I’ll never forget my first visit to Caspersen Beach, in Venice, Florida. I was amazed at seeing such a wild and natural shoreline so close to Sarasota. The beach was full of all types of flotsam: bones, feathers, shells, sea fans, seaweed, rocks and shark teeth. I was taking it all in when this strange smooth, light-colored object caught my eye. It was a clay smoking pipe. This took place about 1994 or 1995.
Below is a photo I took at Caspersen Beach on a very cold, windy winter day:
Below is a photo showing a close-up of the end where the pipe-stem would fit. Notice what looks like a bit of quartz embedded in the clay where it is chipped below and to the left of the hole.
If you have any thoughts about where this pipe might have come from or how old it might be, please leave a comment below this article. I suppose it could be 20 years old, or it could be 2,000 years old. It could have washed up from offshore, or it could have been uncovered from a deposit under the beach. I suppose it could have been brought in with beach renourishment sand.
Looking down into the bowl of the pipe you can still see that the stains from the use of the pipe are still present.
