SIGN OUR NEW GUESTBOOK To BE ELIGIBLE TO WIN A ONE OUNCE SILVER ROUND. ONE WINNER EVERY THREE MONTHS  We will post the guest book winner and it will be up to the winner to contact Streeters with the date they signed the guest book and their mailing address & Streeters will send their prize

All invited

April 23, ½ day Natural Hunt with TinPanMan (Brian Thomas) from NEMD Forum & PTHHS will take all to an old farm field. Info’ George Streeter Tel 1-603-876-4443 $20 entry fee & mail to BONE, 307 Main St., Marlborough, NH 03455

April 23, 1:pm to 3:30 pm set up for BONE Show & Chinese Auction. Held at Keene Recreation Center, 312 Washington St., Keene, NH. Info’ 603/876-4443. Maybe a Mini hunt for helpers to follow.

April 23, 7:pm Get together Roast Pork Supper by Jeannie Wrisley, at I.O.O.F. hall, 181 Marlboro St., Keene, NH. Small hall & only Street parking. Supper limited to 60 people. Introductions & door prizes. We must know how many to plan for & advance tickets $10 or if room available $15 at door. Make check payable & mail to; BONE, 307 Main St., Marlborough, NH 03455. Details & or if you can help 603/876-4443, .

April 24, 9:am to 4:pm Treasure Hunter’s Hobby Show & Chinese Auction. Admittance by donation & under 16 free. at Keene Recreation Center 312 Washington St., Keene, NH. Hobby related businesses & clubs are offered a free booth, however its $6 fee to rent a 6’ table.

STREETER”S will have a Minelab, Garrett & White’s metal detector booth and all kinds of treasure hunting accessories, tools, scoops, headphones, and books for sale. Bill & Barbara will be doing their last St Jude Fund Chinese Auction. Dennis, David & Jason will do the ICMJ Gold Panning contest & a gold prospecting workshop. 10: enter best finds of 2009 at contest booth.. Workshops: Jason Sevene = Minelab E-Trac & Safari metal detectors. Lance Comfort & “Art of Mental Detecting”, and a water hunting & prospecting workshop.

April 24, BONE 17 Banquet, 7:pm Social hour & 8:pm meal.

April 25, 10:am 17^th National BONE Metal Detector Hunt. Held rain or shine at an old summer camp. David Gaillardetz is hunt master. Bring your own chair, refreshments. METAL DETECTOR Hunt is in memory of Mark Sutcliffe and other treasure hunters friends, who have left this world.. Hunt PRIZES = old coins, tokens, relics,, gold & silver, hobby accessories & a metal detector. $50 advance entry fee to 4/10/10 Make check payable & mail to PTHHS, 307 Main St., Marlborough, NH 03455. After 4/10, the entry fee is $65.

Tickets by donation $5.00 each, for tickets contact George Streeter or David Gaillardetz, c/o 307 Main St., Marlborough, NH 03455. email gstreeter@ne.rr.com call 603/876-4443

Nights of Gold

By Chris Valerio　

Time just seems to fly by these days and before I knew it, our next treasure hunting adventure and destination to the Isle of St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, had quickly arrived. Actually, I had not even fully unpacked from my last treasure hunt with George Streeter and it was already time to repack again! This adventure would be my first ever trip to St Thomas. I’m somewhat dramatic here because since I was a kid, I was interested in going to the Virgin Islands. I envisioned blue-green waters, palm-lined white sand beaches and lots of sun! When I was in High School my friend Paul Wilson packed his bags and left for St Thomas to make his fortune in the ice business. I always marveled at his bold and daring move at such a young age! Paul was mostly interested in making money, girls at the beach and drinking along with whatnot. The last I ever heard from Paul, many years ago, was that there were plenty of drinking opportunities and girls around the Island! I never heard from Paul again and I surmise that he either became a multi millionaire or fish food at the bottom of the sea! I suspect the latter. God Bless you Paul, wherever you are! But it really was not Paul who got me interested in the Virgin Islands. Long before meeting Paul, my father Joe is to blame for that! My dad had a dream back around 1965 to live on and charter a sailboat there. That dream was never manifested, but always seemed very exciting to me as a boy. Often I envisioned such a lifestyle shipboard on the sea and what one might expect the Virgin Islands to be like. A tropical Paradise! Yet as the years passed I never made it to St Thomas and only photos of the Island spoke their thousand words of someday. Then suddenly someday came, when George Streeter invited me and 6 others on a shallow water treasure hunting adventure for gold in the warm waters of St Thomas! That’s right folks, this was a group of 8! George, myself, Don Foster of NH, Peter Lopipero of NY, Charles Anderson, Paul and Pat Rodinsky and Mr. Goldmaster- all 4 from Florida. Mr. Goldmaster prefers to remain anonymous. Not only was this a big group, but was also one of those very rare times in the history of metal detecting that George Streeter invited a non-detecting observer along! In this case Pat, Paul’s wife. Pat was along for the ride and turned out to be a welcome addition to our group! Even though Pat did not detect with us, she helped to make our vacation easier and fun. As a gourmet cook Pat did some wonderful cooking while we were out looking for treasure. She also cleaned up after us and took care of laundry and other related chores. Pat is an attractive lady with a marvelous sense of humor and warm heart. She was always wishing us good luck. Her husband Paul is a very lucky man! Which brings to mind… having more women along on these treasure hunting vacations might be a fun idea? I would certainly enjoy the company of metal detecting ladies. Surely there must be some shallow water lady treasure hunters wanting to partake in such adventures? Any ladies out there interested in finding gold in the Caribbean Sea should contact George Streeter right away.

George rented a very nice Villa, Blue Horizons for our stay, January 31st through February 8th. This Villa sits on a mountain top overlooking the cruise ship docks below, with a million dollar view! We enjoyed the private swimming pool, a large living room, huge Master bedroom, washer/dryer and long outside view deck with BBQ, hammock, roomy kitchen and dining area along with beds for all. Except George did volunteer to sleep on the white couch. This was our home away from home and served us very well. We also rented 2 cars from Budget to transport us from beach to beach. I got lucky and got to drive a brand new Jeep Commander with a neck-snapping Hemi! Varoom! That power came in handy as most of the roads in St Thomas are very windy with lots of ups and downs and sudden traffic from every direction. Most there drove fast and it was like being in a mountain road rally! One could always smell our hot transmission and brakes! I normally do not drive like that, but that’s how it’s done in St Thomas. Additionally on the left or wrong side of the road! Which reminds me, a good business to start in St Thomas would be an automotive brake shop! Peter drove the other rental car, a Ford Focus with George as our navigator in the front passenger seat. I had it easy. All I had to do was follow them and keep the hemi on the road. George and Peter did a wonderful job, although we did make quite a few scary u-turns! Despite the wild mountain driving and every road looking nearly identical to the other, we got around. Really, I’m not exaggerating. Driving in St Thomas is almost like being on a roller coaster ride! On these trips and after driving in foreign lands, I always feel a small sense of relief when the trip is over and the driving is done without incident. Because driving is different in the Islands, the chances of an accident rise sharply. I do not want to scare anyone from driving in the Caribbean, but know that for the most part Caribbean driving is at a much faster pace than here in the States! Almost like a video game. Being an extra careful driver might not be enough. Driving too slow or cautiously could actually cause an accident! When driving in the Caribbean I often imagine some American police officer (traffic cop) riding with me in the car. He/She would be blown away by what they see and would not have enough tickets in a full case of ticket books, to write up all the moving violations in just one day! Often motorcycles drive right up the middle of the road at Mach 1 with just inches to spare between cars, nearly everybody speeds and tailgates, others park anywhere including on sidewalks and the local cops seem to look the other way. On top of this are all sorts of distractions such a cows, dogs, iguanas and chickens, all trying to cross the road to get to the other side without warning! While Island drivers have more freedom to drive as they please than here in the States, from what I understand all of that fun comes to an abrupt end, when one causes an accident. I guess that can ruin the entire day! So having full auto insurance when driving in the Caribbean is a very smart thing. In St Thomas my personal auto insurance fully covered us, just as if I were driving at home. So we saved some money by not having to buy extra rental car company insurance. But if your insurance company does not cover you in the Caribbean, then one must purchase insurance from the rental company for sure. A very smart thing to do! But actually I’m more nervous about flying on these vacations than driving. Although I did hear George say something about closing his eyes often as a passenger!

Click to view more St Thomas photos

On this trip we all got along very well and shared responsibilities. That makes for a fun trip. Every morning Don or Mr. Goldmaster made a great cup of coffee. All I had to do was get up and pour! Charlie made pancakes, French toast, eggs and bacon for breakfasts. We ate our lunches out at Mickey-D’s, KFC or where the locals eat whenever possible. Charlie and Pat prepared simple dinners for us at the Villa. So we all ate well. Partly because of good planning, but also going major food shopping twice. My favorite dinner was the barbequed chicken legs prepared by Charlie and Pat, cooked just right! I was on a sea food diet. Whenever I saw food I ate it!

Our treasure hunting days were very long. We got up early and hit as many beaches as we could. Often driving to and finding a particular beach took up quite a bit of our daylight. Though by the end of this trip we had this Island down pat. Each night we returned to the Villa tired and eagerly soaked in the pool. But for me this was a special trip because on 3 occasions we went night treasure hunting! I have never hunted at night and this was an experience to remember and I now favor night hunting. There was one particular beach where for some reason metal detecting was not allowed. This is a big beach where many tourists like to deposit their gold in the sea for us to find. We tried detecting this beach during the day, but were escorted out promptly. But where there is a will there is a way and we found it. A friendly life guard suggested  we  return after 6:pm when all the staff went home. But this meant hunting at sunset and eventually in total darkness. We were prepared for exactly that and had all brought along small headlamps. So for 3 nights in a row we metal detected at night for several hours. This was a very exciting thing to do. We were like pirates in the night plundering an off limits beach and were sort of getting away with something! Hunting for gold and treasure at night reminded me of night crabbing here in Washington State for delicious Dungeness crab. One goes out at low tide and at night with a propane lantern and rake in search of crab. Night hunting in St Thomas brought back many good crabbing memories. The night air was still and crisp, the sea calm along with the smells of the ocean and saltwater, with the heavens above filled to the brim with dancing stars! There I was surrounded by darkness, chest deep in water and metal detecting for gold. Lights from a few nearby lights and anchored yachts reflected over the waters surface. Which each target dug I turned on my headlamp to discover what I had found in my scoop. Off in the distance were the other glowing headlamps of my treasure hunting partners. Every time a light went on, I knew that potentially someone had found treasure! Each night we found gold there and on the second night I found a ladies solitaire engagement style diamond ring! The main stone is at least a ¾ carret diamond with 5 smaller diamonds on each side, all set in 18 KT white gold and platinum! I could not believe my eyes when I saw that beauty sparkling in my scoop by headlamp light. Instantly I just knew the diamonds were real, as was later confirmed by an electronic diamond tester. I will never forget the moment and place of that find. It’s etched in my mind and I will savor this memory for years to come. It was as though that diamond ring was a falling star, somehow caught that night in my scoop. This is the stuff dreams are made of! Sadly I can just imagine the hearbreak and sense of loss felt by someone. Unfortunately there are no personal markings in this ring and if I could return this ring to a rightful owner, I would without hesitation! It is a very beautiful ring and the center diamond looks very white and nearly flawless! This ring is one of my best jewelry finds to date. I especially like that it was found at night. I find night hunting to be somewhat romantic and would call night hunting Midnight Blue- a favorite color of mine. However night hunting was not all fun and games. Night hunting requires some courage while submerged chest deep in dark waters. One never knows what might like to snack on you! As a matter of fact in 1963 and at the same beach we were at, a swimmer was killed by a 10’ Caribbean shark! While sharks feeding at night had crossed my mind, I was striken with a serious case of gold fever! And in this particular case I wanted the gold more than was scarred of Jaws! Yet to be honest there were a few times where I nearly jumped out of my swim suit. The bottom was a combination of sand and mud and with each dig of the scoop sediment billowed up like a cloud in the water. A couple of times I mistook that sediment cloud for something on the attack! Sometimes it was best just to keep the headlamp turned off. Fortunately none of us were eaten alive and we found some nice treasure while night hunting. I have always enjoyed seeing scooped gold glistening in the sunlight, but perhaps now prefer scooping gold in the dark? It’s just so very exciting! I will definitely try night hunt again.

While as a group in St Thomas we did not find as much gold as on some other islands and past trips, there was a potential to find better quality pieces, such as my diamond ring and the heavy platinum band found by George. On this trip our group found more than 40 pieces at over 200 grams! Mr. Goldmaster found the most, 12 pieces. I found 9 pieces of gold, George 8, Don 5, Peter and Paul 4 each and Charlie one beautiful wedding band! By weight George found the most, over 74 grams including the heavy platinum band. So I declare George the gold champ on this trip! Mr. Goldmaster came in a very close second at 67.5 grams and I third with 46 grams. Yet I feel my diamond ring was the best find of the trip, followed by George’s platinum ring. In all this was a very fun trip. I really enjoyed the fellowship of my treasure hunting companions. Together as a group we are a dream team, which helps to make such treasure hunting vacations possible, affordable and safe. And with the price of gold hovering around $1,100.00 an ounce, very $ green too!

There really is lots of gold to be found in the sea! If you would like to try Caribbean shallow water treasure hunting, give George Streeter of Streeter Electronics a call. (603-876-4443 www.streeter.org email  gstreeter@ne.rr.com ) George has great deals on all sorts of metal detectors and treasure hunting tools. George is a very giving man and will always help you discover your treasures. Happy hunting to all and may the gold be with you!

Fish Pole Beach

By Chris Valerio　

This past November 10th thru the 18th, George Streeter invited me and 5 other treasure hunters, to partake in what turned out to be another successful Caribbean treasure hunting vacation, on the beautiful island of Guadeloupe. In Guadeloupe French is spoken there and Euros are the official currency. George Streeter has been to Guadeloupe many times now and with each visit, Guadeloupe still gives up some of her gold from the sea. I was one of the lucky 7 to go and partake in this golden treasure adventure. Yes there were 7 of us on this treasure hunt, and I was a bit concerned how that would work out. Much to my surprise and despite 2 being company and 3 a crowd, 7 worked out great! The best part, we all found gold and had a wonderful time in Paradise! Besides myself and George Streeter, Tom Blondell of Rochester, MN, Rich LaMothe of Fort Meyers FL, Bryan Llewellyn of Wales, UK, Don Foster of Claremont, NH and Mr. Jim Corbett of Princeton, NJ rounded up The Golden 7. And 7 turned out to be a lucky number! Everything about this trip just seemed to fall into place and work out right. This vacation was a piece of cake! 6 of us arrived and departed Guadeloupe at the same time! Only Bryan coming from the UK arrived early and departed later than the rest of us. This worked out pretty good, as within minutes after landing in Guadeloupe, we were shuttled to our bungalows by the sea, as a group. George smartly hired Tropical Transport to do the driving. All we had to do was get in Tropical’s large van and enjoy the ride. Bryan was already at the bungalows and was able to get a ride from fellow travelers he met on his flight. That was very nice. George rented 3 bungalows for us and that worked out well. We arrived pretty late and found comfortable beds and a rental van waiting for us. We put together our detectors and went straight to bed, eager for tomorrow to come.

The place we stay at is located in the town of St. Anne and only a 2 minute walk from a most beautiful palm tree lined beach . There is also a bakery, restaurant, deli, store, bank, payphones and more just round the corner. A sweet set-up for sure! The next morning found us all detecting for gold in the sea, practically right out our front doors! Soon we started striking gold and my first find was an 18 K gold chain with gold cross-style pendant! George and most in our group also struck gold on the very fist day! I tell you it simply does not get any better than this! Sun, sand, sea and gold! So we hunted this particular beach for the rest of the day. As if this were not enough, we had a rental van waiting to take us to several other beaches on the Island known to produce gold! George rented a 9 passenger full size Fiat van for us from National, through our hotel. So we didn’t have to pick the rental van up. It was delivered to out bungalows for us! After signing on the dotted line and with key in hand, we had our wheels and I was officially the designated driver.

That evening around 7 PM and every night thereafter around the same time, we ate delicious dinners at Le Lucellous, the open-air restaurant just 100 yards walking distance from our place. They serve affordable French-Creole dishes ranging from pasta to fish, to ribs and steak, chicken and lobster. It was simply too covenant and good not to eat there every night. Besides the good food we shared stories of the day along with other fine yarns and tales of past treasure hunting adventures. Our dinners also concluded our successful days hunting for treasure and provided a wonderful sense of camaraderie, laughter and friendship! We also have a favorite waitress there. Here name is Betty and she speaks some English. Betty is a beautiful, funny young French lady with a wonderful smile and helps make sure that our supper gets done right! On most of our trips to Guadeloupe Betty has been at the restaurant and helps makes our visit more enjoyable. I would also like to mention another restaurant we tried for lunch while on the road. Aux Artistes Restaurant in Bas-du-Fort. This is a small funky place with lots of artwork on the walls. (Tel: 0590 907 311- located on Route de Bas-du-Fort) Dany the owner, another beautiful and blond French lady, was happy to serve us her lunch specialty, smoked chicken with fries, followed by a delicious apple crumb cake desert with coffee. This is a fun place to eat lunch and as with Betty, I was taken with Dany’s good looks and first class personality! So when in Bas-du-Fort, do visit Dany at Aux Artistes. Dany does speak English too.

Our delightful setting of lodging, beach with gold and restaurant, would be plenty to satisfy any traveling treasure hunter. One could spend the entire week or 2 there hunting for gold, eating and sleeping and never get into a car! But George knows where there are some other very good and productive beaches around the Island. It took many visits to Guadeloupe to discover these golden beaches and several are off the beaten path. They all have names, but we have our own names for some of them, as French names can be difficult to pronounce if one does not speak the language! Our names are much easier and have meanings to us. Names such as The Little Pools, The Big Pools, Don’s Honey Hole and now one called Fish Pole Beach. Each of these beaches always produce gold finds. Why at Don’s Honey Hole I found 13 pieces of gold in a small area! That is why we rent a van to get around the Island to detect our favorite beaches. When you go with George Streeter to detect an island for gold, you become privy to valuable information. Such as where the best beaches are. This alone is worth thousands of dollars! So it is an honor to accompany George on these trips!

For the most part we stuck together as a group. When 6 or 7 of us went into the water, there were Excalibur detectors everywhere! Excalibur's are our detector of choice and simply find the most gold for us. If you want to find lots of gold on land and in the sea, give George Streeter owner of Streeter Electronics a call for great metal detector deals. George will steer you in the right direction! Gold is where you find it and while there are no guarantees gold will be found, when armed with a Minelab Excalibur metal detector your odds for gold go way up! Excalibur's are almost like gold magnets. Believe me, I have tried most underwater machines and Excalibur's find the most gold, silver and platinum in the sea. That is why all of us use Excalibur's. If there were a better machine, we would use it and George would sell it!

So just how good did we do with our Excalibur's on this treasure search? Well, how about a group total of 121 pieces of gold jewelry, including rings, bracelets, earrings, chains and pendants! 3 of my rings had small diamonds in them and most of the gold found in Guadeloupe is 18 K, as that is what the locals prefer! On top of the gold finds we found many, pieces of silver and Euro coins. While one might not be able to survive on bread alone, one sure could on found Euro coins in the sea! We found many 1 and 2 Euro coins and while I normally do not dig coin signals while hunting for gold jewelry, I do when it comes to Euros. Each Euro found is worth about $1.50 US and on this trip finding 2 Euro coins was rather common. That’s like scooping $3.00 for each 2 Euro coin found! These found Euro coins add up quickly and easily paid for all my gourmet food on this adventure!

Rich turned out to be the Gold King on this trip finding 32 pieces. George found 20 pieces of gold and I 29 total. Bryan who is somewhat new to shallow water detecting found 3 pieces of gold, Jim 10 pieces, Don 13 and Tom 14 pieces of gold! My gold found weighs over 2 ounces! Tom’s pieces were larger pieces and Rich may have found a 22 K gold chain and ring! Remarkably Jim found a 1700’s silver Spanish 4 Reale coin in beautiful condition! What a great find Jim! Now that’s real treasure and when I go back to Guadeloupe, I know exactly where I am going to detect for more Reales! There is lots more treasure to be found in Guadeloupe!

A certain beach we always hit has a new name now, Fish Pole Beach. Why, it’s a whale of a tale! One that I simply would not believe if I had not seen with my own eyes! I can only give testimony as to what I saw. And as unbelievable as this will sound, it really did happen. Did you know George Streeter is a fisherman? I did not know that until now. George did not tell me this, he showed me first hand how fishing is done! Picture this. The 7 of us are detecting in blue green water waist deep on a beautiful beach where only the locals swim to lose their gold jewelry. That is why we are there, to find the lost gold. We are not supposed to be relaxing on the beach sipping a drink, frolicking in the water or sightseeing, as we are there to detect for gold. As a matter of fact George frowns when we stray from treasure hunting! Yet we caught the Master himself with his pants down, so to speak, taking a break from detecting! At first when I saw George taking a break from detecting I thought to myself, Ah Ha! Here I was hard at work stricken with Gold fever and looking for gold, and there was George Streeter recreating! Unbelievably as I’m detecting in the sea for gold, I just happen to look up to see George pursuing apparently his other pastime, fishing! That’s right folks, George was standing in waist deep water with a fishing pole in hand and fishing! What a nerve having fun like that while the rest of us are busy looking for gold! Not only this but George was actually playing a fish! I watched him reel in a 20 plus inch Bonefish! Heck it might have been a 5’ Tarpon! From what I could see the fish put up quite a fight, but by the time I reached George, he landed his prize! What was George trying to pull on us? Having fun like that! To keep an amazing story short, George spotted the fishing pole underwater by mask and snorkel. Then naturally being the treasure hunter that he is, George grabbed his prize, only to discover there was a hooked fish at the other end of the line! So George reeled him in, in a rather sporting fashion I might add! Finding a fishing pole underwater is one thing, but what are the odds of finding one with a fish attached? But that is exactly what George did, and why we now and forever will refer to that beach as Fish Pole beach! Strange but true story! George said that he would not do it again and will concentrate more on finding gold next time. We forgive him this time! For more specific details in George’s Guadeloupe fishing techniques please ask Streeter himself!

Besides George distracting us with his fishing activities, there are many other distractions on the Guadeloupe beaches in the form of, well eye candy! Put your children to bed now! Many of the French ladies for some reason do not like wearing one half of their bathing suits. The upper half that is! Now they might be too hot or something? Perhaps they desire an even tan? But a woman going topless in Guadeloupe is as normal as me having my morning coffee! Nobody there thinks anything of it. But we treasure hunters find the local culture rather interesting. It’s almost like reading a National Geographic magazine! Just like I did when in 4th grade! Well, with that said and out of the way it is now time to move on here.

Our diesel Fiat van was rather fuel efficient and I wish I could buy one here in the States. It lad lots of room, plenty of power and handled rather well. Build quality seemed up to snuff too! It is always nice to drive such a quality vehicle on these treasure hunting trips. If anyone wants to see what our van looked like, just Goggle “Fiat Scud Van”. We drove all over the Island for less than $60 in fuel! That was truly amazing! Good choice George!

Don and I shared a bungalow and I like Don. Don has a great memory and helps remind me where he puts the room keys often. Don makes me laugh and I admire his love of cats. At the bungalows there are several cats that come to visit. The are starving for attention, which Don is more than happy to give. Don also brings the cats leftovers to feed them. Anyone who is a friend of cats and dogs is a friend of mine! But I am a bit concerned about Don seemingly getting better each trip at finding gold with his detector! This means less gold for the rest of us! This was the first time I met Bryan and found him to be a very nice and thoughtful man. Bryan was full of conversation and my prayers are with him for the serious challenge he now faces. I am looking forward in meeting Bryan again. Bryan, God Bless You! Rich is a retired Nurse and is ready to take care of any problem one might have. Rich even took George’s pulse, when George was not feeling good one day. Rich is a good man to have along! Tom is rock steady and also a good man to have on your side. Tom is cool with his detector and as mentioned before tended to find the larger pieces of gold. Way to go Tom! Jim is quite the fun character to have along. Jim is a good guy, an expert and has been detecting for years. Tell Jim a joke and he laughs very, long! I like that because I laugh too. When Jim speaks, I listen to his valuable detecting advice. Well, what can I say about George? How about that he is the best fisherman that I now know? Without George these trips would not happen and I have to thank George for that!

We all had a wonderful time and found plenty gold in the sea. But as always the real treasures are the times and moments spent with good friends. Good memories to last a lifetime! Those are worth far more than shiny, glittering gold! Guys, thanks for a good and safe trip!

Treasure hunting is fun. Looking for treasure is fun. Finding treasure is real fun! Finding treasure with your friends is the best! If you desire to look for gold on a most beautiful Caribbean beach, these treasure hunting adventure vacations organized by George Streeter can’t be beat! Give George a call, become a customer of his and ask about his next planned adventure. A slight warning though, once you go on a Caribbean treasure hunt, they get into your blood and you will want to go again and again! Happy hunting to all and may the gold be with you!

What have you Found detecting?

By Norma Parda

I have to say, in all the years my husband and I have been detecting the best finds yet, have been the people we have met doing this hobby. From the very start, when we bought our first used Whites detector, we made our first friends in the hobby. The guy who sold it to us and his wife. To this day, 22 yrs later, we are still friends. No matter how long between visits of seeing each other, we pick up where we left off, and most of the talk is about our finds.

For another example, the editor of this paper. We met George when we bought our Eagle 2, and then later bought our Whites Spectrum, which is a great machine that we've had for a long time. Since then, about 21 yrs later or so, we still joke and talk about the hobby. He was the one who gave me my first writing job, which is for this paper, and which has been a great experience for me. Over the years many people have crossed our paths and we've become very good friends with many of them. Not just in the hobby, but also on personal levels. People young and old.

We met this young couple while we were out detecting in a field, in the rain, on a very chilly day. They were checking the area out and saw us detecting. They parked beside the field we were in and headed in my direction. My husband was a little distance away. At first I wondered why they were coming our way, and what they wanted. I was a little worried, but as they approached, I noticed they were young adults, and just curious about what we were doing. We started a conversation and I soon discovered they were detectorist as well. The guy had been detecting for a few years already, and his girlfriend went along with him and got into it too. We talked for some time and found fast friends in each other. They were college students at UMASS at the time and have since graduated and move East. But, that hasn't stopped our frequent visits. Three years later now, and we are the best of friends. We have 20 plus years of age between us, we being the older I hate to admit, but it sure doesn't matter to either of us. When we get together and go out hunting, none of that age stuff is a factor. We call each other when we find something good, and get excited for the other.

Along those same lines, we met a couple at our county fair while they were running a detecting booth there. Again, we struck up our many hobby finds conversation, and the rest is history. They are 20 yrs our senior, and the age span makes no difference. We get together and play cards, cook out, celebrate birthdays, special occasions, and everyday things together, just from that chance meeting at our local fair, with detecting being the catalyst that got it all started. We have met many more people through these people, who have also became good friends, and so the snowball effect takes wing.

We have been so blessed by having to been able to meet people from just this hobby alone. It's more than finding stuff which are just inanimate objects, it's all about the people who cross your path while enjoying this hobby that makes the difference, and always will. Family, friends, and people of all ages, that is what is the most important. Don't lose sight of that in anything you do, and your life will be richly blessed. God bless you all. And of course, happy hunting.

Dreams of Aruba By Chris Valerio

I am not exactly sure when or how I was bitten by the treasure bug, but treasure hunting has always been in my blood as far back as I can remember. Even as a young boy I searched the beaches for treasures with my parents by the sea (rocks, shells, floats, driftwood). I believe my first real treasure found, was a 1,000 year old skeleton castle key on a trip to Europe with my parents. I simply could not get over that that key was older than me and The United States of America, and it was as though I had discovered The Lost Ark! To this day mention the word treasure and you’ll have my full attention, with visions of gold, pirates, rum, whatnot and loot dancing through my vivid imagination! Oops, did I inadvertently mention rum and whatnot here? What could the whatnot be? Please forgive me as I have been known to get carried-away at times when stricken by Gold Fever!

If there ever was or really is a problem with my lust for treasure, it is that I have always been lusting for too many treasures. That is I’m interested in old coins, gold nuggets, lost jewelry, historic artifacts, gemstones, lost, hidden and buried treasure and so on. If it involves treasure I like it! I must also point out that there are many other sorts of treasure I did not mention, such as waterlogged old growth timber, rocks and meteorites, fossils, old bones and ancient ivory. Even possible thrift store treasures! Then there are also the natural treasures such as sunsets, babies, fresh air, dogs and family. Did I mention cold beer, hot dogs, apple pie, boats, fishing, Big Macs and BBQ in general? The problem is that with so many treasures knocking at my door, I could spend 3 lifetimes searching for them! I believe the reason I’m more of a dreaming treasure hunter is because I may have spread myself too thin! One only has to point to my treasure hunting library consisting of hundreds of books on the subject, to see that! Care to check one out? And then there is my treasure hunting file cabinet full of magazine articles, maps, brochures and personal treasure notations. Why with all that stuff to read and ponder, one might think that I am some sort of treasure hunting hound? On top of all this there is my famous wall of detectors, digging instruments and other necessary tools of the trade, including scales, gold and diamond testers and more whatnots! Why I would even own a burro or 2 if it were practical! Hey do them critters eat grass? Because I have about an acre to mow!

Now that I am thinking about all of this, I can sort of hold Charlie Garrett of Garrett Metal Detectors somewhat responsible for my fever! I read all of his books and Mr. Garrett fully convinced me that I could actually find treasure with my Grand Master metal detector! Plus Mr. Garrett says treasure hunting is healthful. I now agree with all that walking, digging and such. And for many years with Garrett setting the tone, I discovered the treasure of satisfaction. Weekends found me and a buddy or two, their wives and 1 dog, hunting for real treasure in the great outdoors. We searched for meteorites, buried loot, gold coins, dredging rivers and took my 86 Toyota 4-Runner into places a rabbit wouldn’t go! I can remember three of us once digging an 8’ deep hole with shovels by hand! What we found? Dirt! We even detected the exact same tailing piles for large goose egg gold nuggets that Garrett described in one of his books. On that adventure we discovered mosquitoes, but walking in the footsteps of Garrett was an honor! Such is the life of a treasure hunter!

Once my female black lab Bantu (named after an African tribe and who one day showed up unexpectedly in my life on a scuba diving trip, and adopted both my lunch and I, but now resides in doggie Heaven) disappeared into the bush while we were metal detecting Red Top Mountain for beautiful Liberty Washington State wire gold. After several hours I heard some serious rustling and growling behind a pine tree, only to see Bantu eventually immerge out of that tangle in reverse and dragging something. That something turned out to be what was left of an elk carcass! Then there was the time we followed one old time treasure story to an end conclusion. Most time spent was on research and a lot of it. The icing on all of this was the actual field work and search for the treasure. This involved a treacherous hike through the Rainforest vines and stickers of our Pacific Northwest jungle. We found the exact spot at a place named Oxbow along a river and discovered nearly everything about this treasure story was true except 1 thing. The treasure! There never was a treasure to be found. I should have discovered that during the research phase, because the only thing I could not verify in this yarn, was any mention of the treasure. Yet Gold Fever got the better of us and we wanted the treasure to be, and went in search of Fools Gold! Yet this was a valuable learning experience and there still was a sense of satisfaction even though we came up empty handed. I guess I should have been somewhat suspicious when the treasure was supposedly buried under a big rock, that looked like the fin of a fish! But you know, I’ve been thinking… perhaps we just missed that rock and should go back for another look-see? A stiff drink just might set my mind straight and at ease on this!

I also would like to blame treasure hunting magazine articles. Those articles helped to fuel the fire. 2 of which in particular are forever etched in my mind. One a successful story of water hunting with metal detectors for lost gold jewelry on the Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe, and the other about finding a Piece of Eight and 2 gold nuggets on the Island of Aruba. Wow, the idea of adding travel to exotic places along with treasure was simply too much to resist! So I started files on Aruba and Guadeloupe knowing one day I would visit each to find my share. Why I know so much about Aruba I could be a tour guide there! But the years passed by and those Islands were always calling me. Kind of like in the movie South Pacific. (Uh, did I just give away my age? Nope!)

Enter George Streeter, one of the worlds Greatest Shallow Water Treasure Hunters! Well I did not always know that. I had recently discovered using the computer for treasure hunting research and had read everything I could get my hands on at the local library! The only thing left for me was surfing the internet. Then one day I received an email from George Streeter. To this day I do not know how or why? But that did not matter at the time, because this email naturally spoke of treasure and hundreds of gold rings found by Streeter and his crew in the Caribbean! I mean hundreds of pieces of gold found in the sea on every trip! I wondered could this claim be for real as I lapsed again into another spell of Gold Fever? It just sounded too good to be true? Why I had yet to find my first gold ring and here was a man who claimed to have found thousands! At the bottom of his Spiel was printed in all capitals “WANT TO COME ALONG ON MY NEXT TRIP?”, or something to that effect. Do I want to come along to scoop up all that gold? Heck yes, that‘s a no-brainer! So George, count me in on your next trip! I will pay my way and share in all related group expenses! Boy that was simple. Only I did not realize at the time George would have to first actually invite me! I knew that I needed to play my cards right, so I made up the best letter about myself that I could, presented it to George and crossed all shovels, in hopes that my resume would work magic. And Poof, it did as I was eventually invited to go Caribbean treasure hunting with George Streeter!

Know what? Finding 100 pieces of gold jewelry on a Caribbean 10 day to 2 week trip turned out to be true, and I found my first gold wedding band on my first trip with George! And no he did not toss it in front of me either, thank you very much! I have since gone on many such adventures with George and found my fair share of the gold! George has been a great teacher, even though he professes not to be a treasure hunting teacher! Yet just by going with George, what one learns from George is worth thousands of Dollars! Even when unspoken and by simple observation!

Even though I had always dreamed about going to Guadeloupe long before I ever met George, he got me there! And several times too, and each time loaded down with 18K found gold! Plus many other Caribbean Islands too. I could talk about those other Treasure Isles visited for hours. They include The Bahamas, Grand Camen, Puerto Rico, Dominica, St Martin, Curacao, Barbados and more! But there was one island that always seemed to elude me, Aruba! The island that sort of was a treasure dream of mine. But every time George went to Aruba to hunt for gold in the sea, I could not take the time off! Each time I passed on Aruba killed me. Well figuratively! It got so bad that I almost went to Aruba alone, but came to my senses in the nick of time. I was beginning to think Aruba was simply out of my reach and grasp, despite knowing for years exactly where I would find the gold there! Yes, as far as I was concerned Aruba was simply loaded with gold and I had known that for years! With place names such a Spanish Lagoon and Palm Beach, how could this not be?

Just about the time I sort of gave up on Aruba forever, I was again invited by George to go with his group to Aruba. I just knew that if I passed this time, I might never get there. So I did what it took to go on that trip. Only this time it ended up that George could not come along! Well that was a real heartbreaker as George helps to make these trips fun! When I found out our fearless leader was not going I almost cancelled. Yet the call of Aruba was too strong and I needed to get this Island out of my system once and for all. This trip would do exactly that! Besides I would not be alone. I would be with other treasure hunting brothers and sometimes sisters too! Yup, show me a treasure hunter and I will show you a good friend for life! That is if a dose of stiff competition does not get in the way!

I think the best thing about this treasure hunting vacation was that I was actually going to the island of my dreams. I had been so close once before when I visited Curacao with George, but now I was Aruba bound and the gold would be mine! I should mention that leaving on this trip was sort of bitter sweet. Not only was George not going, but that whole Natalie Holloway affair had left a bad taste in my mouth for Aruba. But as soon as that big jet airliner took off for the clouds, only dreams of treasure filled my mind. Deep down I knew that over the years I had turned Aruba into a golden goose of treasures and that I might very well be disappointed. In a way I almost did not want to find out by letting the dream remain just that, a dream.

I found Aruba to be beautiful and our group of treasure hunters friendly. We got along well, shared most expenses and detected as many beaches as possible. Unfortunately my golden dreams were crushed, as there was little treasure to be found. Unknown to us a big winter storm had brought tons of sand in and sent most all the gold to sea. We found a few pieces here and there, but nothing like what I had built up in my mind and hoped for! Though this seamed a defeat we made the best of our trip with great dinners and some sightseeing trips. I finally got to see all the places I read about over the years. But I have to say the best treasure hunting experience that has ever happened to me, happened on this trip, making the wait all worthwhile. Destiny took years to get me to Aruba so I could be there at a very critical moment in time.

It was late in the afternoon and we had been detecting hard in the sea for gold most of the day. I was empty handed again and somewhat tired. I found myself in one of those all-day detecting trances. Kind of like in those Westerns where they have to cross a vast burning dessert without much water. Suddenly my rhythmic sweeping of the detector coil was interrupted by a beautiful and golden bikini clad woman. She called to me and when I finally took my headphones off, I saw her pointing and heard her say something like, “she needs you“! Was I hallucinating? Did the hot sun, sand, salt sea and long unfruitful days in the field finally get to me? Was I really needed by some damsel in distress? Why yes I could see another young lady on the beach in tears. A bit reluctant at first I made my way towards her. She was shaking from head to toe and said she had just lost her engagement ring. She desperately needed my help. At first I thought good luck, as I had found nothing all day. Plus in the past many who asked me to look for their lost ring, were not exactly sure where it was lost and there‘s lots of Real Estate out there! I was about to call it a day and now this woman asked more of me. But when I looked into her eyes, I knew what I had to do. I inquired if she knew where she may have lost her ring and much to my surprise she knew exactly. She had taken her ring off to apply some suntan lotion, setting her ring on a towel. Later she forgot about the ring and shook the sand from her towel, only recalling this when she discovered her ring was missing. Now I know that this can be very upsetting, but this gal was nearly in trauma and I was more concerned about her physical well-being than the ring! I tried to calm her and told her I would find the ring. The pressure was now on big time and at the area in question and loss, I directed her family and friends to remove all the beach hardware and chairs. Soon a large crowd of onlookers gathered watching my every move as this unfolded. I asked her mother what sort of ring I was looking for and she told me it was silver. I found that rather odd, as who would get so upset over a silver ring? Nonetheless I started searching for high silver tones with my detector and started finding coin after coin. After a few minutes I asked the mother if the ring was really silver and she finally admitted that it was indeed white gold. Then I finally knew what tone to really listen for, aluminum! In a few more minutes I got a good gold/aluminum tone hit and carefully scooped a few inches deep in the dry sand. As the sand fell away I simply could not believe the ring I saw glinting in the sun at the bottom of my scoop! There were big diamonds everywhere and I knew why the mother had originally told me the ring was silver- she feared I might try to keep the ring if found! This was the most beautiful and expensive ladies ring I had ever held! Someone in the crowd declared that I had found the ring and everybody cheered. But before I could celebrate, the young lady said there is another ring somewhere in the sand to complete the set. So I started searching again and soon got another good hit. This time I dug with my hand so not to damage anything and came up with another stunning ring totally surrounded by big diamonds! Upon this the woman fell into my arms, and it became clear to me that I had saved the day! Her mother then told me those 2 rings were worth more than $75,000! I told here I would have gone nuts if I had found those rings in the sea, but this was not the case and I was happy to reunite these rings with the rightful owner. A reward was offered but graciously declined. But still, I can just imagine finding such a ring in the sea. I took satisfaction in knowing such rings are actually out there, and I now wondered about detecting the dry sand more. This young lady along with her friends and family, did not even try looking for the rings in the sand. They simply assumed the sand had gobbled them up forever. Were it me, I would have been pushing sand with my hands! Had I not come along with my machine, those rings might still be there baking in the sand today! But the right thing happened and I was glad for that. That ladies vacation was restored and I simply waded off into the sunset.

I had a wonderful time in Aruba despite finding little gold on this particular trip. I was with good friends, ate delicious food, experienced some wonderful nightlife and saw the sights! Those are some real treasures. At first I may have been a bit disappointed, but Aruba slowly won me over and I would go back again. As a matter of fact there is a little known treasure story of a huge golden hoard hidden in a cave on Aruba. This was a political treasure of the time, and is clearly calling to be found. Let the dreams roll on!

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