The Mordes of the 1980's - Long Before The End of the World

I was fairly active in writing treasure-hunting articles back in the 1980's. We had no digital cameras back then, and I used a 35 mm Pentax ME camera, shot Eastman Kodak Tri-X B&W, had my own darkroom, in which I was always found developing and printing the 8x10 glossies I'd send along with the manuscript. I actually wrote for a couple magazines, an in-flight mag for Delta, and a few other general interest publications. A case-in-point here, I interviewed and did an article about Jerry and Cindy Mordes in 1984, who then owned "Pot Of Gold Metal Detectors" in Ft. Lauderdale, for the now-defunct Lost Treasure Magazine.. Jerry was an animated guy, a lot like a game show host, and he told me thru a lot of hand gestures and narrative, that he and his wife Cindy were avid (read addicted) beach and water hunters and searched every single low tide, AM and PM, for usually a 3-months straight. He said they were almost dead at the end of each detecting marathon, but found some really amazing and valuable things in the process. You have got to realize this was 35 years ago, before metal detecting became the "National Pastime;" you didn't have 15 to 20 people metal detecting the beach every hour, on the hour, every quarter-mile, digging every single bottlecap and rusted tent stake, and no social media to proudly display your pile of rust. And although the finds were many, the rewards were less; you have to remember gold was around $35 an ounce then, not the $1300 or more an ounce it is today. Cindy related how her and Jerry got called out on an emotional mission looking for lost pauper graves in Ft. Lauderdale's "Evergreen Cemetery"

Jerry and Cindy Mordes circ.1984-note the "new"old machines behind them

Cindy said "Evergreen was one of the original cemeteries in Fort Lauderdale and has graves dating back to the Civil War." In particular, she also explained, that over the last century or so, Florida's watery and swampy ground had slowly but surly pulled the pauper grave caskets and their occupants deeper and deeper, until there were many scores of pauper graves lost to the caretakers. These were the graves of the poor, indigent and unclaimed people.

Cindy Mordes displays a recovered metal grave marker - note the damaged surface

She and Jerry had been recruited by the caretakers and City of Fort Lauderdale to bring their metal detecting club (Pot Of Gold Metal Detecting Club) out to see if they could locate the metal grave-tags hammered into the top of pauper caskets. The club spread out over the lonely headstone-less graveyard, scanning the grounds for a signal. Many grave-tags and subsequent grave-sites were re-discovered thanks to this group back in 1984. Cindy found a few grave-tags that were so badly damaged the information on them was not recoverable. She said "I was so sad we could not make out the information on em'." She frowned "I wanted to take some of them home to clean and see if I could read them, but the caretakers said 'No' so I left them."

Back in the shop, we talked about the grave-marker recovery project a bit more. Jerry said "You are worried about what you might find, metal detecting in a graveyard and think about the bones in the box under your feet and wonder if they mind you walking over them." A good-sized Garrette Gold Pan suddenly fell off it's perch and clattered to the floor making us all jump. Cindy looked at us and said "Maybe we shouldn't be talking about this." Jerry looked at the fallen gold-pan and just said "Hmmm" The final count was a dozen or more graves that were found by the members of Pot Of Gold Metal Detecting Club, thanks to the hobby some lost souls were found and remembered. I don't know whatever happened to Jerry and Cindy, with 37-years and hundreds of miles between us. I can only hope they are as avid about the hobby as ever...I know a dozen souls that hope so too!