D
dneyedli@res1.mts.net
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No Trespassing in my world
I’ve seen those signs all my life and it never felt encouraging to ask. It seemed like it was going to be an instant NO.
Growing up and living with a large field behind us, there were numerous dirt bikes ripping through our land late at night and it would be super loud. My parents contemplated getting a no trespassing sign. I grew up just outside the city in what was a small town but is now suburbia with many former city folk who want country life. Back when it was a small town, and I was just starting out at 13, I would knock at every house that looked old and ask. Most people knew who I was and it wasn’t a problem. Sometimes I would wander a field without asking and search around or even dig up bottles in the bush and the owners sometimes would show up and I never got yelled at. In those days it never seemed to matter much and people in general seemed nice and carefree. Of course 23 years later, I always try and ask for permission to hunt private land. The lands I like to search are not far from where I grew up and are just north of the city.
Things have really changed these days. Those people that moved out of the city for “Country living” are making things difficult. Some of them have a pompous way about them and they are so protective of every square inch. They join municipal councils and complain about everything from weeds to over watering the grass. Several fields that I have permission to hunt are adjoining a new development full of former city people. I have had the cops called on me, some people come out and yell that I am on private property or we don’t want you here and when I tell them that I have permission from the actual owner, they are still not satisfied and call the cops or continue to ask me to leave! Who do they think they are? I have had fields where the nice elderly fellow gives me his blessings only to have his son take over and he happens to be a miserable guy and yells all kinds of F sharps at me when he shows up. I tell him that I have permission and he tells me that his dad in a retirement home and now HE owns this field. A few weeks later he puts the property up for sale with big dollar signs gleaming in his eyes, and thus another new development is born. In my lifetime, the amount of historic land lost to development is staggering. There isn’t much historic land left in the outskirts of Winnipeg anymore and it is being gobbled up fast. Whatever is left, is being guarded carefully by these protective, don’t trust anyone, type people who like to complain and be nosey at the same time.
One example that really gets my goat is just this spring I drove up to this historic church where I usually park and walk a few fields over to one of my sites. The caretakers of this very important historic church live next door in a small house and know me and my car. To get there, you follow the municipal road to where it dead ends at the river and to the south there is a little roadway that follows the river, passing through one property that was owned by some really friendly, long-time residents and the caretaker’s land which adjoins the church property. The municipality out of courtesy would grade the little roadway and have done so for 30 years. Last year the owners of the first property passed away and land was bought by new (City) owners. Are you ready for this? The woman who doesn’t even live there yet, put up no trespassing signs and blocked off the 30 feet of roadway that runs through her newly acquired land and now the parishioners can’t go to church nor can anyone go visit their buried relatives in the massive cemetery! It is a small Parish and the care takers told me they just raised enough money to buy a new lawnmower never mind $30,000+ to build a long road through bush and swamp all the way to the highway! Can a person be so greedy that they can’t allow 30 feet of access to a Church that has always been there? The woman claims the reason is she doesn’t want any riverbank erosion. B.S. the roadway is not near the bank. Speaking of the river, about 30 or 50 feet belongs to the Province and many people build docks or mini-harbors on property they do not own. I walk the river bank and when the water is high, I have no choice but to climb over these obstructions. Well sometimes I hear “excuse me, this is private property” and I tell them that this is provincial land and I have a right to walk the river bank and your structure is in my way. So many prehistoric materials erode into the river and that’s why I’m there in the first place. Saving history and people want to interfere.
A couple of years ago, one of the last large fields left in the city limits, was sold by the owner who lived beside the field. According to the residents who lived nearby, the previous owner was miserable and he chased away people who just wanted to walk through his field and this was the only green space available. When the developers started to strip the topsoil off this field and I secured permission from them, and I found a historic site right at the edge of this previous landowner’s property and the field. I desperately tried to save what I could and this miserable guy comes out and tells me I am on his property. I said that I didn’t know and asked where his property line ends. He claimed it was further to the north, making the site I found off limits. I knew he was full of crap as the stakes indicated differently. He threatened me and I stayed away from his “so called” property. A few days later I show up to find that the developers had dug out a massive ditch right where the historic site was and is now destroyed and hauled away. His property line wasn’t even close to where he said it was. This a-hole interfered with me from saving history and I was real mad! I stood at the edge of his property and waited for him to come out so I could tell him a piece of my mind. Heck, I wanted to kick his teeth in! Of course he didn’t come out.
I just realized that I could go on forever about this because I have many experiences that relate to this post, but you are probably thinking of how big this post is already. I’ll try and wrap it up.
A few members here on this forum are claiming that bad detectorists are ruining it for us. That isn’t my experience. I think that city people are getting more miserable and just want to be greedy with their land. People are not as trusting anymore and it has nothing to do with metal detecting. I have lived in the city for 10 years now and every year I build a giant snow slide for the kids on the block and they spend every day playing in my yard. My wife and I don’t have any kids. I made the news last year for this reason and I got to tell the whole city that I want the kids to play outside and not spend their days watching T.V. and they are welcome in my yard. I was treated like a rare case kindness.
Things are different out in the country the further you get away from the city. People out there are a lot nicer and not so picky about their land. Sure you still see No Trespassing signs out there, but I still go and ask anyway. Some places I would go ahead and try to ask and to my surprise there were nice folks who have had problems with people from the city going fishing and they drive all over their land, leaving garbage everywhere. Well I happen to clean up garbage and I love to chase away punks, so now I am welcome. Other times the no trespassing signs are a result of hunters firing away on land they don’t have permission for and I tell the owners that as soon as I hear a shot nearby, I yell at the top of my lungs to get off the land and there is no hunting here and I also clean up garbage. I have never heard of people posting those signs because of detectorists sneaking on to their land.
To sum it up, I wrote this in hopes that some may relate to my experiences and they might feel like they are not alone. It is stressful when you have these experiences, and a few get on this forum and preach about the rules and saving our hobby when in fact I know that the only thing that has changed over the years is the attitudes of everyday people. They seem to be getting more miserable, protective, greedy, and have less trust. This is NOT the result of bad metal detecting practices.
Now some of you know why I react the way I do when it comes to the “holier than thou” people. When a detectorist on this forum sides with the type of people I just mentioned, I feel like they are traitors to this hobby.
This is part of my story and after all, these are my experiences. Sorry for the length.
Happy hunting.
Dave.
I’ve seen those signs all my life and it never felt encouraging to ask. It seemed like it was going to be an instant NO.
Growing up and living with a large field behind us, there were numerous dirt bikes ripping through our land late at night and it would be super loud. My parents contemplated getting a no trespassing sign. I grew up just outside the city in what was a small town but is now suburbia with many former city folk who want country life. Back when it was a small town, and I was just starting out at 13, I would knock at every house that looked old and ask. Most people knew who I was and it wasn’t a problem. Sometimes I would wander a field without asking and search around or even dig up bottles in the bush and the owners sometimes would show up and I never got yelled at. In those days it never seemed to matter much and people in general seemed nice and carefree. Of course 23 years later, I always try and ask for permission to hunt private land. The lands I like to search are not far from where I grew up and are just north of the city.
Things have really changed these days. Those people that moved out of the city for “Country living” are making things difficult. Some of them have a pompous way about them and they are so protective of every square inch. They join municipal councils and complain about everything from weeds to over watering the grass. Several fields that I have permission to hunt are adjoining a new development full of former city people. I have had the cops called on me, some people come out and yell that I am on private property or we don’t want you here and when I tell them that I have permission from the actual owner, they are still not satisfied and call the cops or continue to ask me to leave! Who do they think they are? I have had fields where the nice elderly fellow gives me his blessings only to have his son take over and he happens to be a miserable guy and yells all kinds of F sharps at me when he shows up. I tell him that I have permission and he tells me that his dad in a retirement home and now HE owns this field. A few weeks later he puts the property up for sale with big dollar signs gleaming in his eyes, and thus another new development is born. In my lifetime, the amount of historic land lost to development is staggering. There isn’t much historic land left in the outskirts of Winnipeg anymore and it is being gobbled up fast. Whatever is left, is being guarded carefully by these protective, don’t trust anyone, type people who like to complain and be nosey at the same time.
One example that really gets my goat is just this spring I drove up to this historic church where I usually park and walk a few fields over to one of my sites. The caretakers of this very important historic church live next door in a small house and know me and my car. To get there, you follow the municipal road to where it dead ends at the river and to the south there is a little roadway that follows the river, passing through one property that was owned by some really friendly, long-time residents and the caretaker’s land which adjoins the church property. The municipality out of courtesy would grade the little roadway and have done so for 30 years. Last year the owners of the first property passed away and land was bought by new (City) owners. Are you ready for this? The woman who doesn’t even live there yet, put up no trespassing signs and blocked off the 30 feet of roadway that runs through her newly acquired land and now the parishioners can’t go to church nor can anyone go visit their buried relatives in the massive cemetery! It is a small Parish and the care takers told me they just raised enough money to buy a new lawnmower never mind $30,000+ to build a long road through bush and swamp all the way to the highway! Can a person be so greedy that they can’t allow 30 feet of access to a Church that has always been there? The woman claims the reason is she doesn’t want any riverbank erosion. B.S. the roadway is not near the bank. Speaking of the river, about 30 or 50 feet belongs to the Province and many people build docks or mini-harbors on property they do not own. I walk the river bank and when the water is high, I have no choice but to climb over these obstructions. Well sometimes I hear “excuse me, this is private property” and I tell them that this is provincial land and I have a right to walk the river bank and your structure is in my way. So many prehistoric materials erode into the river and that’s why I’m there in the first place. Saving history and people want to interfere.
A couple of years ago, one of the last large fields left in the city limits, was sold by the owner who lived beside the field. According to the residents who lived nearby, the previous owner was miserable and he chased away people who just wanted to walk through his field and this was the only green space available. When the developers started to strip the topsoil off this field and I secured permission from them, and I found a historic site right at the edge of this previous landowner’s property and the field. I desperately tried to save what I could and this miserable guy comes out and tells me I am on his property. I said that I didn’t know and asked where his property line ends. He claimed it was further to the north, making the site I found off limits. I knew he was full of crap as the stakes indicated differently. He threatened me and I stayed away from his “so called” property. A few days later I show up to find that the developers had dug out a massive ditch right where the historic site was and is now destroyed and hauled away. His property line wasn’t even close to where he said it was. This a-hole interfered with me from saving history and I was real mad! I stood at the edge of his property and waited for him to come out so I could tell him a piece of my mind. Heck, I wanted to kick his teeth in! Of course he didn’t come out.
I just realized that I could go on forever about this because I have many experiences that relate to this post, but you are probably thinking of how big this post is already. I’ll try and wrap it up.
A few members here on this forum are claiming that bad detectorists are ruining it for us. That isn’t my experience. I think that city people are getting more miserable and just want to be greedy with their land. People are not as trusting anymore and it has nothing to do with metal detecting. I have lived in the city for 10 years now and every year I build a giant snow slide for the kids on the block and they spend every day playing in my yard. My wife and I don’t have any kids. I made the news last year for this reason and I got to tell the whole city that I want the kids to play outside and not spend their days watching T.V. and they are welcome in my yard. I was treated like a rare case kindness.
Things are different out in the country the further you get away from the city. People out there are a lot nicer and not so picky about their land. Sure you still see No Trespassing signs out there, but I still go and ask anyway. Some places I would go ahead and try to ask and to my surprise there were nice folks who have had problems with people from the city going fishing and they drive all over their land, leaving garbage everywhere. Well I happen to clean up garbage and I love to chase away punks, so now I am welcome. Other times the no trespassing signs are a result of hunters firing away on land they don’t have permission for and I tell the owners that as soon as I hear a shot nearby, I yell at the top of my lungs to get off the land and there is no hunting here and I also clean up garbage. I have never heard of people posting those signs because of detectorists sneaking on to their land.
To sum it up, I wrote this in hopes that some may relate to my experiences and they might feel like they are not alone. It is stressful when you have these experiences, and a few get on this forum and preach about the rules and saving our hobby when in fact I know that the only thing that has changed over the years is the attitudes of everyday people. They seem to be getting more miserable, protective, greedy, and have less trust. This is NOT the result of bad metal detecting practices.
Now some of you know why I react the way I do when it comes to the “holier than thou” people. When a detectorist on this forum sides with the type of people I just mentioned, I feel like they are traitors to this hobby.
This is part of my story and after all, these are my experiences. Sorry for the length.
Happy hunting.
Dave.
Happy Hunting! Hogge
