Tonight I found a shirt on Etsy that reads, “Beach better have my money.” I laughed for a few minutes and then decided I needed to write about metal detecting.
Whoa.
This was an amazing discovery for me. There’s junk buried in our own yard. I already had a fascination with history, so the idea that the land our home sat on could be filled with treasures from another time was thrilling. We found a shotgun casing, Mercury dimes and wheat pennies, and a tray full of metal junk. Cans, nails, keys, steel bits and who knows what else. I was hooked.
Have you ever seen a penny that was clearly hit by a lawnmower?! It’s life-changing.
I kept every bit of that junk for years and years. Then growing into a teenager and young adult seemed to suck the fun out of life in favor of some idea that I needed to focus on finding a college, career, and family. Somewhere along the way, I recycled all the junk in my metal tray and put the useful coins back into circulation.
It feels so sad now! It was many years before I settled into my adultness enough to revive all of the fun activities I enjoyed as a kid.
On March 24, 2012 I bought a Bounty Hunter TK4 Tracker IV Metal Detector and took it into an empty commercial lot for sale in downtown Chicago. It was a big open field next to a Target store and yes, technically I was trespassing. I found nothing but trash, but I felt that same excitement I did as a kid and learned the beeps of my new detector.
Eventually I worked up the courage to be seen on a public beach in Chicago and I found an army of beer bottle caps, can openers, and a coin or two. I traveled with my detector to my parents’ new home, to a friend’s house on a farm, and enjoyed digging up odd little relics and yes, a bunch of trash.
This year, I moved to a beach on the Atlantic coast and I can metal walk as often as I want. After Hurricane Irma (September 2017), I cleaned up the hazardous trash that littered the shoreline along with giant mounds of seaweed and coral. Every time I go out, I’m bound to be seen by someone and I always worry they have a negative impression.
“Oh…there’s some crazy person thinking they will find pirate gold on the beach…[eyeroll].”
That’s a bit of the stereotype that I fear. It’s that spaceship on a stick, trash belt, headphones, and all-around nerdy look that we just happen to have. But I’m not out there because I think I’ll discover Atlantis. If you haven’t done it, it probably sounds really silly. I’ve seen skeptics turn from scoffing at a distance, to trailing my every move and getting excited when I start to dig.
I have a feeling this activity is due for a comeback. (Has it ever really had a heyday?) I would welcome the understanding it might bring for a pretty harmless activity for somewhat nerdy people.
