Got out for a few hours today with my buddy DAP, Got a half cent today...............

[therick]

[attachment 219563 park.jpg] This is Robles Park just north of downtown Tampa. Elson, you may remember this area as you and I hit it one time when you were down for a visit. Coins here are really deep. I think that they may have dumped fill here when they widened the interstate back in the 70's. Just a guess though. Rumor has it that Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders camped here just prior to being shipped out to Cuba during the Spanish / American war of 1898. Of course it gets detected a lot but DAP had his new AT PRO and we wanted to give her a good hard test and this was a good area for it. I was impressed with the unit.

[attachment 219564 park2.jpg] I was digging "iffy" signals prefering to try for quality over quantity so my take wasn't much. The half cent is under the Master Lock LOL ! Please no hate mail. The New York pendant has the World Trade Centers on it so it must have been there for a while. One wheat penny, '52d, dug at another park that we hit briefly. It froze again over night but had to lose the sweat shirt around 11 am. Turned out to be a beautiful day in the 60's. A bad day digging is better than a good day at work.

therick

 

[Craig in Alabama]

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[scubadetector]

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[Bobbie]

I know for sure you can't dig in state parks.

 

[therick]

I hunt Ft. Desoto Park all of the time and it's a state Park on the National Registry. You have to have a Metal Detector Permit, which is free, and the rangers ask that you check in when you come into the park so that they know you are there if someone complains. I usually don't even check in. The Rangers there are great and even keel and will even wave or ask if you've "found anything good lately?" You just have to stay our of the camping areas, usually safe from the sand dunes out into the water as far as you like. City parks have never been a problem. In the 35+ years I've been doing it I've never been questioned. Of course I haven't hunted all over Florida so I'm sure you'll have your little dictators here and there but so far I haven't run into any of them.

 

[charlie (ky)]

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[Elson(La)]

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[Elson(La)]

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[Elson(La)]

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[Magyar]

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[Ed SW Fla]

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[Tom_in_CA]

Bobbie, for starters, when someone says "I thought it was illegal to dig in parks....." think about it: the real issue is not "digging" anyhow, is it? Because what's the obvious implication the word "digging"? Holes and messes, right? The END result is what's at stake. But sure: if you walk into ANY city hall in ANY town in ANY state, and waltz up to city hall and say "Hi, I was wondering if I could dig in the city park turf?" What do you think they are going to say? So naturally, you don't ask in that way, nor couch your activity in some sort of destructive implications, to begin with. Because let's face it: if you ask enough questions, of enough bureaucrats, you can eventually find some to tell you that you can't even whistle dixie, or fly frisbees in parks.

Here's a true story to illustrate: In my town, we used to have a club in the late 1970s and through the '80s. In the early 1980s, at one of our club meetings, the usual show & tell portion of the meeting was going on. One fellow held up an old silver coin, and told the audience "found in Central Park". Now mind you, the parks in our town were just considered open. No one had ever had a problem, and they had simply been detected since ... for as long as anyone remembered (since the dawn of detectors even in the 1960s, I suppose). However, a visitor to his first meeting, raised his hand in objection: "I thought metal detecting was illegal in the parks here?" he said. Several of us in the room turned around, looked at him, and asked "since when?" and "who told you this?" (thinking perhaps there was some new policy we weren't aware of, or whatever). The newcomer explained that he had just moved to this city, and decided that before he metal detected, he'd better go down to city hall and ask if it's ok to do in the parks. Some desk clerk there, had apparently told him "no".

Do you get it? No one cared. It had never been a problem. Even in full view of anyone and everyone. Yet if you go down to city hall with a "pressing question" like that, perhaps you get some desk-bound clerk whose image is geeks with shovels. So she gives the easy answer of "no" (afterall, why should she be bothered??).

 

[Leslie(nova scotia)]

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[Ma Betty in MO]

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[Ma Betty in MO]

Well, Elson, maybe so....but unless we change who is in the White House....all rights will be taken away before we know it and then we'll be sayin' :What Happened? Be wise in what is going on in our nation's and states' government! Ma Betty

 

[Elson(La)]

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[Bobbie]

Treasure hunter Mel Fisher put that to work after he found millions of dollars in gold and jewels in the ocean. He staked his claims and put the whole thing in motion for limiting metal detecting in certain areas. There are laws in FL and I think it may depend on the county, that one cannot dig in the soil for artifacts. And any treasure found, the State of FL has a right to a certain percentage of it. Water hunting is permited, but off limits to any staked claims.

 

[Ma Betty in MO]

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[Tom_in_CA]

well now you're talking about actual real laws, specifically stating "no metal detecting". That's a different thing altogether. Sure, if there's potentially an actual real rule, then by all means, obey it. But this is QUITE different than walking up to a bureaucrat (city, county, state, or federal), and asking "can I metal detect?" They might say "no", when in fact no real rule exists. And if you say "but where is that written?", they can merely say "because I think it violates digging rules", or whatever.

To find out if there's really rules prohibiting metal detecting (instead of leaving it up to the interpretational whims of some bored deskbound clerk), the way to find out is to look it up for oneself. The city, county, state, and federal laws are going to be on the websites of those entities, right? Do a key word search on "metal detecting" and "metal detectors", etc.... If it is silent on the matter, then so be it

 

[Ed SW Fla]

Mel Fisher's company went through a legal process years ago to secure exclusive "UNDERWATER" salvage rights in the areas where he, at that time, thought would be treasure to recover. Part of this legal process is to agree on the terms and conditions of the exclusivity, assignment of such exclusivity, and the percentage share Florida would receive, and how it would be audited, valued and received. His company may also have dry land salvage rights as well in some areas but I don't think so. If he did, that beach would be posted.

As an example, he has underwater rights to search for treasure off of the beaches along the coast at Fort Pierce (and other areas). You can in fact detect the dry sand beaches and wet sand beach so long as the search coil and the person doing the searching is not underwater. If it's under the waves or water, it belongs to his company.

That's why immediately after big storms like hurricanes, you will see hundreds of folks detecting the dry and wet sand in those "treasure coast" areas finding and keeping what they find. None will be in the water unless they are unaware of the law. I detected one of those beaches and was in shallow water and was asked nicely by a park ranger to leave the water and detect dry or wet sand only up to the vegetation line. He then nicely explained why. If someone chooses to argue with a ranger or police officer, about detecting in the water, I believe they have the authority to confiscate all equipment including personal vehicles, fine you, and put you in jail.

Naturally they prefer to ask nicely that you leave the water unless you are swimming (without a detector).

I have a friend who does marine salvage, demolition, and construction. He was (is) in the legal process he described as suing the State of Florida for treasure salvage rights. The last we spoke, he was not going to proceed because he was wanting to recover a pirate ship in a local bay / harbor in 12' of water and the state's demands would be too expensive without additional information as to the value of possible treasure on the site.

What Florida demanded was for him to erect a sea wall around the recovery area, pump it dry, then process the bot ton sand / mud, etc, on a barge then replace the bottom sand mud back like it was before he dug it up. Then he was going to have to remove all trace of the sea wall. This would have cost millions of dollars. What brought the site to his attention was a single silver sand ingot a diver had found.

The only Florida beach I'm aware of that does not allow detecting is on Cape Canaveral property. It is a restricted area and they don't want anyone digging up exploded rocket / satellite parts.