During the Deltona corporations’ construction of the present day Marriott’s Marco Island Beach Resort, two treasure hunters arrived on Marco Beach. The two men were marine archeologists and well armed with nautical charts, old English and Spanish archives, and an undeniable belief that a lost treasure ship lay wrecked beneath the sand of the present day Marco Beach.
After a lengthy conversation with the hotel job-site superintendent, the archeologists convinced the construction crew of the New Marco Beach Hotel to become treasure hunters.
With excitement levels contagious, well points were drilled into the sand, pumps were attached to the wellheads, and in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, enthusiasm soared as hotel construction stopped and excavators began digging for a lost treasure ship that was perhaps centuries old.
As the hours passed, and as the tide began to rise, the pumps protecting the excavation begin to be overwhelmed. Slowly but surely, the beachfront treasure site in which the excavators were digging was beginning to fill with saltwater. In a final attempt to defeat the rising tide and dig deeper, a high-pressure drilling rig was positioned over the failing excavation.
After less than an hour of drilling, broken bits of very old wood began to emerge from the wellhead discharge. After the pieces of wood, a few relics of rusted iron began to appear.
When the excitement levels of the construction crew were just about burst into a treasure hunter’s frenzy, A senior Deltona executive arrived and quickly asked his hotel construction superintendent, “What are you doing? Why isn’t everyone at work?”
After the befuddled job-site supervisor and the attending archeologists explained the treasure hunt, the Deltona executive shook his head and ordered everyone back to work on the hotel. We have a hotel to build,” the Deltona man offered, “But if that old ship is there, like you all say it is, it certainly isn’t going anywhere and maybe we will get around to it later.”
The Marco Beach Hotel and Villas opened just in time for the winter season of 1971. To this day, treasure hunters claim that only 120 feet from Quinn’s restaurant on Marco beach, the wreck of an old sailing ship lies under the sand containing a treasure hold filled with ten thousand golden coins.
Tom Williams will be celebrating his 30th year as a Marriott associate in 2008. He captains the resort’s daily Sailing and Shelling excursions at 9 a.m., 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. He is also an accomplished writer, penning two weekly newspaper columns and a novel - Lost and Found - which will be published later this year by ArcheBooks.
January 13th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
That is amazing! Does the Marriott have any intentions of trying to dig up the treasure?