The Graveyard thing Again

[m bryan]

Got permission today to hunt some private property. It has an old graveyard that dates back a couple hundred years(all ancient graves). He told me to feel free to hunt it, but just dont dig over the graves.......I wouldn't want to do anything to bring shame to my fellow Tneters. ...........what do you think? Whats ok and whats not?

 

[LM]

Just be respectful and treat the grave sites as if they were your own family.
You should have no problems from that approach.

No problems?
Lets say you strolled into a few funeral homes and polled the 1000 family members of people who had recently died.
How many do you think would be OK with you running a metal detector over their loved ones final resting place?

The over/under is set at 20/1000. I'll take the under.

Now, lets do the same thing, only instead of funeral homes and the recently deceased, lets say you copied down all the names on all the headstones of a really old cemetery and headed over to the local genealogy society to track down their distant relatives, many generations removed. Lets say you did this until you located 1000 relatives of the people buried in that old graveyard.
How many of those people do you think would be OK with you running a metal detector over the graves of their deceased ancestors?

The over/under is still set at 20/1000, and I'll still take the under.

This whole "the dead don't care" argument could be made in cases involving necrophilia, grave robbing, abuse of a corpse or any number of unspeakable acts. Of course the dead don't care. The living do, which is why we should be a bit mindful of stuff involving the dead and how we treat their ceremonial resting places. Scouring said places with metal detectors for 'lost stuff' is just grotesque. Again, I absolutely cannot resolve in my own mind what kind of person, in a huge country with MD'ing opportunities abounding, would choose a graveyard to go dig nickles in. Even if we completely remove the ethical debate, I think we can safely say those people are still just shitty opportunists, seeing as there are any number of places that would be hugely more fruitful.

 

[Smudge]

GREAT!

Next thing I know you'll all be telling me I shouldn't be entering mausoleums, opening caskets and rifling around looking for jewelry!

I mean, they're DEAD! What do they care?

 

[Indianhead Jones]

It's up to you, my friend. Read the story I just posted above.

Larry G.

 

[Bum Luck]

Only a STINKING Archaeologist would dig in a grave yard for any reason!

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!

and they call us ghouls.................

 

[m bryan]

I can understand not detecting around graves as it is respect for the dead and I wouldn't do it..........but what is our intent when we enjoy this hobby of ours? To me, it is a clean enjoyable pastime. Leaving the land as good as it was when we found it. No evil intent or greed in heart or mind .........people run lawn mowers and weed eaters over graves. Dig holes to plant flowers and shrubs......I dont think our hobby should be labeled as something less than respectful....

 

[Pickpan]

I wonder how many of you saying, "pass it up" would detect if you knew a million dollar ring was somewhere bouts? Or if you got wind a Well Fargo cache was buried in there Feel free to dig on top of my grave when I'm dead. In fact, when I'm cremated and blown into the wind no matter where you dig I'll be there(at least a fraction of a particle of me ) Pickpan...

 

[lafatlife]

I can understand not detecting around graves as it is respect for the dead and I wouldn't do it..........but what is our intent when we enjoy this hobby of ours? To me, it is a clean enjoyable pastime. Leaving the land as good as it was when we found it. No evil intent or greed in heart or mind .........people run lawn mowers and weed eaters over graves. Dig holes to plant flowers and shrubs......I dont think our hobby should be labeled as something less than respectful....

Well said!!

 

[Noodle]

Yes, lawnmowers and weedeaters and people walk/are used over graves. And plants are planted. That's all well and good, if the cemetery allows it. But once someone starts to "dig" (not to plant plants, but to find something), it gets touchy because loved ones may have left momentoes over the gravesite... a bracelet, necklace, or whatever, just barely covered in dirt, to remain as a momento to a loved one. Don't dig over a grave. If you do, I feel you're being disrespectful. I went to St. Barnard Parish just after Katrina and found caskets opened and up-ended in a cemetery. The bodies had washed away and were later recovered in a wooded area just behind the cemetery. Graves and cemeteries are off limits, period. If you don't agree, go try. You might get away with it for a day or two in my neighborhood, but not for long. If you're that desperate for coins, go rob a bank. Am talking cemeteries only, not churches, even old ones. Get permission there and go for it.

 

[gleaner1]

Certainly there are killer coins anywhere. No doubt. Not too many nowadays but still, they are everywhere. Including cemeteries. Everyone knows that there is a nice gold coin in some cemetery somewhere that someone dropped long ago. Go diggin any frikken place you can. Just don't tell anyone where you go. Especially if it's beyond the cemetery gates.

I like the movie "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly", a Cliint Eastwood flick from way back. The three civil war renegades know of a hoard of $20k (or more?) in gold coins buried under a grave marker somewhere among hundreds in this terrible civil war graveyard out west and it's every man for himself. If it were today and you were one of those guys who knew there was a gold coin cache fortune buried two feet under Frank Schmuck's grave marker in Whatever town, would you go 'tectin' for it? I personally would get some sdlfk, go down to the lksdfjlsdkjl, and sdffjdll. But that's just me.

 

[Noodle]

Gleaner, trust me. You watch entirely too many movies. Get a grip... People don't bury gold coins under their own tombstones, and neither do their relatives. Would you? If your mama died tomorrow, would YOU bury gold coins under her tombstone? Sure, if you were NUTS! IF I had gold coins in my possession, I sure as heck wouldn't bury them under somebody's tombstone. What's the point Again, find another hobby besides Clint Eastwood movies. And stay out of cemeteries, please.

 

[gleaner1]

Gleaner, trust me. You watch entirely too many movies. Get a grip... People don't bury gold coins under their own tombstones, and neither do their relatives. Would you? If your mama died tomorrow, would YOU bury gold coins under her tombstone? Sure, if you were NUTS! IF I had gold coins in my possession, I sure as heck wouldn't bury them under somebody's tombstone. What's the point Again, find another hobby besides Clint Eastwood movies. And stay out of cemeteries, please.

Okay Noodle, I'll stay out of the cemeteries. Even the one with 20k of gold coins in it.

 

[Noodle]

Thank you, Gleaner. Now don't go tipping over the stones now, either. Ya hear?

 

[gleaner1]

Noodle, I think I made it perfectly clear very early on in this thread that I am an anti-cemetery-metal-detecting type guy. Lay off please.

 

[artzstuff1]

DIG AND PILLAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ivan salis]

the "NO" do not do it again

 

[Snarkie]

Each state is different in its laws, regarding cemeteries on private land.

That out of the way, there is no reason to detect a cemetery, unless you have a "the Good, the Bad and the Ugly" clue that a grave is full of stolen gold. Uncle Hank was not buried with 15 pounds of silver coins and gold statues to ensure his place in the Afterlife.

 

[hugepossum]

Just don't dig 6 ft. deep over the graves, and you have my permission

This.

 

[steve from ohio]

Geesh...this particular topic is getting a bit old.....almost 7 months. Why was this dug up again? (pardon my pun)

 

[ivan salis]

THE NO THING AGAIN.....................................

 

[joeman]

Once you're dead,... you're DEAD, that's why no one comes BACK from 'The dead' (unless it's in a good book or a movie). If I was worried about someone stepping on my loved ones grave, I DEFINITELY wouldn't be burying them in the first place! Eventually, ALL graves are Forgotten as time passes and when the 'need for premium space' is required, existing Cemetery's and Grave-sites will also be filled in. Speaking of the ground,... the dead certainly don't mind if you take their things, cause if they did, a LOT OF YOU would already be CURSED or HAUNTED! And if you DO believe in such nonsense, think about this each and every time you pull out an even 'moderately old' ring, pendant or necklace and realize that it DID in fact belong to someone that did LOSE it! Think about that the next time you find a ring in the sand on a beach as you continue to convince yourself that it's a RING that someone LOST and not from someone that had DROWNED just days or even DECADES before..... Who's to say whether or not 'any' DEAD person's SOUL is stuck here still looking for that piece of JEWELERY that meant so much to them!! I'd HATE to be the one that found THAT particular momento!
Sound far fetched and ridiculous? Of course it does.... It's equal to, or lamer than the 'Stepping on a Grave' thing.

Anyway, having stated the above and in relation to the OP's question, I 'personally' would treat the GRAVEYARD as if it were private property and as such I would NOT detect even if given permission as each individual plot is indeed 'Private Property' and no ONE person (the cemetery keeper or whomever..) can give you permission on behalf of EVERY 'living person' who would now have 'claim' to each and every plot.

Cheers,