Gene in AL: I'll be the "devil's advocate" and give you the archaeologist's answer to your question. While it may seem silly to prohibit the recovery of an item that's buried in the ground, and no one knows is there, they have their logic. Even though it's doing no one any good there, and won't be missed, since it basically (in your mind) "didn't exist" since it was un-known, and (in your mind) never to be seen unless dug, yet here is their logic: Someday, even if it's hundreds, or thousands of years from now, some FUTURE archaeologist *might* do an archaeological pit right there. And if Gene in AL, back in the year 2010 dug up that mercury dime, then you have "robbed" it from future generation's abilities to have it to interpret their past.
Yup. I kid you not. This is what they would say. And if you do the math at the size of the average archaeological pit (a few feet square around) and the time it takes them to do a few pits (all summer long for a few test pits in a single spot), you can see that it would take MILLIONS of years for them to do even a single square mile, much less even a single national park. You simply can't dig up every square inch of land. Even the most aggressive well-funded university archaeology dept's scarcely do a few pits, here and there, at just a few sacred spots. Why would they even begin to do boring campgrounds, or just remote back-country, etc....? They won't. But in their way of thinking, 10000 years from now, someone in the future might want to, somewhere on public land.
And while this still seems silly, to them (a lawmaker on ANY subject) it's like the old camel with his nose in the tent story: If they agree "well gee, shucks, it certainly can't hurt if you do it over there, but just don't tromp around this one little historical part of our park", you can guess what will happen: They will spend all their time negotiating over exactly where, and where you can't, detect. So guess what the easier solution is? To just say "no detecting at all".
But this is all so silly. Although you can find dry dusty rules to tell you such things, my experience is that most of the time, as long as you're not nosing around archaeologically sensitive historical monuments, no one cares. For example: If you were to read the state of CA's state park's rules, or ask enough Q's of enough archie's here, I'm sure you could find some "no's". But oddly, I know of state parks here that are routinely detected, and no one cares. But I bet if you asked around enough, you'd be told "no" (some ranger who previously never gave the matter thought, would be forced to look up your "pressing question" I suppose). I've also hunted at old abandoned military bases (federal property) right in front of MP's and BLM people, and they never seemed to care. And this reality makes me wonder if this isn't the same in other states. Ie.: sometimes no one cares till you ask (barring if you were being a nuisance, or snooping around obvious historical monuments.)
stupid rules
