National Park Service laying in wait for relic hunters

[HutSiteDigger]

I thought this was cute today. So they cleared off this half an acre piece of woods in Fredericksburg today right next to the Fredericksburg National Cemetery and right next too the road, I think they are going too make another parking lot right there. They have 1 posted sign warning it is national park ground, however it was torn down and flipped upside down! the Park service marks property after clearing by placing white tape all around but DO NOT use Posted signs. So I pulled in across from the battlefield @ 8pm and shut my truck off cause I saw a guy in a black car just laying in wait for something! so my buddy got out of the truck and ran over too the spot and was just looking around like a tourist and when he did that the guy in the black car got out, ran on top of the hill, and started too look down @ the spot with binoculars and some radio looking device (I think it is a device that can pick up a MDer that I know the Park Service uses)! Undercover park ranger it was or appeared too be or maybe some creep?, they were laying in wait too nab a MDer who would be stupid enough too pull to the side of the road and hunt it real quick thinking it may just be a cleared off spot for a construction site and not knowing it was actually National Park Land. I pulled up right next too the guys car and started waving too him on top of the hill! He looked so DUMB founded it was funny. I kept waving for him too come down and talk but he just stood there looking @ us like he wanted too charge at us but he would not come down. Either a real creepy dude or undercover park ranger.

Please be careful out there MDers if you are hunting ANYWHERE near a National Park ALWAYSSS make sure you know the boundary lines and DO NOT GET LOST in the woods and end up on park land. I am going too file a complaint with National Park Service tomorrow in Washington D.C. on what I saw tonight cause I do not think that is right for them too not properly post the site and having 1 Posted sign that was torn down and flipped upside down kinda like entrapment.

Years ago I spoke with a archaeologist from the Park Service and told him I was a MDer and he told me "OH so you use those devil sticks (meaning MDer) and loot the ground" ever since then I lost faith in them. OH I also know the Park Law Enforcement Rangers is got list of local MDers in the area and try and keep up with where they are digging at and what kind of collection they have,etc. They are still on the hunt for several buckles that were supposedly dug on park land and the last guy they caught on park land got 2 years in prison after finding a C.S.A. buckle. You can read it here:

"Third caught relic hunter gets 2 years" Fredericksburg.com - Third caught relic hunter gets 2 years

 

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[wvwildman]

yep sounds like a trap to me your buddy should have mooned him when he was watching from the hill lol

 

[Tom_in_CA]

That's a good way to "case out a place": to simply walk around in the dark. Then if someone were watching it (night security or whatever), they would come out and question you. Presto, you were just out for night-stroll. But if no one comes out to talk to you after 10 or 20 min., then...........

 

[Number9]

Sorry.. in a National Park they don't need to post a sign! All land is owned by somebody, it's your responsibility to know on what land you're hunting and the rules!

 

[scott9050]

More than likely they are bringing in their own archaeologists with metal detectors. They did this with new construction several years back at Antietam. They were polite and let me hang around while they flagged and dug relics.

 

[Number9]

The "Boys In Green" at the Chickamauga Battlefield keep a sharp eye for anyone with a metal detector!
It's not even a good idea to have one in your vehicle when passing through on the highway.
Several has been caught over the years.. they take your metal detector, your vehicle, and your butt!
You best know where the line is... or they will show you real fast!

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

that anyone would even think of detecting in a national park, let alone a battlefield full of American heros...
that type of behavior is way beyond my ability to understand.

 

[Joe hunter]

that anyone would even think of detecting in a national park, let alone a battlefield full of American heros...
that type of behavior is way beyond my ability to understand.

But a parking lot is fine?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

But a parking lot is fine?

Joe: But of course, that makes perfect sense. RIGHT? And such is the reason it's hard to feel the compelling need to let objects rot, or get hauled off in the transport trucks during scraping/demolition phases.

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

then go where they dump the dirt...

but much like that peppermint patty commercial...you are willing to do anything to get what you want...regardless of who is injured or what is destroyed in the process.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

then go where they dump the dirt...

but much like that peppermint patty commercial...you are willing to do anything to get what you want...regardless of who is injured or what is destroyed in the process.

Secret-canyon, believe it or not, I ran into an archie once, who ......... when I asked her "where's this dirt going?" (motioning the trucks off-hauling spoils from a site dating to the 1820s), she didn't want me detecting there either! It was going to be part of River levee fill dirt a few miles down the road. And I could tell, when she got wind of the fact I intended to detect the spoils at the recipient site, that she didn't like that either.

I understand what you're saying, that "the laws the law". Just saying, when you think it through logically, it gets harder and harder to sympathize with "towing the line", when you start to learn just how ridiculous some of the "purist" archies can be

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

I am not a the law is the law type of person...but..i am a historian{a trained curator}...
an one doesn't ever do anything that can not be undone...or document what has been done, so the person smarter than you can recover whatever information was there...

so far...complaining about not being able to hunt a civil war battlefield...well just wander over to the tomb of the unknown begin to dig, an allow the black watch to informe you of the reality of the situation.

 

[gunsil]

Our government is greedy and stupid. There are more CW and many other relics wasting away in museum basements than most can imagine. No one will ever see these relics because there isn't enough room to display them and many are so common the museums don't wish to display them. Letting things deteriorate in the ground more and more is not preserving anything for anyone ever. England has a much better system where when a good find is made the government looks the relic over and if they decide it is an important find they buy it from the finder for fair market value and then put it in a museum. Why should anybody care if a hobbyist digs US plates or minnie balls or buttons?? There are so many all over the place that most museums wouldn't even take them. There is no historically important information to be gleaned from where these things were found because all these battles and camps are well recorded so the location where a common relic was found is fairly meaningless except for the finder. The Smithsonian has TONS of American Indian relics in boxes in storage that will probably never see the light of day yet it is illegal to pick up a common arrowhead on federal soil even if the next hiker doesn't see it and steps on it and breaks it for all time. The Museum of Natural History in NYC used to sell arrowheads that were donated to them because they had more than they could ever use and they still do. I like museums and preserving history, but often the private sector does a better job of preservation and I believe we should be allowed to dig history wherever we wish especially in situations where development is going to destroy a site forever.

 

[thrillathahunt]

More than likely they are bringing in their own archaeologists with metal detectors. They did this with new construction several years back at Antietam. They were polite and let me hang around while they flagged and dug relics.

I wonder how many relics they quietly slipped in their pockets for their own collections? Just saying. I know they wouldn't do that.

 

[TerryC]

Hutsitedigger, I firmly believe that the items dug and found by detectorists should be kept by those that dug them. The idea that things in the ground should be left in the ground is rediculous... in my mind. YET I have no sympathy for this Burroughs fellow that was caught with a CSA buckle he dug. As written in the news article you referred to, Burroughs was digging AND SELLING the things he dug. That, to me, is akin to grave robbing! AND he was caught digging and selling the relics in March, also! It writes he sold a buckle for $3500. Digging and displaying a find is one thing. Digging relics just to sell them is something else entirely. I would just as soon see this fellow rot in jail forever. He gives the hobby the worst light possible.... reason for "the man" to follow him about. Sorry but I have no need for such a type of "hobbiest". TTC

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

Red Rock Country - Red Rock Pass Program

gotta pay to park your car...at a spot I have been going most of my life....an don't even think of fishing without a license...or metal detecting...

an I hated it...haven't gone there since...but now, the creek is made up of yellow snow from the flatlanders in phoenix...and across the nation who just have to go pee in oak creek.

most of the laws in this nation are there because someone showed how ignorant an self possessed they are.

 

[bigfoot1]

yup....idiots.We all hate idiots.....so lets try this...we kick all of us off public land so a very few idiots cant reign free.Yup....we all gotta go.It is FAR to much to ask that the money we pay to manage our land isnt wasted and is used to protect it from idiots while allowing access to the vast majority of us.

But wait....thats harder!!Yup...just kick everyone out,thats the ticket.Oh...and lets try to catch ANYONE who disagrees because somehow its easier to police us all than to police a few.hmmmmm

 

[HutSiteDigger]

Check this out, happen two weeks ago, Dump Truck, Trailer, Lawn Mowers Stolen from NPS!! [url]http://fredericksburg.patch.com/articles/dump-truck-trailer-lawn-mowers-stolen-from-nps [/URL] You wanna know what i was told today by someone who is got more inside info than I do? THEY think a MDer did it to get back at the park service! They blame MDers for everything. Now they are letting the grass grow up high on all the battlefields because they do not have the funds to buy new lawn mowers!! They already laid off 40% of the Park Service staff due too budget cuts, I bet they are blaming that on MDers also.

 

[TerryC]

Check this out, happen two weeks ago, Dump Truck, Trailer, Lawn Mowers Stolen from NPS!! [URL]http://fredericksburg.patch.com/articles/dump-truck-trailer-lawn-mowers-stolen-from-nps [/URL]You wanna know what i was told today by someone who is got more inside info than I do? THEY think a MDer did it to get back at the park service! They blame MDers for everything. Now they are letting the grass grow up high on all the battlefields because they do not have the funds to buy new lawn mowers!! They already laid off 40% of the Park Service staff due too budget cuts, I bet they are blaming that on MDers also.

Well, digger, you seem to have an inside track on what's going on so.... give this number to your buddy... the one that has the answers! (so we can get that grass cut!) Crime Solvers 1-800-928-5822 TTC

 

[CurlysGold]

HSD did you see that tree that was uprooted near the visitor center? Oyster shells and bricks beneath it? It's all taped off.