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.