help me please !!!

[zag]

hello everyone i just got into metal detecting and have been told state land is off limits,national forest is off limits and i have no clue what that leaves me besides beaches witch isnt great for my metal detector i live in lincoln city oregon and would really like to know WHERE i can use my metal detector with any hiope of finding stuff please let me know thanks

 

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[pong12211]

Each state is different check your state laws.. Also peoples private land if you can gain permission. I always like to get my permission in writing in case of unforseen problems..

 

[Rawhide]

Im not from there but the fines can be hefty if you do it wrong. I can tell you there is plenty of places to hunt. If its private property you need permission. City parks may allow it, but may require a permit. My state doesnt not allow hunts in state parks. BLM land does permit meteorite hunting. Research is very important, but usually dumb luck will work too. I go to the same park once a week, actually a lot of them. Never disappointed. Im sure some folks from Oregon will chime in. Good Luck.

 

[zag]

thanks

i will do that i think private property will be the way to go,do u have a general idea of what type of private property to look for when detecting ?

 

[zag]

will do thanks foe takeing the time to help me out here there are some pretty old baseball filds around here and camp grounds as well worth looking at,and im reasearching the laws i want to do it right i guess thats what was discourging me in the first place.So many places u cant go ,while u gotta research your butt off to find the places u can go

 

[Tom_in_CA]

zag, it's not entirely true that "state land is off-limits". The commonly referred to chart, that people get this information from, is usually one of these type circulating lists:

Federation of Metal Detector & Archaeological Clubs Inc.

Bear in mind that for state PARKS only. Not all "state land" (because not all state land is "state park" land). As you can see they're not all "off-limits". And also note that this has no bearing on city or county or private or federal lands. Take your state for instance (Oregon). You can see that it's ok, with a "permit". Not sure what's involved in getting that (probably futile to try, as maybe they'll say you have to be an archaeologist, perhaps). But look at CA on that list, for example, notice it says "yes with permission from park office". (very similar sounding to your OR info there, eh?) Yet I can tell you for a fact, that some state parks were, and are, detected here, and no one cares. For example: state of CA beaches (which are administered by the very same parks dept afterall) are routinely detected here, and no one cares. And no, no one goes asking permission at the kiosk, etc...

You have to keep in mind, how such lists (that led to the scary stories of which you are now worried about) came into being, TO BEGIN WITH: Someone(s), decades ago, went and asked. For example one such compendium list, was a book by Doc R. Grim called "Treasure Laws of the United States", which came out in the early 1990s. The idea of the book, was so that users could look up any state, in alphabetic order, to see the applicable laws there. And thus people who travel in RV's or whatever, could carry that book, and show busy-body gripers, in case they were approached. Or conversely, to avoid other states, and so forth. The way the author got the info, was he xeroxed 50 form letters, and sent them out to each state capitol head office of parks dept. The letter said something to the effect of: "what are your laws regarding the use of metal detectors in your state parks?" Then when he got back all 50 replies, he made them into this nifty book. Sounds logical enough, right? I mean .... who better to ask, than the states themselves! But an interesting thing happened, when lists like this started making the rounds: There were some dire sounding states (with outright no's, or spelling severe limits). Yet they had, up-till-then, just been detected, and no one had ever cared. Barring obvious historic monuments, of course, and assuming you weren't being a nuisance in some other way. But now here's a list and a letter from the head-of-parks saying "no"? Well gee, that was "news" to all the old-timers, eh?

Here's what had occured: Put yourself in the shoes of whomever answers a letter, such as that, back in the 1980s or '90s. What do you think the "safe" answer is going to be? Perhaps the person fielding such an inquiry had never even given the matter thought before! So what will he do? He'll look too and fro through all their text and verbage, to see what "applies to this pressing question". And thus, presto, various verbage about cultural heritage, alteration and defacement, lost & found, harvesting and collecting, and all sorts of wonderful things were found to give no's. Because, think of it: there are .... GRANTED, some parks, in any given state, that are admittedly sensitive historical monuments, right? So the person answering simply can't go into detail, like "yes at these 30, but no at those 4". Or "yes on the beach and grass at the lake, but avoid the historic cabin on the north shore", etc... Obviously the much easier answer, to the "pressing question" was, "no", or "inquire at each kiosk". But as I say, we're talking about parks that had, up till then, probably just been routinely detected, and no one had ever cared! (unless, as I say, there were something unique to a particular place). Thus it was a clear case of "No one cared, till you asked" routine And I can tell you for a fact, that (just like the example I gave of CA) that, despite such lists (and scary mantras like Casca cites) detecting is still going on.

As far as Casca's saying that some city's may require a permit: This is very very rare. Very few cities, across the united states, have ever implemented such a thing. In my entire state of CA, for instance, I can think of perhaps 3 (and two, yes "all two of them" counties), out of many hundreds of cities and out of 58 counties. But if you still worry that your city or county might have something, here's what you do: Do NOT go asking desk-bound bureaucrats "can I?". Lest you merely get more of the "no one cared till you asked" routine. Instead: You look it up for yourself. City and county muni codes, rules, laws, etc... are all public info, available for public viewing SOMEWHERE. Either at city hall on the front desk in binder form, or perhaps on the city or county website, etc.... If you see nothing there that says "no metal detecting", then PRESTO, it therefore must not be prohibited.

 

[speter42]

A Few Sites to Get You Started:

1) Old Schools
2) City/Town Parks
3) Circus/Fair Sites
4) Old Churches
5) Old Homestead Sites
6) Swimming Holes and Areas
7) Picnic Groves
8) Athletic Fields
9) Scout Camps
10) Rodeo Arenas
11) Campgrounds
12) Ghost Towns
13) Beaches
14) Old Taverns
15) Roadside Rest Stops
16) Sidewalk Grassy Strips
17) Amusement Parks
18) Rural Mailboxes
19) Reunion Areas
20) Revival sites
21) Fort Sites
22) Winter Sledding Areas
23) Lookout/Overlook Sites
24) Church Supper Groves
25) Fishing Spots
26) Fishing Camps
27) Resorts
28) Old Barns and Outbuildings
29) Battle Sites
30) Band Shells
31) Racetracks
32) Rural Boundary Walls
33) Roadside Fruit and Vegetable Stands
34) Under Seaside Boardwalks
35) Flea Market Areas
36) Ski Slopes
37) Drive Ins
38) Canal Paths
39) Vacant Lots
40) Motels
41) College Campuses
42) Farmer Market Areas
43) Town Squares
44) Urban Yards and Backyards
45) Disaster Sites
46) Areas Around Skating Ponds
47) Hunting Lodges and Camps
48) Mining Camps
49) Railroad Grades, Stations and Junctions
50) Hiking Trails
51) Waterfalls
52) Rural Dance Sites
53) Lover's Lanes
54) Areas Adjacent to Historical Markers
55) Old Gas Stations and General Stores
56) Fence Posts
57) Chicken Houses
58) Bridges and Fords
59) Flower Beds
60) Playgrounds
61) Old Garbage Dumps
62) Cloth Lines
63) Military Camp and Cantonment Sites
64) Wells and Outhouses
65) Abandoned Houses and Structures
66) Areas where Old Trails Cross County or State Boundaries
67) Piles of Scraped Soil at Construction Sites
68) Old Stone Quarries
69) Areas Around Old Abandoned Cemeteries in the Forest
70) Junctions of Abandoned Roads (crossroads)

 

[zag]

thanks so much for takeing the time to reply ,just by luck today i found out i can go to, ALL bureau of land management land, and certin state parks. They seem overly sensiteive to state parks as a whole around here, but i spoke with the blm district office for my area today and they told me i can go anywhere on blm land though the state park officials told me blm was off limits as well obivously they were feeding me a line of crap the blm official even gave me a link to the site so i could print it off if i was overly conserned about it,but i think its like u say if i stay away from the obivous historical sites ill be fine

 

[zag]

whoot thanks for the list to get me started i also went to the historic museum today and was able to look at pictures of lincoln city and the local surrounding area in the late 1800 i have good starting points today your list tops it off thank you so much for takeing the time to respond and give me this list ill use it well

 

[Tom_in_CA]

......... i spoke with the blm district office for my area today and they told me i can go anywhere on blm land .......

As you can tell, from your various efforts so far, it seems to depend on 1) who you ask, 2) how they couch your question (ie.: they're mental images, the things they morph it to mean, etc...), 3) their mood and personal whim.

In other words, although you got a "go ahead" from that 1 person, I have no doubt, that if you asked 5 more BLM guys, you'd get 5 different answers. Ok, well I exaggerate a bit, but you get my point

And although this particular one might have said "go ahead", the answer might have been very different, if you'd have said "great, and can I dig holes to retrieve my targets?". He might have said "...oh, but you can't dig". And if you say "but I'll refill my holes", then you're at his whims of interpretation of whether the temporary evil process falls afoul of certain prohibitions against "alterations" and "defacement". Even though, as I say, in the long run, you'll leave no trace, yet, in the temporary ...... technically speaking, someone could say "no" still, *if they wanted*. And then what are you going to do? Fight them?

Or another scenario: if you'd said "great! and then can I keep the old valuables I find and sell on ebay, etc...?" (and perhaps hint to him they might be over 100 yrs. old), then he might say "oh wait, no, that runs afoul of verbage that disallows 'taking' or 'harvesting' and so forth, not to mention cultural heritage verbage"

So you see, the bottom line is: If ANY of us asks enough desk-bound bureaucrats, with the right combination of buzzwords, we can ALL find ourselves a "no", for even the most innocous of city sandboxes. Thus when someone posts that they got a "yes", I sometimes think to myself that in the same way, all those "no's" we hear of, are equally as meaningless. With the possible exception of if some place had a specific "no metal detectors".

Thus, for me, I'd look up the rules for myself, and never ask anyone "can I?" type questions. If I don't see something that specifically says "no metal detectors", then I'm going.

 

[Doc722]

Heya again...So a great resource for Oregon parks/lands for ya...

Oregon Parks & Recreation Department: Go Play! Metal Detecting

Pretty handy...All public land is good to go by the way...BLM (Bureau of Land Management) lands etc...City parks are a little different, but normally easy enough to get a permit. I'm in Central Oregon here and to MD in the city parks, they require you to have a permit...That's the towns of Bend and Redmond specifically...The permits are free and you can get them same day...I'm just using my area as an example for you....So, just check with your local Parks and Rec and see what they say...GL and may your digs be diggin'!!!

 

[zag]

thanks for takeing time to reply to my post's i have gotten better at my digging up my finds, it is a little tricky getting started but its commin togather, and right i did find blm land is good to detect in though the ppl in the parks department tried to rell me blm had the same rules as them ,i finally called the blm district office and they told me parks cant speak for blm and i can detect all i want,i also found a very cool site for research though u most likely already know its, historicaerials.com pretty cool though i wish they hadf older maps for our area they still go back to the eairly 1900's,thanks alot for the time u have tajken to answer all my posts