The Riverside Treasure Hunters Club strives to make the hobby of metal detecting fun and interesting. The club brings in speakers, has a Crime Scene Unit, and is restoring our Historical Preservation Unit. This allows our members to get involved with the community and put their skills to work.

Our members show their "Finds" found between the last meeting and this meeting and members vote on who has the best item for each category (Best Natural Gold, Best Jewelry, Best Silver Jewelry, Best Relic, Best Unique Find, Best Foreign Coin, Best American Coin, Oldest American Coin) and the winners earn a point for each category win. At the end of the year the points are tallied and the member with the most points we name "Treasure Hunter of the Year", which earns them special items.

Pull tabs are the bane of all metal detectorists! But, if you didn't know, they're GOLD to the families of hospitalized children far from home.

At a Ronald McDonald House, families can be together, enjoy home-cooked meals, and receive compassionate hospitality and support from staff and volunteers- all near the child's hospital.

Families who stay in a Ronald McDonald House report more positive hospital experiences and a greater ability to participate in their child's care.

The actual cost to operate a room varies between $50 and $100 a night. Families either stay at no cost or are asked to make a donation up to $25 a day, depending on the house.

However, payment is NEVER expected for those who cannot afford it. The difference is made up in donations.

Thanks to your contributions, it is a global RMHC policy that a family never be turned away because of their ability to pay.

The Riverside Treasure Hunters Club has been a proud supporter of the Inland Empire Ronald McDonald House for many years now. Members happily bag up their pull tabs and bring them to one of our meetings, where they are given to the club's Ronald McDonald House liaison, who then takes them to the Ronald McDonald House. They then recycle the aluminum pull tabs and use the proceeds towards the House.

If you aren't a club member but would like to just donate your pull tabs, feel free to come to our monthly meeting and drop them off!

We're celebrating the Ramirez Family of Colton who have donated a total of 3,601 pull tabs to the club over the last two years!

Visit the Ronald McDonald House web page:

rmhcsc.org/inlandempire/page/pull-tabs

Our members love to hunt the sand for "buried treasures". Coins, jewelry, cell phones, and more. But at the same time, you also find metallic "trash" that can be harmful to bare feet and kids playing, as well as the environment. At the beaches, as well as parks, we regularly find the following: rusted metal tent stakes, rusty nails and screws, utensils-knives/forks/spoons, pieces of hard wire, pull tabs, bottle caps, scissors, live ammunition, rusty metal pieces, sharp aluminum can pieces and broken glass. We don't know how some of these items make their way onto the sand or into the parks, but as metal detectorists, we believe we are caretakers of our land. That is why we always recover the "trash" as well as the "treasures" as our photo shows.

Our Club abides by the "Metal Detectorist's Code of Ethics":

1. Follow all local, state, and federal laws as they relate to metal detecting. 2. Respect private property and never detect an area without permission. 3. Pack out what you pack in, and properly dispose of any trash you find. 4. Leave all gates, structures, and personal property as they were before. 5. Fill in every hole you dig. Leave no trace you were there. 6. Never dig in a way that harms vegetation, wildlife, or changes natural features. 7. Report any significant historical artifacts to local authorities. 8. Be an ambassador for the hobby by being courteous and thoughtful at all times.

Hunting our parks can be very successful in finding treasures. But because of irresponsible detectorists leaving un-filled holes and digging huge unnecessary holes, more and more cities are not allowing us to hunt them anymore.

You don't need to dig a one foot diameter hole for what is probably a pull tab, a coin, a small piece of junk metal (canslaw), or hopefully, a piece of gold jewelry. Pinpoint your target. Lay a small towel down next to your target. You can then dig the turf straight down to the depth your detector showed, and about 3" - 4" around your target. As you dig your circle, leave an uncut "hinge" section. Now you can merely fold back your plug of soil and dirt onto the towel so you keep all the dirt together from the hole. Run your pinpointer over the plug and then inside the hole to locate your target. Recover your target and then fold the plug back into the hole and shake off the loose dirt from the towel into the hole also. Tamp the plug down so the plug is down tight. This will ensure that the grass doesn't die and the grass keeps growing.

Remember, we are stewards of the land. It is our responsibility to keep our hobby available to future generations by not getting our hunting locations shut down due to irresponsibility.