Az. Meteorites belong to Goverment!!!!!!

[Rawhide]

Well just talked to a guy who runs tours for Meteorite hunting in Northern Arizona. So not saying your full of it. I only know of one guy who got a ticket for dredging, not by park rangers, but by the EPA. All the Rangers I have talked to were friendly, and helpful. But I dont normally walk around with a detector in my hand all day either. You would never know I have one with me till I pulled it out. What I have seen is massive piles of commercial garbage dumped, shell casing and camp trash, and bad people doing bad things out there. If anything we need more Rangers. Im sure there are plenty of property owners who would agree. I see no harm with a one man operation using simple tools to dig as many holes as he wants. But there is rules for certain areas, and I wouldn't want to be caught and made a example. I dont care for politic bashing. This is a treasure forum. I suggest you seek out and talk with a archy also, they are not the devil. You may learn a thing or two. Since there is sites that collect data on Meteorites, and places that still buy them. I would say you just being argumentative here. Go out and have fun. But check with the owner or park ranger first thats all. Dont make it so hard.

 

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[Treasure_Hunter]

Meteorites

In the United States, meteorites are the property of the person upon whose land they are found. If a meteorite is found on Federal lands, meteorites are not a locatable mineral as defined by the 1872 Mining Law. Instead, under the provisions of the 1906 Antiquities Act, meteorites found on Federally administered lands belong to the Smithsonian Institution [People of the State of California vs Giles W. Mead etal (618 F.2d 618)]. The collection of rocks and minerals within National Parks is generally prohibited.

Rockhounding on Public Land Oregon/Washington BLM

If caught rangers may or may not decide to enforce the law or even care about the law, but if they wish they can.... I would be "just looking for gold or silver ore sir."

 

[hvacker]

I suspected when a program like Meteorite Men was aired and they bragged about values it wouldn't be long before some decided to try to stop the collecting. All interested should read the 1906 Antiquities Act and see how some have tried to squeeze all collecting of anything into the language. I live in a State (NM) that sometimes seems the whole place is BLM designated. While corporates, some foreign, ravage so called public lands for profit the heavy hand of the law falls on who? The guy that picks up a rock, pans for metals, or finds something while kicking up dust.
Meteorite values also depend on the name of the fall so to say it was found in my yard doesn't help it's value or history. If meteorites had little value no one would care. If people like us weren't allowed to search, meteorites would never be found let along recognised.
I think we need another addition to our Constitunal Ammendents, The Right to be left alone.