Longer Day Trips: Sebastian Inlet State Park

While we were going to Vero Beach for a Church meeting, we decided to leave early and spend about half the day visiting Sebastian Inlet State Park. Most of the time I can't justify the time spent on the road and the expense of gas to take long trips just to hike and picnic for less than half a day. However, we are more than willing to take the same trips for a Church meeting, and so when it works out, I often try to squeeze in a visit for our Adventure Friday for the week.

Rebecca was today's photographer.

An inlet is basically a cut made through a barrier island to connect two water ways. In this case the inlet connects to Sebastian Lagoon at the end of the Indian River to the Atlantic Ocean. This is a brackish area so it is possible to catch both fresh water and salt water fish in the lagoon. It's also where ocean going fish like grouper come back to lay their eggs. The inlet was difficult to open and keep open over the years. Up until WWII they strengthened the jetties and dug out the inlet more than 17 times. During WWII fearful of German U-boats they allowed the sand to block up the inlet. Since then the Army Corp. of Engineers reopened it and it has been in service ever since. While we were there they were dredging out the southern end of the inlet as they routinely do to keep it deep enough for boats to traverse, so the kids got a good look at how the process works and they were very intrigued.

While in the Fishing Museum you will find a display of a fishing house, and learn all about the history of commercial fishing in the area. From the individual fishermen using nets and lines during different times of the year to the process of weighing and dividing out the fish in the fishing house, to the barrels packed with ice and shipped up the railroad to New York, we learned a great deal. Everyone found different items of interest. Ruth told us about the various fishing reels in the museum, and Kate was fascinated with all the different turtle skulls.

Our next stop, just at the edge of the Park's boundaries, was the McLarty Treasure Museum. We arrived just in time for the last playing of the video all about the Spanish Plate Fleet of 1715, and it's subsequent wreck just North of the Museum. The Spanish found gold in their colonies in the New World, and after several years work an 11 or 12 boat fleet was making it's way from Peru up the coast of Florida before turning to head back to Spain. While they left a little late in the season, it was still more than a month till Hurricane season really kicks off. However during the night just a short ways north of modern day Vero Beach a Hurricane hit, the worst they'd ever seen according to the sailors. During the night all the ships sunk but one, and between 700 and 1500 people died - sailors, women, and children.

The survivors made a temporary, make shift settlement up from the sand dunes where they were able to dig a well for fresh water. Over the subsequent months they worked diligently recovering as much of the treasure as they possibly could, until a year or so later the sands and the ocean reclaimed it all for their own. Spain claimed 30% to later on 80% of the gold had been recovered, but there is much speculation from the time and in the present day that the numbers were inflated to a large degree to discourage other countries from coming in and conducting their own salvage operations.

It won't be long at all, till Kate's footprints are as big as mine.

During the time that time The Governor General of la Florida sent supplies with a relief party and men to protect the recovery party. However, Henry Jennings an English pirate sailed north and was able to steal a large quantity of escudos (or golden doubloons) and silver reales (or pieces of eight) before coming back to Port Royal, Jamacia, English controlled territory. This was the beginning of the Pirates of the Caribbean. Most of these men were initially privateers working for other countries to attack treasure ships and collect as much gold as possible to be split between the captain the country sponsoring them, but when the British largely withdrew from Port Royal, most of these men, with the ability to raid ships and settlements, sailed under their own flag, the Jolly Roger and kept all treasure for themselves. Eventually the pirates of the Caribbean were all gone and the lost treasure fleet forgotten.

Until 1961, when Florida native Kip Wagner kept finding small peculiar shells wash up on the beach as he walked his dog daily. He would pick them up only to skip them across the water, until someone with him one day told him, you know those are worth something they're corroded silver. When he found out about the 1715 Plate fleet that sunk nearby, he began searching for some sign of where the settlement had been, when he'd about decided one particular location showed no signs of it being the right spot, his dog trotted over and managed to locate a fresh water well and drank from it, he had indeed found the settlement site. Over the next few years he found a cannon off shore and more of the silver Spanish reales. So he got together 7 friends, got exclusive lease of the land from Florida and began searching in earnest. They called themselves the pieces of eight and found millions and millions of dollars worth of treasure, jewelry, plates and coins. In fact treasure has been found on the site every year since 1961.

The museum had a number of finds and replicas of pieces that are located in other museums. In addition to the well done movie from the late 1990s, they offered a scavenger hunt for the kids, after which they were given the option of choosing a golden, corroded golden, silver, or corroded silver replica of a piece of eight. They all chose Gold except for Ruth that thought the corroded silver looked more realistic. They also have a look out at the top of the dunes looking out over the Atlantic Ocean, and a little ways north of the Museum we could see salvage ships still working the area. The lookout was shaped like the bow of a boat and with a Jolly Roger flying and a ships wheel the kids felt a bit like pirates with Gold fever.

I informed Ruth it was her job to find us a few golden doubloons before we left the beach but she failed. After finishing up at the Museum we finally head a little ways back toward Vero till we found a small Public beach access point, where we could park and let the kids play a little while. The red flags were out and the tide was incredibly rough, so the three older ones were allowed no deeper than waist deep, and I stayed right with the three littles in the calf deep water or less. The ocean makes Momma nervous.

The little boys were yelling stop at the waves rolling in then giggling and run. Jon straight into the Atlantic Ocean, and Will racing the waves back up the shore. They played with Kate all afternoon. She's their favorite sibling.

The treasure museum was particularly interesting however it has a separate entrance fee than the State Park. The McLarty Treasure Museum is $2 per person over 6, but I think it was definitely worth it, and they are open from 10-4. Entrance to Sebastian Inlet State Park is $8 a vehicle and they are open 24 hours a day and have a nice camp ground. If you too would like to visit, the address to Sebastian Inlet State Park is 9700 South Highway A1A, Melbourne Beach, Florida. You can always call 321-984-4852 for more information.