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Bart
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« on: September 24, 2007, 08:01:02 AM »
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Metal Detecting 'Laws' in the United States
While there are no State or Federal laws governing metal detecting specifically, there are laws that govern metal detecting, and any other recreation or hobby, on State and Federal land. The particulars of the laws affecting metal detecting are provided below. The key point here is lands owned or controlled by the government. Private lands are not subject to these laws. Permission to detect on private lands is a necessity to avoid trespassing violations, so you should always ask permission.
Bart
This federal law goes all the way back to 1906
The ARPA law was updated in 1979. ARPA of 1979 The American Antiquities Act of 1906 was passed to protect the relics and artifacts that lay below ground from being dug up by armchair historians, relic hunters, or anyone who enjoys the outdoors.
This law is not a metal detecting law. But you must obey it.
The Antiquities Law Reads as Follows;
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any person who shall appropriate, excavate, injure, or destroy any historic or prehistoric ruin or monument, or any object of antiquity, situated on lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States, without the permission of the Secretary of the Department of the Government having jurisdiction over the lands on which said antiquities are situated, shall, upon conviction, be fined in a sum of not more than five hundred dollars or be imprisoned for a period of not more than ninety days, or shall suffer both fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.
And if ARPA wasn�t enough, in 1966 another federal law the National Historic Preservation Act was passed with the intent to protect our cultural resources. I quote that law here:
National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 � This act supplements the provisions of the Antiquities Act of 1906. The law makes it illegal to destroy, excavate or remove information from Federal or Indian lands any archeological resources without a permit from the land manager. Permits may be issued only to educational or scientific institutions and only if the resulting activities will increase knowledge about archeological resources. Regulations for the ultimate disposition of materials recovered as a result of permitted activities state that archeological resources excavated on public lands remain the property of the United States. Archaeological resources excavated from Indian lands remain the property of the Indian or Indian tribe having rights of ownership over such resources.
In 1979 the ARPA law (Archaeological Resources Protection Act) was passed to read as follows:
The Archaeological Resources Protection Act Of 1979
The term "archaeological resource" means any material remains of past human life or activities which are of archaeological interest, as determined under uniform regulations promulgated pursuant to this chapter. Such regulations containing such determination shall include, but not be limited to: pottery, basketry, bottles, weapons, weapon projectiles, tools, structures or portions of structures, pit houses, rock paintings, rock carvings, intaglios, graves, human skeletal materials, or any portion or piece of any of the foregoing items. Nonfossilized and fossilized paleontological specimens, or any portion or piece thereof, shall not be considered archaeological resources, under the regulations under this paragraph, unless found in archaeological context. No item shall be treated as an archaeological resource under regulations under this paragraph unless such item is at least 100 years of age.
No person may excavate, remove, damage, or otherwise alter or deface, or attempt to excavate, remove, damage, or otherwise alter or deface any archaeological resource located on public lands or Indian lands unless such activity is pursuant to a permit issued under section 470cc of this title, a permit referred to in section 470cc(h)(2) of this title, or the exemption contained in section 470cc(g)(1) of this title.
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