Graveyard detecting. Yea or Nay

[ticndig]

I happen to own a cemetery that's a mile off the road ,way back in the woods. the graves are so old they are only marked with a field stones . if it weren't on my deed and plat I may have not even noticed it as it just looks like the rest of the woods , the exact size of it is unknown.
I gave myself permission to hunt the surface but would never disturb the graves for any reason.
the paperwork to my property says they are protected by law and rightly so.

I did find a flat button in the area of the cemetery , 50ft or so away from the closest field stone .
this land was also said to be a meeting place of the KKK around 1930- 1940.
some of the older locals fear the place and tell me it's haunted.

 

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[Billieg]

Back in the late 70's there was a site way back in the woods in PA where there were found flat stones and a few wooden crosses.They suspected it was a grave yard but there was no mention of it anywhere. I knew the guys on the city consul and they asked me to detect it to see what I could find. I first found some 1700's coins, an old ring, a D ring, a picture frame with tin type pics and 4 iron plates stating the person buried there fought in the revolutionary war. They decided to fence it off and keep it as a part of our town history. Later on they found some old papers that told of the site and who was buried there. My great, great grandfather was one of them and died in the war. How the site was so far back in the woods makes you wonder if the town was closer back then and what might still be there today. I have not been back there in years but always think about it.

 

[RustyGold]

I think there's no one correct answer to this. There are times when it's ok and times when it isn't. I am in a club and within the last year or two somebody approached the club and presented this scenario: There was a local cemetery that had been overgrown: it was a poor persons cemetery with little metal markers for the graves that were lost to the naked eye. An authority associated with the place sought people to metal detect it to find the markers and people could keep anything else (coins etc.) they found. I don't see how that scenario would be a problem or disrespectful to anyone on either side of the dirt. I've never detected a graveyard and I don't plan to either, but in the right situation I don't think it disrespects anything. There are a lot of fine lines around this issue so I think it can be done in a respectful way in some cases, but not all the time. That being said we have plenty of idiots in our pastime who leave open holes, leave trash and have no respect for anything so it's hard to imagine all of the transgressions that have probably happened with this type of detecting over time.

Right on!

 

[Gare]

This was posted on my Facebook Page yesterday and i thought i would share it .

My metal detecting club had a club hunt at an old deactivated cemetery. We were invited to hunt for relics by the people that renovated the cemetery. Every gravestone was vandalized and the grounds were totally overgrown. Now it is cleaned up with new signs and they repaired the damaged gravestones.
They wanted us to detect to find old lane markers and anything old or possibly historic.
Theses are my finds 1865 Indian cent. Old silver plated spoon handle,lead bag seal, skeleton key ( how appropriate!) back of a pocket watch , bullet casing and modern coins and a whistle ring- you blow into it and it whistles!
Fun day was had by all- club president found a seated dime and someone else found the end of an old ornate cane.

 

[fistfulladirt]

This was posted on my Facebook Page yesterday and i thought i would share it .

My metal detecting club had a club hunt at an old deactivated cemetery. We were invited to hunt for relics by the people that renovated the cemetery. Every gravestone was vandalized and the grounds were totally overgrown. Now it is cleaned up with new signs and they repaired the damaged gravestones.
They wanted us to detect to find old lane markers and anything old or possibly historic.
Theses are my finds 1865 Indian cent. Old silver plated spoon handle,lead bag seal, skeleton key ( how appropriate!) back of a pocket watch , bullet casing and modern coins and a whistle ring- you blow into it and it whistles!
Fun day was had by all- club president found a seated dime and someone else found the end of an old ornate cane.

Gasp!

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Absolutely not!

 

[rjeffw]

I see no problem in going around the outside of the cemetery, where people would have stood for services or what not, or in between the graves, where you know there is no person buried. but I do not hunt over the grave, just to be respectful.

 

[A2coins]

Creepy