Would you detect a place where you had to give everything back to the owner?

[Juice in the hole]

I have tons of places to hunt here on our farm (late 1700's home sites, tobacco barns, slave quarters) but still I'm drawn to some of the fantastic historic mansions in my area. Many are designated "National Historic Places" and were owned by large plantation owners. There are plenty to choose from and I'll bet at least some would be willing to let me give it a shot. The question is, do you even mention what you plan on doing with the finds up front? Do you give the owner the pick of the finds and keep the rest? What if the owner says okay, but they get to keep everything? Is it still worth detecting to you (time & energy) if you aren't allowed to keep a single item?

 

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[G.I.B.]

...and let them keep everything? Only after they let me mow the lawn, paint their house and wash and wax their cars for free.

Seriously- I'd give them anything that was significant to them. I'd like to keep common coins and weird stuff they don't want.

Sharing is caring, but I have a display box to fill up.

 

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[lookindown]

I would give up everything I dug to hunt and old site...it would be better than not hunting it at all...every time I get permission to hunt somewhere I tell the owner they can have anything I find and they always say they don't want anything.

 

[Calgarychef]

I've don't that, it was an old Manor House in England. The owner got almost everything I found including a gorgeous little Victorian silver broach. Really our finds are nothing more than interesting old rubbish aren't they? It's the hoarding urge within us to want to keep everything, I'm not a hoarder and I just .i,e finding old stuff. I've even reburied meteorites so that others could have the fun of finding them.

 

[scotty544]

I would definitely give back the property owners personal property if they told me about it before hand or could describe it, but hunting and especially digging can be a chore in some areas. I am not in it just for the sake of digging holes.

 

[jeff of pa]

I have. But it's not as Fun as being able to take them home.

Now that I have a camera to at least have pics, it would probably help

 

[TheSleeper]

OK guys and dolls, I want to give you a little fictional example so please bear with me:


What If;

You discover an old farm house, mansion, Victoria era home, you research it, discover it had a lot of civil war era activity around it. You decide to contact said homeowner, upon arriving you discover a little old lady age unimportant but elderly, during the discussion she states this was his birth place and she has lived there for xx'# of years. Granting you permission you set off to the land of gold coins, breast plates, and cobs, after a great day of hunting virgin territory, you decide to call it a day as the sun is near setting. You pockets and bag are full of many different trinkets, coins and relics:

You decide to show this little old lady all that you found, spreading everything out on a towel on her kitchen table, slowly she starts looking over them when you hear her gasp, scared because you think she might have just had a heart attack and was going to die in your presence, you see her reaching for a small worthless little trinket. With a tear rolling down her cheek she tells you this trinket (insert your own description here) was lost by her (brother, sister, mother, father, husband, boyfriend) over xx'# of years ago. You can tell by the way she is holding it how much it means to her, asking if she can have it naturally you tell her it is hers. She slowly starts describing her (brother, sister, mother, father, husband, boyfriend) to you basically telling you all about her family history as the tears slowly roll down her cheek, not tears of sadness but tears of joy because that little trinket brought them forth.

Now sure you could have decided to not show the home owner/ property owner what you found on their property and that worthless little trinket could have ended up in your collection, or you could have sold it, but who gained more enjoyment from it, you or her?

Sometimes Ladies and gentleman, as strange as this world is, sometimes fiction becomes reality, I know. She died shortly afterwards and that worthless little trinket, her relatives informed me later she requested it to be buried with her. It belonged to her childhood sweetheart who died in the early parts of WWII before they could get married, she never got over him and never married another.

Ladies and gentleman, our purpose is to find the past, sure each of us has dreams of grandeur, riches beyond belief, I am no different than you, I dream the same. But what could amount to a few pennies in value to me, could be priceless to the person whose property it was found on.

 

[Jason in Enid]

I like to leave the fairy tales for the childrens books.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Hello "Juice in the hole",

The "give everything thing back to owner philosophy" has got me into many places I would have not been allowed to hunt. In the end, most owners let me have a piece or two unless its a significant historical site. To me, it's the "thrill of the hunt" and be given the chance to hunt an area that may yield some interesting finds, is good enough for me.

Regards,

 

[TheSleeper]

Jason, Sometimes Ladies and gentleman, as strange as this world is, sometimes fiction becomes reality, I know. She died shortly afterwards and that worthless little trinket, her relatives informed me later she requested it to be buried with her. It belonged to her childhood sweetheart who died in the early parts of WWII before they could get married, she never got over him and never married another.

Its not a fairy tale, but I think to her it was.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

I agree with "The Sleeper",

I had permission to dig an 1820's farmhouse with no stipulations about finds. I dug some coins, jewelry, old spoons...etc. The one find that brought the homeowner to tears was two old toy cars, found about 5 inches down that belonged to her deceased son. All of the valuables meant nothing, but those two rusty old toys was like finding a gold cache to the owner. You never know how your finds can touch a person.

Regards,

 

[TheSleeper]

Exactly Professor, I have only had the experience of "one time" the property owner wanted everything. OK so that time I lost, sorry but to me all the other times I have found great stuff vastly outweighs that one time.

The memories I have, are priceless!

 

[roaddust66]

I live in an area that in the past 40 years has been under heavy civil war relic hunting pressure. If a landowner tells me no you cant hunt , the cause is usually from bad experiences in the past from relic hunters. I always offer to share what I find and it comes back to me in spades. The current landowner which I'm hunting their farm ...I gave them drops and camp lead , j hooks and put them in a riker box. Now my landowner is on the phone with her friends who own thousands of acres of civil war battle field. Other hunters have hunted their farm many times but never once came back to their house to show what they found. Then the hunters told other neighbors what had been found but never told the landowners. What an insult. I gave them drops and camp lead and they were so happy they nearly cried.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Hello Roaddust66,

A little respect and kindness goes a long way.

Regards,

 

[lookindown]

I have. But it's not as Fun as being able to take them home.

Now that I have a camera to at least have pics, it would probably help

Yeah, I definitely would rather be able to keep what I find.

 

[Higgy]

Personally, I like to profit from my MDing adventures. Digging a pile of rusty junk and coveting it as a "good day" is not my style. I will get skunked and dig junk like everyone else, but I chalk it up to poor location, poor judgment, and poor technique. I don't delude myself that its all good.

I also don't show all my finds to the owner. I'll select something interesting, or show a few clads or something to show that I did find something, but I don't feel like I am cheating anyone but myself by giving it away. If the landowner is that tight with his property, well then, he can have it. As far as any "agreements" before I detect, I always tell them that if I found anything of significant value, like "a jar of gold coins," I'll happily share. And I would. Obviously personal stuff like rings and initialized jewelry provide good karma upon return. Stuff we all already know.

 

[Meadow]

The fun for me is in the search, not the hoarding, they can have whatever I find.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

In the past the spoken arrangement, if necessary, is that I am looking for coins. Any jewelry or personal items I offer back to the homeowner.

If the arrangement was I got to keep nothing at a private home then my rate would be $30/hour.

For a pre-arranged historical society or archeology site dig I'd volunteer just to be part of the project.

 

[Phantasman]

No.

 

[ARC]

No... I would just go to neighbors house... heh
If it was a situation where the items were going to a good cause... like historical museum THAT I KNEW was going to display them... etc... yes.
If owner of house just wanted them for himself...
I would tell him to go buy his own detecting equipment... and to "have fun buddy".

 

[bzbadger]

Had this happen January 1st at the oldest active Methodist church in the country. Spoken of in advance that if anything directly related to the church would be donated and the rest we keep. 2 hours of freezing and detecting up comes the curator and her panties are in a knot. Who are you, what are you doing..mind you we just spoke with her that morning so now we know she's stupid. After reminding her she starts in with they take donations to help keep the place open, then it was well in my opinion whatever you find I think belongs to the church..real smart mouth..me being the smart A of the group was beaten to the punch by my friend who said sure you can have it and pulls out aluminum cans, pull tabs etc says its all yours..she says no u can keep that stuff..he says oh well thank you for that. She leaves and we decided to do same but take it up later with the church's minister, her boss, and let him handle it. We did actually pull a king George II and a puppy paw buckle but no way she was getting it after she tried to change things up. So I say get it in writing if its a serious place ir at least on your phones video. You may think it wont happen to u, so did I.