reply
However, if you get caught doing any prospecting in a california state park they will lock you up and throw away the key.
hard-prospector, do you mean *specifically* "prospecting"? As in, for nuggets? Or do you mean any metal detecting at all? Eg.: coins and relics too? If you meant ALL metal detecting, then please do tell why state-of-CA beaches are routinely detected? CA state administered beaches, afterall, are administered by the very same parks dept. afterall. There is nothing, technically, that wouldn't apply to their beaches they police over as "parks", than the in-land parks. Same exact agency.
Yet metal detectors are a common site on state of CA beaches, and .... no one ever cares. Yup, right in front of rangers, etc....
I have a suspicion that if someone goes to get this "clarified", that would NOT be a good thing. If it's just simply gone in practice since the dawn of detectors, then ......... why would anyone question that?
As for state of CA inland parks, here's a true story along the same vein: There was a particular state campground that a few friends of mine used to detect. They got the usual silver coins there (but nothing too terribly old, as I think it only dated to the 1940s or '50s). They had detected it for years, and never had any reason to suspect you couldn't. It was simply where their predecessors, before them, took them to detect, and so forth. Any passing rangers would give nothing but a friendly wave.
However, the true story is that one day, a newbie, who got his first detector, stopped in at the entrance kiosk to ask: "can I metal detect here?". The confused gate clerk didn't know how to answer that. He looked too and fro through his booklets and pamphlets there at the kiosk, and saw nothing addressing this. So he tells the fellow "hold on a minute", and gets on his phone. He makes several calls, to a few different superiors in remote places. He then comes back to the window & tells the guy "no". The dejected md'r therefore left and went back home.
Fast forward a few weeks later, and this friend of mine who'd detected there over the years, got booted! When he objected and said "... but why?", all they could do was show him some silly things about cultural heritage, or disturbing the flora, or .... whatever.
Then later, he found out about the newbies inquiry at the kiosk when he bumped into that newbie at the dealers house. He put 2 and 2 together and it became quite clear what happened: This clerk probably passed by my friend, remembered the earlier inquiry, and thinks:
"aha! there's one of them!" and starts booting others.
Moral of the story here?
And just curious: Can you give any examples of someone prospecting or md'ing on state-of-CA park, and being "locked up with the key thrown away"?
