MD/digging laws

[YoungBlood]

Does anybody know the md/digging laws in Harpers Ferry WV?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

Does anybody know the md/digging laws in Harpers Ferry WV?

Looking at the size of your burg on the map, probably nothing mentioning "metal detectors" there. You can check for yourself though: look at the city or county website, word-search "metal detectors", etc.... if nothing comes up, well then it must not be addressed

But as per "digging", depending on the variants you're thinking of ("alter" "destroy" "remove" "vandalize", etc.....) then sure, I bet there IS something there preventing you from "destructing parks". Thus if you make the automatic equivalence that "md'ing = destruction", then sure, stay home. However, if you plan to leave no trace of your presence (since those terms inherently apply to end results) then ..... have a ball.

 

[White Akuma]

Old Harpers Ferry would probabley be an amazing spot to try due to all the civil war activity there. Went there one time long ago for the ghost tour in October. Got to see some of the excavated rifles from the fire house or scholl house (can't remember which) that was burned around the time John Brown's uprising was going on there. Pretty sure digging in Historic town limits would be a no-no, but if you could find a landowner with close property lines or sharing the river banks to or from it would be a superb spot to start. Good luck, and can't wait to see some more Wv pics on here, lol.

 

[YoungBlood]

Made good friends with the Harpers Ferry National Historic Park's vista, and apparently all close landowners don't let people on their property because the park can get a paper saying they own all relics in and on your land.

 

[New Orleans Relic]

Made good friends with the Harpers Ferry National Historic Park's vista, and apparently all close landowners don't let people on their property because the park can get a paper saying they own all relics in and on your land.

Wow! They would actually rather have it rot to rust to dust in the ground, than have it dug. What I read.

 

[YoungBlood]

They do it because people dig things up and then it disappears because people forget where they got it or they sell it. When this happens it ruins the archeological importance.

 

[Jason in Enid]

They do it because people dig things up and then it disappears because people forget where they got it or they sell it. When this happens it ruins the archeological importance.

Just the lies they they tell to try to convince people of their "we own it all" mentality.

 

[Shambler]

They do it because people dig things up and then it disappears because people forget where they got it or they sell it. When this happens it ruins the archeological importance.

If this was true, they'd just ask to document it - like in England. Each county has a person responsible for documenting THEN RETURNING all relics.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

If this was true, they'd just ask to document it - like in England. Each county has a person responsible for documenting THEN RETURNING all relics.

Shambler, I'm afraid it's not that easy. You know, the answer you give is akin to this:

" what? history is not lost. Anyone can simply come to my house and see it on my mantle place. And gee, I'll even tell you how deep it was, etc..."

Do you really think, that in the current bureaucratic nightmares of govt. work-loads, that they want to introduce yet more departments, specialists, etc... who go around cataloging all your coins and horseshoes you find? The LAST thing they have, is more money to go around implementing more departments to cottle to such a small niche as us. It would simply never happen. They simply can't run around, nor police it, etc....

England is an entirely different thing, that just evolved that way, from the beginning. And I don't know if you're aware of it, but the type things they must "delare" (which are then studied and catologued by archies, bought from the finder, etc....) are only very rare and/or valuable things. So for example, it would only be something like caches, statues, etc.... So even if you found a gold coin over there, they would not have to "turn it in", etc... But heck, just try for a minute doing that over here, and going out and finding bullets, coins, etc... at Shiloh. Even though it's "just one bullet" or "just one buckle", to us in the USA (with relatively little history) something 100 or 200 yrs. old is OLD to us (and we have entire historical monuments built around such things that might only be 200 yr. old!). But over in England, heck, 300 to 500 yr old coins are oft-times just thrown in the junk jar. And even in England, their system STILL does not allow you to hunt in their "scheduled" sites.

So, to try to say the England thing would work here (as some sort of proof that they really aren't concerned about archaeological importance) simply doesn't logically follow.