Hunting Cemeteries...whats your option

[DirtStalker]

Seems like hunting in and around cemeteries is sport for some. They can call it hunting "churches" all they want to try and justify it. My view is I might be damned for something but hunting in a cemetery isn't one of them. What is your view.

 

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[Terry Soloman]

...

 

[dirtwizard]

let the resting rest in peace is my motto. I want to spend as little time as possible in those places while I'm still alive.

 

[kcm]

Some cemeteries are private property, owned by one or more families/funeral homes. Some are city-owned. However, most of the individual plots in modern dealings are deeded lots owned by the family of the person buried there.

Even if there is nothing legal that stops you from hunting a particular cemetery, it is considered poor taste, much as you would see in the old western movies with how the Indians burial grounds were considered sacred. You may not end up with an arrow in your back, but you "might" end up with someone chasing you or turning you in - even if you aren't breaking any laws or rules.

Detect at your own peril.

 

[austin]

Ok to look, but that digging tool breaking the soil is a no no. Just poor judgement...

 

[Loco-Digger]

 

[BagLady]

Wrong, wrong, wrong. IMO.

 

[aa battery]

...

i must tell you that when yur gone yur gone. Now i will not MD a known cemetery cause i do have respect for the dead and the living. Years ago in Squaws Leap California my cousin and i were MDING and i found a strange spot. A flat area with no trees close to the San Joaquin river. As i entered the area i felt sick and my chest felt heavy so i headed back to the truck. Later we talked to the BLM man whose tribe was of that area and still live there. You got it we walked into an old Indian burial ground. Stay away you might bring something home as per Old Californian who use to be on this site years ago.

 

[cw0909]

Seems like hunting in and around cemeteries is sport for some. They can call it hunting "churches" all they want to try and justify it. My view is I might be damned for something but hunting in a cemetery isn't one of them. What is your view.

View attachment 1328697

ya no damnation here, agree leave it alone
those dang archies in 2000yrs ,will be hey
what the hey is up with this headstone
lets dig,so it may be put in context
but archie, page 444, says it is a common
headstone, depicts date of birth and death
and philosophical thoughts, about life........
archie want some water be right back

 

[Honest Samuel]

None of us want to face death before we have do. In the town where I live they build a senior center in from of a cemetery. Not for me.

 

[Deft Tones]

I never considered that there was an option to detecting cemetaries. I'm not opposed to it, but I never have either. I enjoy spending time in any cemetary. They are quiet, peaceful, beautiful. I make it a habit to visit one on my birthday for a few hours because I like them. I prefer to face and engage with my own mortality and that is what draws me to them...to meditate, not metal detect.

Decades ago, my grandfather cared for several small rural cemetaries outside Nevada, Mo., and when I was a young boy I'd help him mow, gather "wind-blown crap" people left behind, and I would eyeball lost belongings he'd let me keep sometimes. My wife used to be employed at a mausolem/crematorium... I'm a bit jaded I suppose.

If I ever saw someone popping trinkets with a screwdriver in a cemetary, I'd probably just wonder if they'll ever find what they are really searching for. Perhaps the treasures of self-reflection.

And it would not bother me.

 

[jadocs]

Stay away you might bring something home as per Old Californian who use to be on this site years ago.

So what happened? You can't leave us in suspense like that.

 

[Gold Maven]

I have heard stories of widows burying their wedding ring at their husband's grave years after his death, but I would never consider digging one up.
I have hunted the parking area of some old cemeteries, usually not much to find and some mean looks from little old Ladies.
there are too many other places to hunt imo.

 

[jeff of pa]

my Opinion is threads like this Never last long before they are Locked Or deleted. Even though you are not talking grave Robbery like the Archies do,
These discussions never go over well .
Because there will always be those who think even
passing gas at a cemetery will cause the World to decay,
& Locusts to swarm

my Personal opinion on the subject.
some things should be kept Private !

& Religion is not allowed here, So I won't make quotes.
But Casting stones & Judging others come to mind as reasons these threads disappear

 

[releventchair]

I have no interest in detecting a cemetery.
What was placed there,can stay as well as low odd drops.
Knew a guy who restored to a point forgotten ones. Surveying buried fence lines is not digging and was a use for his skills.
There are things that can be done ,like cleaning up any trash and natural debris and such but disturbing the ground ....nahhh. Plenty of other ground to detect.
Too ,were cemeteries fair game, those who dig manhole sized sloppy plugs that don't get replaced would turn up.
They do everywhere else.
Plots are owned ,thus permission required . The balance is owned too and despite my good nature ..were I asked permission it would result in a heck no.
Scratching in the dirt hobbyist's just don,t fit in with rest in peace.

 

[Captain Caveman]

I think cemeteries are strictly off limits.

 

[Coach Stack]

Going to go with no on that one, just out of respect.

 

[SusanMN]

Just no. Disrespectful of the dead, seriously creepy and one of those activities that puts the whole hobby in a bad light.

 

[Deft Tones]

My Grandfather taught me that cemeteries are for the living. Dead people don't care and only show up as a guest of honor. He also said (because I asked why we do this mowing and cleaning up) nobody gets more upset at an unkempt cemetery than the living...we just try to keep them happy, but no matter what we do they'll never be happy inside the fence until they are guests of honor too.

This was his attitude as a WWII combat vet. and sailor... I visited many a grave with him. He was hard, callous, yet kind enough if I kept in line.

Man....the memories.... good times in the cemetaries!

 

[gunsil]

When I was in elementary school around 1957 a large new housing development was put in in my tiny village almost doubling the population in a mere two years. As the developer expanded the project they bulldozed a fairly large cemetery (at least 90 graves with headstones) which turned out to be totally legal. Kids from the development brought bones and coffin name plates to class for show and tell. Do not think that all one's relatives will RIP forever, progress will win out in the end in many places. The cemetery referred to was around a hundred years old and all that was required to bulldoze it was for the developer to place ads in the papers asking if any relatives of the buried objected. Since there were no relatives left in the area and nobody objected the place was dug up and tract housing installed. I would not hunt a modern cemetery but would certainly not feel bad about hunting an ancient one that was going to face the bulldozer. There have been hundreds or thousands of small family cemeteries that have been paved or developed over as our human sprawl spreads across the face of the earth. Space for living people is so scarce in Europe that after so many years graves are dug up, the bones interred mumbo jumbo in catacombs, and newer dead buried in the same space.