Legal areas to beach detect in Oregon

[Darshevo]

I was in Oregon over the weekend. The weather was a little un-predictable and coupled with being there on a short vacation with the family I left the detector in the truck. I did note a sign in most of the state park areas that indicated that metal detecting was not allowed without a permit. Being as nearly every road side stop is a state park of some type or another I found this to be quite discouraging. Being home now I fgured I would look up the process needed to get a permit and found this site:

http://www.oregon.gov/OPRD/PARKS/GoPlay/metal_detecting.shtml

It gives a list of all of the places where metal detecting is allowed freely. As luck would have it that includes most of the ocean beach area save for a couple of historic sites / known ship wreck sites. It would appear that while the area you pull into is a state park in most cases its boundaries end at the vegetation line heading out onto the beach.

 

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[Tuberale]

Most of Oregon beaches are public domain, and open to detecting. The few exceptions are the shipwreck sites which are open to the public, but no relics can be removed from.

Individual state parks have individual rules. Contact the park manager for final determination. BTW, I have obtained a state park permit (to hunt mushrooms) in the past. It isn't that difficult a process if you get to know the manager first. He/She's mostly interested in whether you intend to remove valuable assets (trees, rocks, rare plants, etc.) those would be illegal. My permit was granted, I believe, because I was mostly interested in collecting fungal samples for scientific research and future reference. I happened to find one rather rare specimen, which that particular year was also found at several other previously unknown locales on the Oregon coast. I also found a collection which later proved to be a species new to science, and is currently named for me.

In general, the manager may allow you to metal detect in certain areas, but not in others. These may have Native American remains, have historical sites related to Lewis & Clark Expedition, or other reasons. Often public areas such as near camping/picnicing/swimming will be open. But the managers like to know ahead of time if possible. If you are detecting at night, they may call the state police, assuming you are a security risk.