The Beachcombers, the Golden Discovery, and the Fang

When the kids found the fang, everything stopped. No one knew what to do. It was obviously a fang or a tooth that was looking very much like an incisor from something prehistoric or from an animal that was large and obviously carnivorous. The fang was indeed a showstopper when the discovery came into the light on an island just to the south of Marco on one of the lonely and driftwood-strewn beaches of the Ten Thousand Islands.

When boats travel south of Marco Island, anything can happen. After only a few miles along the coast, on one of the largest mangrove archipelagos anywhere, civilization begins to disappear. The perfectly groomed landscapes of Marco suddenly vanish, and a wild and untamed version of Mother Nature appears where little has changed in perhaps a thousand years. Mangroves rise up among coastal islands and seemingly reach out to embrace anything and everything that might be moving past. When a vessel travels south of Goodland and into the islands between Marco and the Florida Keys, the more primordial the landscape becomes.

There are mysterious shell mounds that pilots have seen from the air and hints of humankind that have long since been overgrown and replaced with haunting names that very much describe the nature of a true Heart of Darkness. Among the islands south of Marco is Dismal Key, and as any vessel ventures by the dark and forlorn beaches and tangles of jungle and driftwood, discoveries are no doubt waiting that will stir the imagination. Discoveries that are perhaps fangs or teeth from something unknown or perhaps a relic of human influence or occupation from a bygone era.

For beachcombers and modern-day explorers, tale-tell signs of the past are rare and not easy to find. However, when special artifacts rise to the surface, the relics might be trash to one person, they might be treasure to another, or the find might be a fang or a tooth from a creature that no one wants to think about when thunderstorms rage and lightning flashes at midnight.  

Well before the mystery of the fang, another beachcombing excursion deep in the southern islands found a piece of blue glass surfacing on a beach between a stand of mangroves. The glass was bright blue, and in no time, with a little excavation, a whole and complete blue bottle of very thick glass was a new discovery. The bottle wore a label of glass letters that were a part of the forging process of a century gone by and simply said: Dr. Pierce’s Golden Remedy - Buffalo, New York.

After a quick check on the Internet, the Marco Beach Boys and Girls that were the beachcombers of the day, soon learned that Dr. Pierce's Golden Remedy was also known as Dr. Pierce’s Golden Medical Discovery, and production and distribution began in 1860. Soon after selling his first bottle of the Golden Remedy - that he made in a laboratory above a drugstore - Dr. Pierce hit the road with a team of horses and a wagon and began pedaling his “Medical Discovery” from town to town.

Dr. Pierce began advertising his Golden Medical discovery as: An alternative extract that assists in the digestion and assimilation of the food in the stomach - so the blood gets what it needs for food and oxidation, the liver is at the same time started into activity, and there is a perfect elimination of waste.

When he was on the road and traveling from town to town, the good doctor would loudly proclaim his tonic-like product was for the: cure of all severe chronic or lingering coughs, bronchitis, laryngitis, weak lungs, bleeding from the lungs, public speakers sore throat, hoarseness, and suppression, or loss of voice.

Dr. Pierce’s Golden Medical Discovery was licorice flavored and contained quinine, opium, and alcohol. 

Not surprisingly, Dr. Pierce’s Golden Remedy and Discovery was a wild success and he became one of the most famous patent medical wizards ever. He also later became a congressional representative from the state of New York and afterward lost a fortune mining for gold and coal in California.

On another occasion in the southern islands that are often a dense tangle of mangrove tickets and salted driftwood, two small bottles were found on two different occasions. The little bottles were also inscribed with raised glass letters just as Dr. Pierce’s and said simply: Burnham’s Clam Bouillon New York.

The ES Burnham Company opened a clam factory at Caxambas on Marco Island in 1903. The clam factory was a clam harvesting, canning, and clam bullion production facility until 1929 when a hurricane came along and sank the clam dredge.

On yet another expedition, a very rusty, short sword was the discovery of the day when it was found in a jumble of driftwood on Morgan Island. Historical experts were consulted, but the short sword became very disappointing when it became obvious the rust-covered pirate-looking weapon came from Japan and was mass-produced as a toy in the 1960s.

The mystery and the gem of all the treasures found in the remote islands south of Marco remain as the unidentified fang or tooth from whatever creature once was lurking under the water or perhaps stalking over the outer islands in search of food, prey, or sustenance unknown.

No matter the source of the fang, the tooth, the claw, or the found bottles that were once for remedies or flavors, one factor must remain as a critical consideration. Whoever came up with the name of Dismal Key for an isolated island in southwest Florida must have had reason that was perhaps rooted in another spooky discovery.