Historic buildings/public park question?

[JmCraz8]

Not to far from my house is a park i'd say 40 by 30 yards, and there's a historical jail that was built in 1816 it's not on the park grounds, but there's another building apart of it an old shack from the early 1800's part of it sits on the park in the corner. It's a protected site, I'm not sure to detect that park due to the proximity of the old jail? Would you detect it and just keep a little distance from the old shack? Thanks

 

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[Diggit]

......It's a protected site......

 

[Tom_in_CA]

No doubt you will find folks who say to ask permission, from every desk in city hall you can find. But go figure: you're asking on a forum where some folks say you need permission to hunt sandboxes in any park anywhere. So go figure, you're going to get the gammut of answers.

If it were me, I'd check for myself at the city's website, to see if there's any specific rules forbidding detecting. Most all city's now have websites. And the city codes, laws, etc... are usually a link there. Maybe even specifically for the park's dept. subsection, where they'll list rules for the parks (no alcahol, dogs on leash, etc...). If you see no prohibitions for metal detectors .... well then .... I guess it must not be prohibited. If the city doesn't have a website, then the laws are usually available for public viewing at the desk (as publically available info) at city hall.

This is preferable to going in and asking a live person, because you risk someone's opinion (ie.: they morph something else to apply to your question, when .... truth be told, they might never have noticed or cared or given the matter thought before).

But others here, upon hearing the word "historic", will tell you you can't, or you need to grovel, etc.... If there's no specific rules saying "no detecting", I'd do it. Naturally be discreet (ie.: go at low traffic times, don't go during the middle of an archie convention, don't be in the middle of retreivals when busy-bodies are watching, etc....)

 

[JmCraz8]

Thanks Tom, I've read the rules at the park, and nothing mentioned no digging or no metal detecting, just your basic run of the mill rules.

 

[DanRiverMan]

I will ditto what Tom said..Ive never had any problems and have been detecting for years...

Scott

 

[Diggit]

No doubt you will find folks who say to ask permission, from every desk in city hall you can find. But go figure: you're asking on a forum where some folks say you need permission to hunt sandboxes in any park anywhere..........


But others here, upon hearing the word "historic", will tell you you can't, or you need to grovel, etc....

Good point, I think I'll go detect Gettysburg now. I mean,who are THEY to tell ME where I can dig!!!

 

[crankyolman22]

I'm with Tom on this. I detect a lot of parks here in Wa and every township has different rules Some require permits some don't and in the ones that do the rules posted at the park don't say anything about it. Before I go to a new township I check the towns website, like he said they all have them now, most have a search feature. I do a search for metal detection and metal detecting and if I don't find anything I figure I'm good to go. If there is any doubt I call the towns parks department and ask. Nobody has ever really given me many problems but I have had the cops called on me a couple times and it was nice to be able to tell them that I called the parks department and they said it was O.K. They didn't really care though they just wanted to make sure I was filling my holes. When I showed them that you cant even find them after fill them they were fine with it. Now when one of the dog walking busybodies that live in the nearby condos calls them and tells them " someone is digging up the park" they just do a drive by and wave at me and leave. I think more important than permission is how it looks when you walk away. At one park the custodian runs off most detectorists because one day someone left a bunch of huge craters behind. He keeps an eye on me but knows he will never even find my holes when I walk away. It takes a few seconds extra but it's worth it.