The McLarty Treasure Museum is located in Sebastian Inlet State Park. A late July hurricane in 1715 sank a Spanish treasure fleet near here as they were sailing from Havana, Cuba to Spain. Eleven of the twelve ships filled with gold, silver, jewels, and other goods from the New World sank off the coast between present day Melbourne Beach and Vero Beach. 1,000 lives were lost and the cargo was scattered over a 40 mile area. Approximately 1,500 men, women, and children who survived the disaster reached the shore and made a camp along the barrier island near the place where the fleet's flagship had sunk. The treasure was mainly salvaged by Spain over the next four years and taken back to Havana Cuba. In the early 1940's, amateur archaeologist Charles Higgs discovered evidence of the salvage camps in the dunes near the Sebastian Inlet. A hurricane in 1955 washed away some dunes around the camps, revealing many artifacts and silver coins. The wreck was eventually rediscovered by treasure hunters in the 1960's. Salvage efforts by local builder Kip Wagner and his Real 8 Company recovered thousands of coins, pieces of jewelry, and several cannons. These discovery led to the establishment of a State Park and the McLarty Treasure Museum. The McLarty Treasure Museum was created by Mr. Robert McLarty, a retired attorney from Atlanta who lived in Vero Beach and donated the land. The museum has a large exhibit room with displays on Ais history, the ancient first inhabitants of this area and the history of the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet including artifacts, displays, and a 45 minute movie by A&E, The Queen's Jewels and the 1715 Fleet. Not to be missed is the display of Kangxi porcelain, a delicate Chinese blue-and-white pattern that was packed in mud for protection during the journey. There is also a gift shop. Behind the museum is an observation deck modeled to look like a pirate ship that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean where the ships are believed to have sunk. During storms, the treasure has been known to wash ashore to this day. Admission to the museum is $2 and while small it is engaging and worth a visit. Especially when combined with a visit to nearby Sebastian Inlet State Park and Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge. read more

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What fun! A very small but interesting museum covering the 1715 treasure fleet located on what used to be the survivors' and salvagers' camp. It's part of the Sebastian Inlet State Park and there's a nominal admission fee. There's a short movie which was interesting enough, observation deck (without beach access, though there's plenty nearby), and enough interesting things to see in about an hour if you run through it and don't watch the movie. I think my favorite exhibit was the scrap book of articles, letters, and testimonies of treasure hunters who've actually found treasure on the beaches here. Really makes you want to start hitting the beaches hunting for bobby dazzlers! lol. We also thought we'd hop across the Indian River and also visit the Mel Fisher museum but this was enough treasure fever for one day. Another time. Super friendly helpful staff rounds out the experience. read more

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What a treat! Treasure hunter fever; just the thought one could find an item from one of the 11 Spanish ships...many fill with gold, silver and jewels going for King of Spain. They had an informative video (made 1992) about the time and circumstances in 1715 around the world with colonies, taking gold, etc then with how current treasure hunters in 1980's started finding things on the sand! The film went thru the whole history up to Mel Fisher who is known as one of the main treasure hunters in Florida. It made me want to get in an inner tube with mask, snorkel and start looking off the coast! read more

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interesting little museum with artifacts and historical dioramas. the staff were also walking around showing treasure they had found themselves, which was really interesting! there is also a great view of the beach through their boardwalk. definitely worth a stop! read more

McLarty Treasure Museum - Museums Near Me - Vero Beach, Florida

What a fascinating museum about a real-life treasure right off the Florida coast. This is a Florida Park Service-operated museum. It is located about 2 miles south of the Sebastian Inlet on the Ocean side of the road. It has a limited number of parking spots in front of the building. There is a sign out front that describes the story of the ill-fated 1715 fleet of eleven Spanish galleon ships laden with gold, silver, copper, and riches as they were heading back to Spain. This fleet sank along the shore. You enter through a small lobby and pay $4/person. This allows access to a large room on the left. The room has several displays that describe the shipwreck details. There is a 45-minute movie in the room. A door out the back leads to a boardwalk with a water view but no access to the beach. The room and museum displays seem a little dated but the staff makes up for it in their knowledge of the material. This is an excellent way to learn about this part of Florida's history at the place where it actually happened. I think it is worth the stop and finding out about this part of our local history. read more

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Drove about 2 hours with my family, on a Saturday, to visit the McLarty Treasure Museum. Both the museum website and Yelp said they were open. They even stated on the website that " due to COVID-19 masks must be worn to enter museum". When we got there, between the hours of 10:00 am to 4:00 pm (DAILY) on that Saturday morning, they were in fact closed. read more

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This hidden gem along A1A tells the story of the Lost Fleet and their encampment, rescue and recovery at that very spot on Florida's Treasure Coast. On exhibit are surprising finds from the wreckage including Chinese porcelain that transited around the world only to sink just off the beach from the museum. Perhaps the best $2 you'll spend while travelling down the highway. read more

McLarty Treasure Museum - Pirate observation deck behind museum - Museums Near Me - Vero Beach, Florida

My friend and I spent a weekend in Vero Beach and I tried to take in as much of the beautiful beach community that I could within the few days we were there. My friend decided to stay at the hotel and enjoy the pool and I took a ride out to some local attractions and the museum was one of them. I watched about 20 minutes of the video that explained the history of lost Spanish ships that were shipwrecked and had lots of valuables on them including jewelry and gold. After the video one of the volunteer staff gave a mini presentation about the lost and still hidden treasures. He showed me a book they kept on the front desk of locals who found pieces in the ocean from the lost ship and were able to sell them. Apparently treasure hunters still venture in the area trying to find valuables. Of course during my stay in Vero Beach I kept my eyes open wide on the beaches. Overall the museum was small and outdated but it was still informative and interested in hearing about the history and its current state. read more

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Must see the movie. Small building ( not miss it) but really great stop off, at most 2 or 3 hours. It's a great spot for a date it family day out. read more

McLarty Treasure Museum - Good education for all - Museums Near Me - Vero Beach, Florida

Awesome small museum dedicated to the 1715 wrecks up and down the Treasure Coast. Very informative movie, then there are staff members (all volunteers) to do into more information on hurricanes, locations of the wrecks, etc. Highly informative. If the local Archeologist Corey is on duty there is a true opportunity to get rare information from a pro. All artifacts are period correct and there is no other museum in the world dedicated to this one catastrophic event that spelled very bad news for Spain but put the Treasure Coast of Florida on the map for almost a century now. After your visit, grab your favorite metal detector and hit literally any beach South of the museum and try your luck. Coins are still being found in 2023. The museum sits on the original site of the Salvors camp which was how the survivors lived in a hostile land with limited water and food and shelter while trying to salvage the gold and silver for Spain many years after the wrecks. read more

What a terrific hidden gem! Wonderful staff, great little museum with detailed layout and very reasonably priced gift shop. Not at all commercialized like another treasure museum in the area. Learned tons about Spanish fleet wreck of 1715. Stop by, you will love this gem! read more

Great little museum with some nice donations and period pieces. Nice overlook. Staff is friendly and knowledgeable.

I loved this place! The film was great, the artifacts amazing and the staff and volunteers were very friendly and answered all our questions! Definition recommend this place! read more

2.dollars admission . Interesting info on treasure hunters and the ships that sunk all over the treasure coast. Nice film full of information.You can take your kids that are school age and adults will like it too.You can take about 1 hour to do the whole museum it is small but interesting and informative. read more

McLarty Treasure Museum - Museums Near Me - Vero Beach, Florida

Who doesn't love stories of sunken treasure? McLarty Treasury Museum is dedicated to the 11 Spanish ships (and the recovery efforts) that sunk right off Sebastian in 1715. Small admission fee to enter ($2) but the enthusiastic volunteers are worth it alone. The volunteer who was working the counter our first time there spent 10 minutes telling my 9-year old the story of the ships, spanish royalty, pirates and treasure. On our second visit, a volunteer inside the museum was talking about recent finds with a small group. It seems not all the ships have been "found" and treasure still washes up from Cape Canveral all the way down to Sebastian. The museum has a very nice collection of finds from the ships, as well as a 40-minute movie on the Real Eight company and the search for the ships. There is also an observation deck out the side of the museum, and if you see ships anchored with a red dive flag up, chances are they are looking for treasure. Nice way to kill an hour or two and escape from the hot Florida sun while learning a little bit about the Treasure Coast's history. read more

Maybe it's just for kids but I did not like this place. It is only $2 and you support a local museum but it was dated with a lot of replicas. I would not go out of my way for it but if you were interested, it's about 20 min total unless you want to watch a 45 minute video. The nicest part is an overlook that had a fake pirate ship mast and a flag. It was pretty. I just cannot give it two stars (especially if you have been to treasure/pirate museums before) read more

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We visit the McLarty Treasure Museum on the afternoon of 28 Jan 2015. There were several people in the museum when we arrived, but plenty of space to move around. Entrance fee was only $2pp. The museum isn't large, so we first took in the documentary, that lasts about 45 minutes. The documentary was done for A&E about 14 years ago, so the prices placed on gold and silver items is a bit out of date. No, way out of date. But the video provided a great overview of what took place in 1715 and the loss of so many ships laden with riches beyond compare. Don't miss the video. Then we toured the exhibits in the museum which were fine but not blow your socks off. The last thing we did was to go outside and stand on the bow of a ship to look out over the area where the 10 or 11 ships went down. Or at least a part of the area since the ships were strung out from Sebastian down to Ft Pierce when they all went down. read more

We were heading to Sebastian Inlet to see this supposed hot spot of surfing activity. Unfortunately it was a really bad, rainy day and we didn't see a single surfer. What we did stumble upon was this little museum, just south of Sebastian Inlet. Admission is very reasonable at $2 and the facility is staffed by real FL state park employees. We spent about an hour here reading all of the displays and watching an old video from the 1980's about the initial discoveries and treasure hunting. Most of the objects are real, authentic treasure that has been recovered very close to the museum. There are some replicas, but it's overwhelmingly authentic gold, silver, etc. By the time we were done in the museum and ventured out to the observation deck, we had full on treasure hunting fever. If only they rented metal detectors! This isn't really a great place for children though. Too much to read and not really child friendly stuff. Though the staff were great with the kids we saw and really seemed to want to make it a great experience for them. We want to come back after a big tropical storm or hurricane and walk the seashore looking for washed up remains of the 1715 fleet! I don't understand why the previous reviewers negatively rated this facility. read more

This small museum is part of the Sebastian Inlet State Park and is located just south or the park entrances. While it is certainly a bit small, musty, and dated (the video is ancient), there is just something mesmerising about finding lost treasure. Seeing bits of history from 1715 reclaimed from the ocean floor and beaches just steps away makes you want to cancel your plans and grab a shovel. It's well worth the $2 entrance fee, even if you won't stay long. read more

I believe this place is worth it for $2. You get to watch a video that tells you of the history of some lost Spanish ships loaded with treasure and the items that have been recovered in the area from these wrecks. It does give you a thought for a second of hey I need to go out and get a metal detector and search for this stuff. There are not a lot of displays but they are nice. $2 and you get an hours worth of entertainment/education isn't bad. read more

Gorgeous location with observation deck over the beach. But the museum itself is so dusty or moldy that you can hardly stand to be inside it. Needs to be renovated or started over entirely. read more

Awesome museum with all kinds of cool artifacts. The guide was awesome too, very entertaining and a wealth of knowledge. Built where the survivors of the 1715 Plate Fleet set up camp. There still remainss a well that they dug. Lots of tangible treasure and treasure for the mind as well! read more

A small museum with a vhs movie and a few shipwreck artifacts. Nice view from the observation deck.

The McLarty Treasure Museum is a cool little museum about the crashed 1715 fleet. They have a lot of artifacts from the crash, and some reconstructions. They also have a 45 minute long documentary always playing in the back. All in all it was a cool museum, and I recommend stopping at it if you happen to pass by. read more