metal detecting on gov land old house places

[Tom_in_CA]

daniel & last-leg, this is old post Last-leg, do you mean the fines alluded to in Cass's post #19 in this thread? If so, yes I see that he never (despite my asking him too) went into more detail on that. I had suspected (and thus asked for more info), that there simply must've been more to that story. Ie.: a place where a rule really existed (ie.: historic monument type places), someone sneaking around at night, or ... had been warned, etc....

He never came back to clarify.

 

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[Gork]

The rule of law on Federal land is simple. It is defined in the 1979 Archaeology Act. It is illegal to remove or disturb any artifact. There is a penalty of up to $250,000 and ten years in jail.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Gork, the fellow never said if this was "federal" vacant land (verses state, or county, or utility land, etc..).

And besides, ARPA is up for various interpretations (50 vs 100 yrs. old, etc...) and even some discussion as to whether "bullets and coins" are exempted anyhow (although, reading carefully, the "bullets and coins" they speak of can [admittedly] be seen in context as being those that are not "archaeologically signficant", etc...).

I hunt federal land near me, and have never had any problems (the decommissioned WWII military base, to use just one example). Even had the MP's approach me before, and they were only concerned that we stay out of the insides of the abandoned buildings, period.

 

[funkapotamus]

The fact that we even need to have this debate is a joke. Coal companies blast whole mountains down, logging companies are deforesting the planet, and I cant even list all the crap the oil companies are doing. Yet we have to worry about digging a 4-8 inch hole in the middle of the forest. Animals dig holes all the time for nests, storing food, etc. are they disturbing nature? Is the human being not considered part of nature anymore?