This should be a hot topic .....

[1235CE]

Hello all.....new to this site and I absolutely love it, I have learned a lot. Thank you all.

Question: If I were to tell you that I have detected over 300 similiar locations while getting permission for EVERY location that would be just fine, right?......of course it would.

If I were to tell you that these 300 locations were old cemeteries, would that not be fine?

Anxiously looking forward to everyone's thoughts here.

Greg

 

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[wmas1960]

This is a hot topic and I am only about half way through the posts so far. You mentione some things that indicate that you are trying to be respectful to the surroundings and the graves and all but again, I would mention about your digging coins ON the graves. Don't take this the wrong way, I am just pointing it out. As I did in the other post I just made. Sometimes people leave things on or in graves as an offering to a friend or family member that is lost. I just wonder if some of the coins that you find are such gifts and should be left.

A little story about a friend who died last year. I was in Las Vegas with a group of bowlers. We go every year for a tournement. One of our friends couldn't make it as he was at home in the hospital trying to recover from cancer. He had to cancel his plans to join us and we all went with heavy hearts that our friend, for the first time in over 10 years, couldn't join us. When we left, he was improving a little but, honestly, there was little real hope. We gave him our best, wished him well and promised to see him when we got home. A couple days before heading back to Chicago, I was playing a slot machine and got a call from his Son-In-Law. He said that his Father-In-Law was holding his own and asked if I could bring back some $1 tokens and chips from the hotel that we were staying at. I kind of knew that he was just trying not to put a damper on our trip but was still hopeful that it was just a gift. Like the signed bowling pin that we all gave him a few weeks before. Something to cheer him up and all. As I found out later, the call came to me about the time that he had been transfered from the hospital to a hospice in a coma. Anyway, we got home and about an hour later my phone rang again with news that our friend had passed that morning.

It turns out that, as my fears and suspicions told be back in Las Vegas, that the intention was that they wanted to bury the tokens and chips on the grave. Our friend truely loved Las Vegas and was always so excited to go out there with his friends. He was heart broken when he took ill and had to cancel the last trip.

Anyway, I tell this story as an example of how people have ways of trying to feel better at a time of loss. That may be the gift of something precious to the person whom they lost. While it might be true that some might have wishes to, as 1320 mentions be able to watch peolple try and find the object, others gifts may be left with hopes that they will be with the loved one, comforting them for eternity.

I hope I didn't put too much of a damper on everyone here. I just think that searching for the purpose of "Treasure Hunting" On or Around the actual graves is not right. That is my feeling and I am not being judgemental. Like I said before, I guess it comes down to ones conscience. However, I just make this appeal that some places are better left alone.

 

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[Mighty AP]

Nice post wmas1960, very sorry for your loss. May your freind rest in peace & hold on to those chips for a very long time.

 

[Michelle]

This topic has been discussed at length before....See Dead men Sandwiches

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,27504.0.html

I personally would not do it.

Way to go Gypsy....same here ,also exactly what would he intend to find except a 6 X 4 or so metal box...certainly he isnt talking about digging that up!

 

[neilo]

wms 1960 that was the point I was trying to make,about special things left around grave sites. No go zone for me for sure seeya Neilo

 

[1320]

Yep! A ghoul and a woman hater

Jamie

 

[cryptodave]

Look, do what you think is right, don't look for others to give you an answer, because 90% will give you an answer that you do not want to hear.

I personally have no problem with it. I have detected about 4 graveyards myself, 3 before they were dug up and what was left of remains moved to a different location for a new housing development to move in (poltergiest anyone?), and one that I happened across on the Jenny Wiley trail back up in the hills of KY, close to 30 miles from civilization. At no point did I EVER dig further than a few inches, with no intention of digging the bodies up.
The dead don't really care what your doing because their dead, and its peoples self-imposed morals and dogmas that make graveyards "sacred" or "holy ground".
If you truly are helping clean the places up as you indicate you are, more power to you. The same people who complain that what your doing is morally incorrect are the same ones that won't lift a finger to help place flags at our veterans graves, or bend over to pick up a stray piece of trash littering a graveyard. Present company excluded from those remark of course...

So when it all boils down, again, its really up to you. Don't let others effect your judgement of what your doing. I think helping the gravekeepers keep the place looking good is payment enough for a few hours of skimming the topsoil. Heck, alot of those older graves have concrete slabs poured over them anyway, to keep the wild animals from digging the remains up.

 

[Mighty AP]

Good insight Crypto, & stop it NATF.......................you are scaring me!

 

[lucky1777]

Like I said in a different post. Cemetery's are sacred grounds, so are battlefields. People have no problem hunting battlefields and showing with pride the buttons and bullets they find. If done with permission and respect there should be no problem. I do agree that you should not take what is buried on top of graves. There are plenty of other areas to hunt.

 

[michinkae]

i personally see nothing wrong with detecting in a cemetary. I think that it is like oersonal property, as long as you have permission from the owners then go ahead and hunt away

 

[Ocean7]

300 graveyards? hmmm how long have you been detecting?

frankly i don't care as anything lost there does the deceased no good.
But Aunt Wilma and Uncle Hank might not see it that way if you're tectin'
over great-great-great grandma's plot.

if you retrieve like I do, and when you're done I'll never know you dug
a hole there - I say go for it. But if you leave any sloppy traces of having
dug over a grave site or it's obvious someone's been digging there - i'd
say absolutely not! And to clarify, I'm talking about normal detecting here
not anything resembling illegal activities. And permission would be mandatory.

 

[RKinOI]

I hunt them. Found my first V nickle in one. Mind you its not the big nice one in the center of town but if its secluded I hunt it. On top of graves, around them anywhere, it does not matter. Am I going to hell for this? Hope not.

 

[randall61]

my personal view is ...i would maybe detect the road leading up to the cemetary,but not the grounds.

 

[Mighty AP]

Hey RKinOI, if the gravesites are very old go for it. If Im looking at a very old, grown over site i figure there isnt a single person alive who knew this guy, nobody visiting him, nobody leaving flowers or mourning his death. Any old coins left for him arent gonna do him any good or he would have spent them! They were left there to comfort the living, not the dead. I beleive dead is dead, I also beleive you should respect the beleifs of others so we cannot detect in cemetaries that may still have visitors or people mourning for the dead contained in them. Ive never done it, dont know if I would if given the oportunity but I wont condemn you & others for doing so. RKinOI, IF there is a hell most of us will be there, but not for diggin around in old forgotten cemetaries!

"Go to heaven for the climate,
go to hell for the company"

 

[RKinOI]

I like the way you think.
Thanks RK

 

[Mighty AP]

Nice story Paul, I wonder if whoever took the balls & tees played the best game of their lives with them.............or the worst? Sounds like your father was quite a guy. Curious about your name, Im sure it has some meaning. Orange curtain, eh? I'm from Long Beach! Ive used that term for many years!

 

[1235CE]

Nice post and story Dean, sorry about your Dad......there is a stone in one of the local cemeteries with 6 names on it, the mother, and 5 kids aged 1 through 11 that all died on the same day in 1912.....did some research and found out they all died in a fire.

I have a 5 year old daughter that maybe once a month I will "steal" a little toy from her and go and place it on the base of the stone.......recently someone left a note in a plastic bag on the stone that I read and it said " To whomever keeps leaving these trinkets, may God bless you."

Your heart can never be too rich.

Greg

 

[Mighty AP]

Hey Paul, sad story about your Mom. You always have the memories, think about them often............talk about them often, It helps.
I lived in Long Beach for 17 years, I just moved to Idaho less than a year ago. I came out here to rebuild some very large ball valves, stayed 6 weeks & when I finished the job they made me an offer I couldnt refuse. I just got into metal detecting less than 3 months ago, it kills me to think of so many spots to hunt back in So.Cal, so many old parks not to mention the beaches. I bet Bolsa Chica would be awesome! I cant ever remember seeing anybody detect out there. My girlfreind & I talk about all the cool spots we missed out on, plan on a vist back soon & we will pack all the machines! Maybe we can get together then for a day of hunting!
I very much look forward to your posts, what you are finding & where, Paul. The posiblities are endless, so much history, so many beaches & parks. Take lots of pics & share with us!
AP