Thanks Tom for going along with the discussion and know I am not arguing against you, I am just on the fence about some locations and this being a main one, I really want you to convince me that I should go
Well I think it boils down to, you are right in the effect that a lot of people are scared to detect in places that they really can detect, but their fear is based off of rumors they had heard of people getting jailed, fined, hassled. And as you have said before, most of it is based on rumor.
But it also boils down to, if you looked and looked, and failed to find the information saying you can not detect an area, but the law enforcement does have a code saying it is a no-no, then it is a no-no, and you will pay for it.
As my grandfather would say, Who was a dredger for years, "Ignorance of a rule, does not justify breaking it." and in my short experience sometimes those rules are very borderline, such as "Detecting is legal as long as you don't disturb the rocks, trees, animals, or grass." And sometimes can just be down right hard to find.
This place I am looking at is called Piety Hill in Shasta county. BLM owns the land, and I have the paper I mentioned that states metal detecting is legal on public land" The title of the paper is specific to mining on BLM land. So while the glass is half full type might see that as an opening for detecting a historic area on said public land, the glass is half empty type might be wondering if they mean you can only detect for gold on public lands....
The real problem is it boils down to how the law enforcement person interpreted it.
I am going to another location this weekend, but I might head over to the location I mentioned when I get a free day and see where and what the historic mark says, it might just talk about the exact location of the camp it was placed in, when in reality the camps spread for about 22 miles.
Here are some article...
Piety Hill Chinatown:
This community was home to approximately 600 Chinese beginning in the 1850s. Chinese laborers built the major portion of the 22-mile long Hardscrabble Mine ditch and flume that stretched from Petty Butte to the Middle Fork of Cottonwood Creek. In 1866 all the whites left Piety Hill and moved across Conger Gulch to the new town of Igo and the Chinese stayed at Piety Hill. Many Chinese living there had duck pens and opium smoking was carried on openly. Their houses, or huts, were wooden.
Piety Hill was the site of a large garden; the vegetables were sold in a Chinese store which sat beside the road. The Chinese population began declining in the late 1880s and 1890s. Sometime during the first decade of this century, the last Chinese left Piety Hill. Supposedly only one Chinese woman ever lived here. She was known as "China Mary", wore long jade ear pendants, and dressed in brightly colored silk pantaloons.
and
Piety Hill Piety Hill was one of Shasta County’s original 1849 gold-mining settlements. At one time it contained 1,500 residents, 600 of whom were Chinese. As with many of our early settlements, there are more than one version for its name. One version claims it was named for the religious and political discussions held there by its pious early residents. Another claims it was named in honor of resident Grandma McKinney;s former home in Piety Hill, Michigan.
When the nearby Hardscrabble Mine discovered that the town sat on an ancient river channel, it began making plans to hydraulically mine the townsite for the gold it most likely contained. In anticipation of their towns’ destruction, most of the white residents moved a quarter-mile west and established a new town they named Igo. The Chinese residents stayed at Piety Hill. Their decision to stay proved to be the right one because the mining never took place. The Anti-Debris Act soon outlawed hydraulic mining because of the destruction it caused. The mining stopped at the edge of town, saving it from annihilation. All that remains at Piety Hill today are some circular holes in the ground that were the cellars of the Chinese houses, water ditches, and the remains of two reservoirs.
