Metal Detecting in Texas
Metal Detector's Code of Ethics
I WILL always check federal, state, county and local laws before searching.
I WILL respect private property and do no metal detecting without the owner's permission.
I WILL fill all holes and excavations.
I WILL appreciate and protect our heritage of natural resources, wildlife and private property.
I WILL use thoughtfulness, consideration and courtesy at all times.
I WILL leave gates as found.
I WILL remove and properly dispose of any trash that I find.
I WILL NOT litter.
I WILL NOT destroy property, buildings or what is left of ghost towns and deserted structures.
I WILL NOT tamper with signs, structural facilities or equipment.
Where can you use your detector in Texas ?
CORP OF ENGINEER LAKES, SHORELINE, AND LANDS- Permission has been granted only on pre-disturbed site, such as beaches and attached swimming areas. Metal detecting at new Corp lakes and lands must be approved by the District Office of the Army Corp of Engineers. Each area of the state has a district office.
CITY OR COUNTY PARKLAND- Most are open to metal detecting unless notice is given by a sign or city ordinance. This can be checked by contacting the Parks and Recreation
- The Antiquities Code of Texas
- Although there are no laws specifically aimed at metal detecting in Texas, the Antiquities Code of Texas specifically aims to protect exactly what metal detectors detect.
After treasure hunters searched a sunken Spanish ship off the Texas coast in the 1960s and took many artifacts, the Texas Historical Commission, or THC, sprang into action and passed the Antiquities Code of Texas. According to the THC, this code protects historical buildings and archeological sites. Under this code, any agency or person intending to disturb at least 5,000 cubic yards of earth must first notify the THC.
- According to metal detector enthusiast Frank W. Pandozzi, it is an offense to take, remove, destroy or deface any artifact or cultural feature without permit. Pandozzi explains that if a person is detecting in Texas, he cannot dig up and take anything believed to be an artifact or anything more than 100 years old. This law is waived if the detection takes place on private land and the detector is given express permission by the land owner to find artifacts.
State Parks and Schools
- According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, it is an offense for a person to operate a metal detector in a Texas state park unless he is authorized by permit. This also applies to national forests and federal lands, according to Broken Detector.
The legality of metal detecting on school property depends on whether or not the school is public or private. A person can use a metal detector on public school grounds unless there is a written notice displayed prohibiting it. However, private schools, colleges and academies require that a person acquires permission from the school before using a metal detector.
- Although there are no laws specifically aimed at metal detecting in Texas, the Antiquities Code of Texas specifically aims to protect exactly what metal detectors detect.
PUBLIC SCHOOL GROUNDS- Most all are open to metal detecting unless notice is given by a sign, city ordinance, law enforcement, or school employee. You should check with the school office first. Never hunt school grounds during school hours or when students are present. Likewise, do not use shovels, knives or other sharp pointed recovery tools on school property.
PRIVATE SCHOOLS, COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES- You must acquire permission!! You can check with their office first. These should be viewed as private property. The same cautions as those that apply to public school property apply here as well.
PRIVATELY OWNED LAND (PRIVATE PROPERTY)- You must acquire permission!! Permission should come from the landowner. Also it is best to have that permission in writing.
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT (BLM) LANDS- Some areas of their lands are open for use of metal detecting, and some are not. Contact the local BLM district office for the area you wish to hunt.
Federal Agencies that have a specific Metal Detecting Regulation
Agency: Army Corps of Engineers
Website: http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title36/36tab_02.tpl
Law: Title 36: Parks, Forests, and Public Property
CHAPTER III--CORPS OF ENGINEERS, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY Webpage
§ 327.14 Public property.
(a) Destruction, injury, defacement, removal or any alteration of public property including, but not limited to, developed facilities, natural formations, mineral deposits, historical and archaeological features, paleontological resources, boundary monumentation or markers and vegetative growth, is prohibited except when in accordance with written permission of the District Commander.
(b) Cutting or gathering of trees or parts of trees and/or the removal of wood from project lands is prohibited without written permission of the District Commander.
(c) Gathering of dead wood on the ground for use in designated recreation areas as firewood is permitted, unless prohibited and posted by the District Commander.
(d) The use of metal detectors is permitted on designated beaches or other previously disturbed areas unless prohibited by the District Commander for reasons of protection of archaeological, historical or paleontological resources. Specific information regarding metal detector policy and designated use areas is available at the Manager's Office. Items found must be handled in accordance with §§ 327.15 and 327.16 except for non-identifiable items such as coins of value less than $25.
Agency: Bureau of Land Management
Website: http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/info/iac/metal_detecting.html
Law: Metal detecting is a recreational activity that people do to find coins, jewelry, and precious metals. Metal detecting is allowed on BLM lands as long as no artifacts are removed. Artifacts should be left alone and reported to the appropriate Field Office. Avoid all cultural and archeological sites. The Metal Detecting enthusiast may remove some rocks (handful) from areas such as picnic areas, campground areas, and recreational sites. The enthusiasts may remove some rocks as long as there not being removed from another mining claim. Mining claims can be researched on the LR2000 (http://www.blm.gov/lr2000). Enthusiasts are only allowed to make minimal surface disturbance (i.e. removing a couple of stones for memories).
Agency: Bureau of Reclamation
Website: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2008-title43-vol1/pdf/CFR-2008-title43-vol1-sec423-27.pdf
Law: Section 423.29 Natural and Cultural Resources
(f) You must not possess a metal detector or other geophysical discovery device, or use a metal detector or other geophysical discovery techniques to locate or recover subsurface objects or features, except:
(1) When transporting, but not using a metal detector or other geophysical discovery device in a vehicle on a public road as allowed under applicable Federal, state and local law, or:
(2) As allowed by permit issued pursuantto subpart D of this 423.
Agency: National Forests
Website: http://www.fs.fed.us/outernet/r9/cnnf/rec/heritage/metal_detectors.html
Law: The Use of Metal Detectors on National Forest Land
The use of metal detectors has become a popular hobby for many people. Here is direction on how or when metal detectors can be used on the Chequamegon-Nicolet.
Metal detector use is allowed in developed campgrounds and picnic areas if they are not specifically closed to such activity. If archaeological remains are known to exist in a campground or picnic area, a closure to metal detecting would be posted. It is permissible to collect coins, but prospecting for gold would be subject to mining laws. However, you should know that agencies have not identified every archaeological site on public lands, so it is possible you may run into such remains that have not yet been discovered. Archaeological remains on federal land, known or unknown, are protected under law. If you were to discover such remains, you should leave them undisburbed, stop metal detecting in that area, and notify the local FS office. I have included the legal citations below for your information.
The Forest Service has conducted numerous projects in conjuntion with metal detectorists and metal detecting clubs through our volunteer archaeological program, Passport In Time (PIT). The cooperation has been fun for both the detectorists and the agency's archaeologists. Locating archaeological sites becomes a joint endeavor and we learn a lot! You can receive the PIT Traveler, our free newsletter advertising the PIT projects each year, by calling 1-800-281-9176. Look for the ones where we request metal detecting expertise!
Here are the legal citations:
Code of Federal Regulations, 36 CFR 261.9: "The following are prohibited: (g) digging in, excavating, disturbing, injuring, destroying, or in any way damaging any prehistoric, historic, or archaeological resources, structure, site, artifact, or property. (h) Removing any prehistoric, historic, or archaeological resources, structure, site, artifact, property."
USDA Forest Service Manual Direction (draft): "Metal Detector Use. Metal detectors may be used on public lands in areas that do not contain or would not reasonably be expected to contain archaeological or historical resources. They must be used, however, for lawful purposes. Any act with a metal detector that violates the proscriptions of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) or any other law is prosecutable. Normally, developed campgrounds, swimming beaches, and other developed recreation sites are open to metal detecting unless there are heritage resources present. In such cases, Forest Supervisors are authorized to close these sites by posting notices in such sites."
ARPA, 16 U.S.C. 470cc: "No person may excavate, remove, damage, or otherwise alter or deface or attempt to excavate, remove, damage or otherwise alter or deface any archaeological resources located on public lands or Indianlands unless such activity is pursuant to a permit. . ."
For more information, contact Mark Bruhy, Supervisor's Office, 68 S. Stevens St., Rhinelander, WI 54501, 715-362-1361, or email [email protected].
Agency: National Parks, Monuments, Seashores, Forests, and Public Property
Website:
Law: Title 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property Website
PART 2RESOURCE PROTECTION, PUBLIC USE AND RECREATION
§ 2.1 Preservation of natural, cultural and archeological resources. Website Section
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, the following is prohibited:
(1) Possessing, destroying, injuring, defacing, removing, digging, or disturbing from its natural state:
(iii) Nonfossilized and fossilized paleontological specimens, cultural or archeological resources, or the parts thereof.
(iv) A mineral resource or cave formation or the parts thereof.
(3) Tossing, throwing or rolling rocks or other items inside caves or caverns, into valleys, canyons, or caverns, down hillsides or mountainsides, or into thermal features.
(5) Walking on, climbing, entering, ascending, descending, or traversing an archeological or cultural resource, monument, or statue, except in designated areas and under conditions established by the superintendent.
(6) Possessing, destroying, injuring, defacing, removing, digging, or disturbing a structure or its furnishing or fixtures, or other cultural or archeological resources.
(7) Possessing or using a mineral or metal detector, magnetometer, side scan sonar, other metal detecting device, or subbottom profiler.
This paragraph does not apply to:
(i) A device broken down and stored or packed to prevent its use while in park areas.
(ii) Electronic equipment used primarily for the navigation and safe operation of boats and aircraft.
(iii) Mineral or metal detectors, magnetometers, or subbottom profilers used for authorized scientific, mining, or administrative activities.
Agency: USC : Title 16 - Conservation
16 USC Chapter 1B - Archaeology Resources Protection
Website: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/16/chapter-1B
Law: 16 USC § 470ee - Prohibited acts and criminal penalties website
(a) Unauthorized excavation, removal, damage, alteration, or defacement of archaeological resources. 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.
(b) Trafficking in archaeological resources the excavation or removal of which was wrongful under Federal law No person may sell, purchase, exchange, transport, receive, or offer to sell, purchase, or exchange any archaeological resource if such resource was excavated or removed from public lands or Indian lands in violation of
(1)the prohibition contained in subsection (a) of this section, or
(2)any provision, rule, regulation, ordinance, or permit in effect under any other provision of Federal law.
(c) Trafficking in interstate or foreign commerce in archaeological resources the excavation, removal, sale, purchase, exchange, transportation or receipt of which was wrongful under State or local law. No person may sell, purchase, exchange, transport, receive, or offer to sell, purchase, or exchange, in interstate or foreign commerce, any archaeological resource excavated, removed, sold, purchased, exchanged, transported, or received in violation of any provision, rule, regulation, ordinance, or permit in effect under State or local law.
Attention Texas Property Owners
My small group of metal detectors is interested in hunting your farm/land. In return we will haul off any trash that we find; Wire, cans, pull tabs, bottles etc. We will always cover all holes that we dig and respect your land. We will also split finds with you. If you are interested please contact me for further details.
If you have an old home site and you would like to know whats in the ground give me a call.
In South Texas there were a number of small towns that sprang up in the 1900′s along the old SAU&G railroad. Many of these little towns, like New California, are non existent today. If you can locate them, and get permission from landowners, you may find historical objects. Some of my favorite places for treasure hunting with metal detectors in Texas are around old ruins and buildings in some of the little ghost towns below such as Los Angeles, Woodward, Prince and others. Try to locate their city dump, city parks or playgrounds, railroad depot, and schools.
During the Great Depression there was widely held mistrust of banks. Rural residents often buried a cache of silver or gold somewhere on the property as their “bank”. Often the chicken house was chosen, since the chickens would act as an “alarm” if anyone came near. I have not personally found any caches of gold or silver in this manner but have a metal detecting friend who found over $500 worth of silver dollars by searching around old chicken coops and barns with a metal detector.
Another good location for metal detecting in Texas are old battlegrounds. You can locate a few of them in the book below. During the war for Texas independence there were a number of skirmishes fought around the state. In these sites you can find musket balls and other historical objects.
Old town parking meters. A good spot to look for silver dimes and quarters is around old parking meters. It is often difficult to find a spot where digging is allowed but often coins can be found in the first half inch of earth at the edge of the sidewalk or in cracks around old parking meters. Carry a long tool such as a screwdriver to dig between the expansion joints in concrete sidewalks and return all of the earth you dig to its place once you are done. I’ve found a number of silver coins around the back streets of Austin Texas in this manner.
On the Gulf Coast, any public beach is usually good, but DO NOT take your detector to the National Seashore (Padre Island) or to any Texas State Park. A good place to look on the beach is anyplace the younger crowd gets together and plays football or volleyball.