In Search of: 18 grand!

What you diving fer? Asked the grizzled old man. “Oh, just old bottles and whatever other junk may be laying on the bottom.” I answered. The old man points off into the water, “Well you mights want to keep your eyes open for a safe down thar.”

Hooch waiting for the safe, and me in the water.

The old fella, is local seaside historian “Hooch” Henry. A Marine Veteran of WW2, Korea, and Vietnam, he’ll even show you the bullet hole he got on Okinawa. “That Jap popped up outta nowhar and shot me right in the gut”.

Anyway ole Hooch and the neighbor next to the pier both state that a few years back the Sheriff and two inmates in orange jump suits were at the seawall and the story goes that they threw a safe containing 18 grand in the river off the end of the pier.

According to the neighbor he has never seen the safe come up or anyone dive for it, that’s why he’s asking what I’m diving for. We all agree to share in the spoils (if any) and they show me the area the Sheriff indicated a few years ago. The water is swift with the current not yet at slack tide however, the visibility is good with the cooling of the river water. I spend about 30 minutes on the bottom working my way haphazardly around . I spot a few unidentifiable heavy objects in the muck but I’m pretty sure they are not a safe even though nobody knows the size and shape I’m supposed to be looking for.

I’m soon out of air, and the only startling find was a decomposing large piece of mammal of some sort, with ghostly white pieces of flesh swaying in the current. As the Governor of CA. would say at a time like this "I'll be back!"

A few days later, Me, Hooch, the Neighbor and my buddy Culley a deep sea Navy diver with access to the Navy Dive locker goodies are back to run grid lines over the area and lift bags to the heavy objects.

The search starts out slow due to heavy slit in the water due to the recent rains, but on the second tank the visibility clears and we can scan and cover more ground easily. As we work the area, occasionally Culley’s and my goodie bag fill up with bottles and fishing gear. When we surface and have Hooch haul it up and dump it out on the dock and get ready to head back down.

Kevin Culley- Navy Diver finding bottles but no safe.

I’d love to tell you that I’m drying 100 dollar bills in the clothes dryer but, it wasn’t so. We both got a couple of nice old bottles and I got a sweet rod and reel but no safe. Maybe we were off a few yards or the memories of those men slipped a little in the intervening years, but for me the water is probably going to get too cold by the time I’ll get some off-time to try again. Any underwater safe is going to have to wait till next year!

Fossil Hunt

Whaaaaaaap! Clunk! Swoosh….. Swooosh. Soon a man is seen scuffling thru the muddy flats towards us. He’s holding his hand gingerly as he maneuvers thru the debris scattered along his path. Perhaps your thinking this must be a description of WWI Verdun France and a doughboy is making his way to an aid station. Naw, it’s just Gerald “Reel Tooth” making his way along the creek bed of GMR to show off another one of his great finds during his amazing dig.

Yessir, quite a crowd showed up for a early morning dig along the chilly banks of Greens Mill Run. It seems that after posting a few of my finds recently on the web, a all-star lineup of diggers showed up primed to find fossils due to the Aurora fossil hunt cancellation.

A professional Gold mining crew led by RobJon from up country North Carolina showed up for the first time. I was sure they were going to start suction dredging the mighty GMR but they were unsure of the city ordinances. I soon found the Professor in the stream working Will and Lois’s claim. He had a professional GMR local hunter and ole Goosebumps busting gravel from 10 feet below the river bed. “Hey Professor, don’tcha know that’s Will’s claim? He’s got that on file at East Coast HQ! You’ll get fined if you get reported.” I stated to him. “I’m claiming this area in the name of ECU educational research!” He exclaimed, as he showed me a possible 3 inch Great White that had the top broken off.

I knew where I was not wanted so I kept moving upstream. Soon, I spotted the “King of Fossils” himself waiting on his folding chair for his hireling to produce a fossil worthy of his highness’s collection. It was good to see Brian in good health and back in the game; I just wonder how he gets these guys to do all the digging?

King of Fossils

The V.P. of E.C.F.C came up to me about then and demanded to be taken to the area that I worked a few weeks prior where I found that G.W. Anyway, this is the part of the story were chance took a turn for the benefit of Gerald.

Me and the V.P. met Gerald as he was returning back downstream, (maybe he was lonely) Anyways, he had a simply beautiful Great White in perfect shape I’m guessing over 2.5 inches. He decided to turn around and go back to the area he was working before instead of downstream and that my friends turned out to be the play of the day.

Within 30 minutes, Gerald scuffled over to where we were, and I could tell by the sh*t eating grin (see picture) he had something good. A rare perfect Megalodon! No dings, all serrations, beautiful color, 4 + inches. It was a great find! Over the next hour I still did not have even a piece of bone from where I was digging! However Gerald kept pulling fossil after fossil from the same dang hole. Fossils such as, a turtle shell, another perfect front GW, the second 4inch Meg, and possibly the largest Mako from GMR in recent history.

It was nuts, but a fine day it was for Gerald! For the rest of us, the report was that everyone got something very nice, except for the V.P.of E.C.F.C who has bad luck at GMR. I’m not sure about the Gold mining team, but they were working hard to claim their first GMR mantelpieces. But as we all know the lady of the river doesn’t give her treasures to newcomers easily.