People have been fined and jailed for relic huntung?

[hiyall]

I have seen some stuff of people that have been fined and jailed for relic hunting. Archeologist say that this destroys and steals from history.

This doesn't make since when in my town, a golf course was laid down over right where a fort was built in the 1812 civil war. It was even named after the fort. Fort Harrison. Battle was "siege of fort Harrison."

This means that bulldozers, tree cutters, and other heavy machinery was brought In to make way for this golf course.

Shouldn't these people be fined and jailed just like your average detectorist has/would be or does a single person have no authority what so ever and can be pushed over?

Also, what about other historical areas that have been demolished to make way for whatever else?

 

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[moonlooter]

It’s all about money! The ones who have the [emoji383]do as they please!

 

[hardballer]

As a fan of history, what Civil War happened in 1812?

 

[l.cutler]

It is illegal to hunt national parks and other protected historical sites. While it is unfortunate to lose historical sites to development it is not illegal to develop or relic hunt your own property.

 

[smokeythecat]

"Historical sites" on private property with the proper permission from the owners is fair game. Laws vary from state to state and county to county. I prefer private property, no one to come by and bother you.

 

[can_slaw]

I wondered this same thing when i started in the relic hunting hobby. But i quickly realized that those stories often involved trespassing, or some other illegal activity while they were relic hunting. The relic hunting was seldom the actual root cause of the fine or arrest.

As a fan of history, what Civil War happened in 1812?

hardballer, I am sure the War of 1812 is what was meant by the OP.

 

[RTR]

Letting a "relic" just sit in the ground and Rot away to nothing is just insane.

 

[Rick K]

The Custer battlefield is a great example of why relic hunting at protected historical sites is not allowed. By careful cooperation between archaeologists and detectorists, a pretty complete picture of how the battle started, progressed and ended was built up. If the site had been heavily detected by individuals who then removed the metallic objects that they found, this great peace of historical detective work would have been impossible.

 

[Phishfarmer]

Good point. Another issue is that some buried relics are deteriorating and no one will be able to know about them. It is a good argument for careful documented relic hunting. Some government officials get the idea that anything in a park is THEIR personal property while really it belongs to all of us. A productive means of recovery and documentation seems to me to be the answer.

 

[hiyall]

As a fan of history, what Civil War happened in 1812?

In my area it was a battle of "the white man" and Indians. The white man tried taking their land and they fought back but lost. The Indians were supplied by the British. So there is no telling what is out there

 

[Red James Cash]

Now a day's people are being fined and jailed for a hell of a lot less.In Russia people use to be picked up for no reason at all except for the need of workers,slaves.Coming soon to a theater near you.

 

[Timebandit]

Stealing from history? Hmmmm.....

 

[Mdbri]

Here is what I have seen.detecting on fed land and state land can get you arrested,your vehicle seized,and artifacts in your possession taken.and,your artifacts at home can be taken and in extreme cases your home also.also saw in paper where archaeologist passed away and he had over 30,000 artifacts at his home.and finally,a 1836 hotel I helped owner get demolished,history people wanted it to stay.i got letter that said , and I quote,”the county will be reimbursed for lost history,” unquote, $money doesn’t talk ,,,, it screams

 

[Worm-Slicer]

One thing that does bother me is when relic hunters dig up items and they just toss them all into a can, mixing them together. It's our job to properly label and catalog the finds, as without the history of where they come from, they truly are just another trinket. I think that's one view from an archeologist's perspective that I can agree with.

 

[Rawhide]

Real archeology starts at 3 feet folks. All arguments here are void.

 

[releventchair]

Lots of things to get fined and jailed for without even touching a relic. Or having a detector in hand even.

I,m not developing any parcels ,so don't know of the current permit requirements and survey for artifacts requirements.

Work was stopped in my hometown when native pottery was unearthed during construction on one site.
An interesting case as there were still folks who knew the last natives living on the site ,and who thought things were getting carried away with the concern as if the site was not very old.
But law required attention to the finding of relics. I don't know if a previous survey was required ,or performed to check for sign of previous habitation....

 

[Tom_in_CA]

The Custer battlefield is a great example of why relic hunting at protected historical sites is not allowed. By careful cooperation between archaeologists and detectorists, a pretty complete picture of how the battle started, progressed and ended was built up. If the site had been heavily detected by individuals who then removed the metallic objects that they found, this great peace of historical detective work would have been impossible.

Rick, let's get a couple of things straight. The devil is in the details on this "Custer's Stand" example that gets bandied around on forums. It gets touted as a seemingly example of loving-hand-holding between archies and md'rs. Where .... yes ... a cool story emerged from the finds.

But this is NOT what the average md'r is thinking of . Ie.: a notion of "helping archies" and "carte-blanche to a historical site to detect". They didn't get a beep, dig the targets, and say "cool". No. I've been on these things and it's not at all what you're thinking. They flag each beep, come back later, and dig it with tweezers and brushes.

And while that admittedly was cool, and was admittedly a spot that could otherwise have not been detected, you will RARELY EVER see that repeated. 99.9999% of the time, when /if you EVER breath the word "metal detectors" to an archie, (the purist type anyhow), they will bristle in their boots. That Custer thing was quite unique.

And no, I don't see that Custer thing it's a good thing relic hunting is not allowed on historic sites. Well, yes and no : We can all agree that certain sites (Shiloh, Ghettysburg, Bodie, etc....) should be protected. But the problem is: The moment you float words like "relic", some archie can say that's any item 50 yrs. old or more. And to float the word "historic sites" : Someone's going to say that's all public land.

And the last I checked on the Today's finds section of T'net, I see no shortage of cool old finds coming from various types of public land.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Here is what I have seen.detecting on fed land and state land can get you arrested,your vehicle seized,and artifacts in your possession taken.and,your artifacts at home can be taken and in extreme cases your home ....

Mdbri, question for you: Can you site any incident (got a link?) of someone "getting arrested", "vehicle seized", "artifacts and home taken", blah blah blah , for metal detecting on state or federal land ??

If you can cite any such thing, it will no doubt be someone being an absolute nuisance, night-sneaking obvious off-limits historic sensitive monument. There is all kinds of state and federal land that's not off-limits, nor does such horrors befall md'rs. If you have any citations or links to the contrary, please post them.

 

[Bama Billy]

So no one has? That’s exactly what I thought. You’d have to be an idiot or dealing with a true ******* cop to get arrested. Not saying it’s not possible but clearly it doesn’t happen often. Being level headed and respectful has gotten me out of much hotter water than metal detecting.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Speaking of Custer's Last Stand, I have been there multiple times, on one visit in the late 80's we got there before the park opened and waited for gates to open, as we went up towards "last stand hill" it became apparent quickly that someone had been night hawking, there were holes all over, hundreds of them, several people had obviously been detecting as there were too many holes for one person, shame they were not caught. Custer relics have a big market.