at our 2025 Central Texas Treasure Club Open Hunt but we didn't get a Sponsor for this copy. One of the perks of being CTTC President is that I'll get to read our library books first!   I read this one and loved it. 

 New Library Policy - Our CTTC Secretary/Treasurer Jen Evetts will be in charge of keeping up with the book borrowers, due dates, and such. Members may only check out one book per month. A $5 late fee will be charged to any Member who doesn't return a book to the Library before or at the next meeting after the book is checked out. $5 will be added for each month thereafter that it's overdue. 

Thank you,

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

 

 

CTTC Members Detecting Old Brown County Fairgrounds in 2014

 

I took this photo of our Central Texas Treasure Club Members in January, 2014 when we were given permission to metal detect the old Brown County Fairgrounds Racetrack for one morning. About 15 of us showed up for that one-time opportunity when the property was in the custody of a local bank. We were honored to have a 90-year-old man share his memories of the old track. He told us he went to it when he was a young man. He said they had horse races and motorcycle races there. I was excited because I knew that William C. "Bloody Bill" Anderson regularly attended and bet on horse races there as his youngest son Patrick Henry Anderson told of how he used to go to the races with his father who would leave home with his pockets bulging with silver dollars. I also suspect Jesse Woodson James attended them and may have even had one of his horses entered.

A couple of Members found a few old coins that day. I didn't find any coins but my prize for the day was this very small horseshoe that I found with my detector. I have it hanging on my Relic Fence in the backyard along with many other of my most interesting old iron and metal relics that were all found with my detectors. We were also able to locate the concrete foundation where the old Grandstands once stood. The old track is on private property now and I don't know who owns it. The field is located behind the DPS Office and the old Staples store in Commerce Square in Brownwood.

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

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