I had to skip the last 6 pages of this as I didnt have the time, so if this was already posted forgive me.....have you contacted anyone of the FPAN offices in our area? FPAN is the new thing that Judy Bense thought up when she took away our IFP.( Isolated Finds Program) back in 2005 FPAN is the Florida PUBLIC Archeaology Network. I am good friends with the archy who runs the Crystal River complex and they have a big office at MOSI in Tampa at the USF school. The have about 6 offices in Florida and it was designed for the public to interact with the Archeaoligist on thiings. Now they dont have all this funding to digging wherever they want or on a whim, but it is another options and these are some "digger friendly" archs and that is hard to find among the "paperedones" who run this state.
Manatee county has tons of old legends and lore and you know what? alot of them have been proven to be true, right up river from where you are talking about gold and silver was found but no t inthe amount you are describing, these were adorments worn by the indians who altered the gold and silver....BCH..you cool with me writing this?......there are sites extending to Myakka city ....I have offered to donate some of my finds to the little museum at the park off of 75th but was advised by Jorge who is the Chief Interpreter there, not to as the State could come down and take whatever they want from there back to Tally...which is sad because there is not 1 autentic piece of anything on display there and I know that shell mound has produced artifacts, even the one in the neighborhood before the entrance.
I dont know the timeline of your treasure dont know if it is tied into the Gamble or place od a few hundred years earlier...have you ever read any of Asa Pillsburys documentations of the early days in Manatee county? That old man did a tape recording back in the 60`s and talked about area inManatee Whitakers and Sneads and how the Desoto park isnt the original landing site, they had found some proof otherwise....good luck n this, and contact the nearest FPAN office and see if that helps, you wont get anywhere with the state archy`s in tally...that never seems to work