Generally I do not read (or post) to this type thread. However, it has become somewhat of an icon on SB, it's a rainy afternoon and I have some time--so here goes.
My diving began in 1964, thus spans more than 45 years. Discovering, early on, that rivers are a virtual smorgasboard of "goodies," over all these years 90+% of my diving has been in rivers--an almost annual lobster trip the the Keys notwithstanding!
That being said, to individually list all I have found would possibly crash the bandwidth of this site--so I'll summarize in decending order of my favorite type of finds.
>>> Indian artifacts (catalogued >400, broken and fragments-too many to count.): includes projectile points, scrapers, "knives," "hoes," artistic artifacts, and a few others types.
>>> Fossils: countless examples of the flora and fauna from S Carolina through Florida. Over the years most have been donated to schools and/or teachers and a museum or two. Several months ago I sent a couple of boxes to "Fossilbabe" for the educational displays she is setting up in her area schools.
Favorite fossils are teeth, especially shark's teeth and more especially (of course!) Megs. My first "big" meg was found off the Venice public beach in 1966. My biggest and best several exceed 6".
>>> Old Bottles: have never counted and only catalogued a few special ones, but have several hundred. Most date from the late 1800's to the early 1900's. Two special ones are French wine bottles from two Chateaus (sp) in the Medoc wine region, they date in the 1730's. One is St. Julien, the other is hard to read but believed to be St. Estephe. Also unique is that both were found in the Suwannee, within several hundred yards of each other, both on 20 Dec.---but one in 1991, the other in 1998!
>>> Other Old Stuff: a handfull of artifacts from colonial, Revolutionary War and Civil War eras.
>>> Modern: another long list (even limited to things worthy of collecting). Some examples, dozens of anchors (several years ago a two tank dive in the Suwannee produced 6), dive gear--the usual: masks, snorkels, knives, weight belts and a tank/regulator/back pak found among the coral heads south of Munson Island (Newfound Harbor Keys) in the FL Keys, Fishing gear--rods/reels, tackel boxes, lures and sinkers (have made quite a few weights from collected sinkers). Misc: odds and ends such as jewelry and coins. In the early days most of the coins were pre '65 (i.e. appropriate ones silver!!)
Of the things I have found, my #1 all time favorite is a bone fish hook. A short story here. If any of the SB Cave Country folks are "old timers," the name Dale Stone may ring a bell.
I first met Dale in 1965 or '66--he was operating a "dive shop" out of a barn behind his house in a suburb of High Springs, FL. In those days, short of Gainesville, he was the only source of air for divers from S. Georgia. Over the next several years he moved his operation a few times, winding up several miles north of Branford in a place dubbed "Tin Lizzie."
Over those preceeding years I saw a lot of the treasures he had found in N FL springs and rivers. On a visit to this new location, sitting on the counter, previously unseen by me, was a Riker mount containing several bone and stone fish hooks. Being a fanatic about indian artifacts, that display blew me away.
I left knowing my chance of finding a hook was somewhat less than being struck by lightning while exploring the bottom of Falmouth Springs! Fast forward to the summer of 1983. Diving in an unnamed spring along the Suwannee, while searching a sandy area littered with dead leaves and twigs--there it was!!!--standing out among all the litter as if highlighted by a spotlight--a bone fish hook!!! I almost walked on water back to the shoreline.
Last and (morbidly) not least. During most of my college time in S Georgia I was a civilian (long story how that happened) member of an adjunct military dive rescue club at Moody AFB near Valdosta. During that time I was on teams that found (more properly recovered) nine bodies. In those days local sheriff and fire departments didn't have a dive unit. As a result when a water related incident/accident happened in S Ga or N FL, the group was called out.
Of the recoveries I was involved in (there were many others), one was a suicide--the dude waded out neck deep in a river, and with his pistol scrambled his brains. The other eight were all cave diving tragedies. Research of victums, in each case, found that none had any training, or experience, much less any cave training.
So here you have my list of "Things I have Found" ---FLRiverDiver
