Spokane WA detectors

[Holt0222]

Anyone here from the Spokane area?

 

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[OregonGold76]

Not from there but spent some time close to there. A couple hours away is Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River. On the south side about a mile down river is a Army Corps park people call “the dunes” water stays sallow for a ways out into the river. College kids fill it up by the car loads all summer long. I’d go down there on Sunday mornings and find all kinds of good stuff [emoji1303]

 

[OldNBroken]

Yes there are

 

[Holt0222]

I’m moving to the area and wanting to learn some areas to go detect and the rules on detecting in Washington.

 

[CoinFetcher]

Spokane guys crush it ! (I’m from the Seattle area )

 

[holepuncher]

Going there at the end of the month for a week.

 

[OldNBroken]

Well, Spokane only goes back to the late 1800's but a there are still a lot of properties and entire neighborhoods from the turn of the century. Also something Spokane is proud of is it has more public parks per capita than any other city in the country. These are many very old neighborhood parks. Most were established from late 1800's to 1930's and haven't changed much. Unfortunately they have all been very very used in their time and, of course, have a LOT of buried trash. I never have hunted them much and when I have I've never had any amazing finds but there are many.
Not totally sure how extreme they are on metal detecting anymore but I never had any issues with authorities when I went. I just made sure I did as little digging as possible. Most shallow targets can be weaseled out with a flat blade.
If you are a people-person there are many many old properties all over town so your best bet is door knocking or securing permissions. I'm not much of a people-person and not very sociable so I don't do that.
The last several years they have been condemning and taking over hundreds of houses in neighborhoods along the freeway for expansion and I and many other detectorists have enjoyed hitting those areas. That entire area was older homes so some of us did pretty well on those. Don't know how it is anymore but, like they say, no place is ever completely hunted out.
Oh, I've lived here my entire life so I do know a little of the history of the area.

 

[Holt0222]

Thanks for the advice broken.

 

[OldNBroken]

If I were you I'd wander down along the freeway between altamont and haven. You'll see where DOT is clearing the land on both the north and south sides. All that empty land used to be old houses. Like I said, everybody has been hitting it since they started clearing a few years back but you never know. I've steered clear of when and where they are actually working and haven't been harassed. I guess some guys have been confronted but nothing serious. It is public property and if there are no posted signs you aren't doing anything wrong. Just be smart in the time and place and don't be confrontational and you should be fine.

As far as the city goes I believe technically you do need a permit for the parks but they stopped charging for it a few years back. I'm sure it's easy to check on the requirements with city hall if you want. Hit some of the parks if you want and let me know if you have any luck. Parking strips in the neighborhoods are also public property. I do those occasionally. Even though the residents don't own them they do maintain them so I am very selective about hitting them. I've only had one confrontation with a lady. Crappy neighborhood and unkempt parking strip and I'm pretty sure she was just a renter but I apologized and stopped anyways.

Then there are always plenty of old houses in all the neighborhoods. Door knock if that's your thing.

Happy hunting and good luck. Keep us posted on your excursions. I'm always curious.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

... and the rules on detecting in Washington.

Well, yes, I'm glad you asked. The rules are quite simple: You pay me 30% of all your finds. Any other questions ?

Oh, and just avoid obvious historic sensitive monuments, and/or any place that has a "no detecting" signage. But for all other locations, I authorize it.