Metal Detecting in Pennsylvania

1. The rule, in full

Pennsylvania – 17 Pa. Code 11.209(a) and the DCNR detecting policy

Read from the Pennsylvania Code (pacodeandbulletin.gov, "changes effective through 56 Pa.B. 5370 (August 8, 2026)"): 17 Pa. Code chapter 11, every live section, and chapter 21 sections 21.101, 21.115, 21.122 and 21.123; 58 Pa. Code chapter 135. DCNR policy read from pa.gov. Title 37 read from the consolidated statutes PDFs on palegis.us, chapters 1 and 5. Chapter 11 and the policy checked 21 Sep 2026; the rest read 16 Oct 2026.

Pennsylvania answers the detecting question in three different places for three different land classes, and the statute behind all of them is Title 37.

There is no metal detecting provision in Pennsylvania's state park regulations. None of 11.201 to 11.224 mentions a metal detector. The provisions that govern:

Operative text, 11.209(a):

"The following activities are prohibited without written permission of the Department: (1) Engaging in construction or excavation. … (8) Removing or disturbing an historical or archeological artifact, relic or object."

Scope, 11.202(a): "This chapter applies to State parks." 11.201 defines "State park" as "An area under the jurisdiction of the Department acquired or administered as a park" under the Conservation and Natural Resources Act.

Determination: DCNR state parks only. Does NOT reach municipal parks.

The detecting rule is DCNR policy. The Department publishes:

"The reasonable use of metal detectors is permitted in many state parks. However, metal detecting is not permitted where this activity would conflict with a facility in use, nor is it permitted within fenced areas of swimming pool complexes."

"Individuals who want to use a metal detector in a state park must receive prior approval from the specific park manager on-site at the park and report items which are found and will be removed from the park."

"Shovels, spades, garden trowels, and other similar tools may not be used to dig into or turn over ground areas that are covered by turf, vegetation, shrubs, or trees. The only permissible digging tools are screwdrivers, ice picks, and other similar narrow pronged devices."

Beaches and lake swimming areas are open "from the Tuesday after Labor Day until the Saturday prior to Memorial Day, unless posted otherwise", and at the manager's discretion in summer. Hours are sunrise to sunset, there is no fee, and "State park areas with this potential may have part or all of their area closed to metal detecting."

As with Florida, the page quotes the policy as policy and the regulation as the regulation.

State forests carry the same two prohibitions in a different chapter

17 Pa. Code chapter 21 governs State forest land, and it never mentions a metal detector either. Two of its provisions do the work:

21.122(a), "Other prohibitions":

"The following activities are prohibited without written permission of the Department: … (2) Removing or disturbing historical or archeological resources. … (6) Excavating."

21.115(a), "Natural resources":

"The following activities are prohibited without written permission of the Department: … (2) Removing rocks, shale, sand, clay, soil or other mineral products. (3) Removing peat, bark, mulch, pine straw or other natural resources."

So the state forest position matches the state park position almost exactly, and by the same mechanism: not a ban, but a written-permission requirement from the Department, attaching to excavation and to removing an artifact. The one difference is that the state park rule puts both in a single section while the forest chapter splits them, and 21.115 adds soil and mineral products in terms the park rule does not use.

Penalty, 21.123:

"Engaging in activity prohibited under §§ 21.104-21.109 and 21.112-21.122 constitutes a summary offense under section 7506 of the Crimes Code (relating to violation of rules regarding conduct on Commonwealth property)."

Note which sections that list covers: 21.115 and 21.122 are both inside it.

Game Commission land: a removal rule that names artifacts

Pennsylvania's third big public land class is State Game Lands, which the Game Commission runs under 58 Pa. Code, not 17 Pa. Code.

Scope, 135.1: "This chapter regulates and controls the use and administration of lands, waters and buildings under Commission ownership, lease or jurisdiction."

135.2, "Unlawful actions":

"In addition to the prohibitions in the act on lands, waters or buildings under Commission ownership, lease, agreement, control or jurisdiction, it is unlawful, except with the permission of the person in charge of the lands, or the written permission of the Director to: … (6) Remove or attempt to remove any manmade or natural object except wildlife and fish lawfully taken. Objects which may not be removed include animals, rocks, minerals, sand and historical or archaeological artifacts."

Again a permission route rather than a flat ban, and again the permission is the land manager's: "the person in charge of the lands, or the written permission of the Director".

The statute: Title 37, and the two limbs of its offence

37 Pa.C.S. 506(a), the reservation:

"The Commonwealth reserves the exclusive right to conduct archaeological field investigations on archaeological resources owned or controlled by it, in order to protect and preserve archaeological specimens and information. The specimens and information shall remain the property of the Commonwealth and shall be utilized for scientific and public educational purposes."

506(d) lets the commission issue permits for field investigations "if the investigation is undertaken with the purpose of disseminating the knowledge gained", which is a research test rather than a hobby route.

37 Pa.C.S. 511, in full, because the two halves do different work:

"A person who conducts a field investigation on any land or submerged land owned or controlled by the Commonwealth, without first obtaining a permit from the commission, or a person who appropriates, defaces, destroys or otherwise alters any archaeological site or specimen located upon lands owned or controlled by the Commonwealth, except in the course of activities pursued under the authority of a permit granted by the commission, commits a misdemeanor of the third degree and shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to pay a fine of not more than $2,500 or to imprisonment for not more than one year, or both. In addition, such person shall forfeit to the Commonwealth all archaeological specimens collected or excavated together with any photographs and records relating to such specimens."

The first limb is narrower than it looks and the second is wider. Title 37's definitions settle both:

"Archaeological field investigation." "Extensive controlled excavation of an archaeological site to study the cultural history using professionally accepted means of sampling, removing and excavating archaeological specimens, also known as phase three archaeological research or data recovery."

"Archaeological specimens." "All artifacts, remains, objects or any other evidence of historic, prehistoric or anthropological value, whether found above or below the surface of the earth."

So the permit limb describes professional-scale data recovery, and a detectorist digging a plug is not conducting a phase three excavation. The second limb needs no excavation at all: appropriating a specimen on Commonwealth land is enough, and a specimen is any object of historic value found above or below the surface. That is the limb that reaches a detectorist, and it carries the same third-degree misdemeanour, the same $2,500 and year, and forfeiture of everything collected along with the photographs and records.

37 Pa.C.S. 512 lets "The Attorney General, the commission, any political subdivision, person or other legal entity" bring an action for the protection of any historic resource in the Commonwealth.

The statute does not reach municipal land, and the definitions are why. Title 37 defines "Public officials" as "Officers, agents and employees of the Federal Government, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, or any of its political subdivisions" – so the drafters distinguished the two whenever they meant to include both. 506(a) and 511 say "owned or controlled by the Commonwealth" and stop there. On city land the History Code imposes a duty to cooperate on the city, 507, and nothing on the detectorist.

Private land is not addressed by Title 37 at all, beyond 510's review of construction affecting historic resources. The chapter creates no permission requirement and no reporting duty for a finder on private ground.

Determination: on DCNR state parks a detector needs the park manager's prior approval under published policy, and removing an artifact or excavating needs the Department's written permission under 11.209(a). On State forest land the same two permissions are required under 21.122(a)(2) and (6), a summary offence to break. On State Game Lands removing a historical or archaeological artifact needs the permission of the person in charge or the Director's written permission, 58 Pa. Code 135.2(6). Statewide, appropriating an archaeological specimen on land owned or controlled by the Commonwealth is a third-degree misdemeanour under 37 Pa.C.S. 511, up to $2,500 and a year, with forfeiture of everything collected. None of these reaches municipal parks or private land.

Sources: pacodeandbulletin.gov 17 Pa. Code 11.201-11.224 and 21.101, 21.115, 21.122, 21.123; 58 Pa. Code chapter 135; pa.gov DCNR State Parks metal detecting page; palegis.us Title 37 chapters 1 and 5 (PDF). Chapter 11 and the policy checked 21 Sep 2026; chapters 21 and 135 and Title 37 read 16 Oct 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

2. Cities in Pennsylvania that publish a rule

2 cities in Pennsylvania publish a rule we can quote, out of 70 checked.

Of the 70 checked, 32 had pages on the city’s own site that we found and read. For the other 38 we could not locate a municipal source, so nothing is claimed about them either way.

3. County rules

County rules exist in Pennsylvania, and they govern county land only. 6 county rules surfaced while checking cities in this state. Each was read and then set aside, because a county park rule does not answer whether a city park allows detecting, and it is not the state rule either. They are listed because their existence is the useful fact: if you are in a county park, a separate rule probably applies to you.

0 of these 6 name their county in the text that was read; the rest name only “county park” or “county parks”, so the source is given instead of a county name. A county is never inferred from a web address.

4. Cities checked - no published rule

68 cities in Pennsylvania were checked and have no published rule on this page. Of those, 62 returned no rule, and 6 did return something that has not been published – mostly rules that turned out to govern county land, which are in the county section above. A city here is not a city where detecting is allowed. It is a city whose own published material did not answer the question.

All 68 were checked on 13 September 2026, in one sweep, so that date applies to every row. 2 have no municipal site recorded and are shown without a link rather than dropped, because dropping them would understate what was checked.

5. Land this page does not cover

This page answers for Pennsylvania state land, and for city and county land where the state rule reaches it. Several other kinds of ground are not covered here, and naming them is more honest than letting a reader assume the page is complete.

Tribal land. This directory does not cover it, and will not.

There are 574 federally recognised tribal nations. Each is a sovereign jurisdiction with its own law, its own permitting, its own enforcement and its own cultural-resource provisions, and none of them is answered by a state's code or by any federal rule quoted on these pages. A one-line instruction to "get tribal permission" would be worse than this paragraph, because it implies one process and one authority where there are 574. If you are on or near tribal land, the governing law is that nation's, and the place to ask is that nation's own offices. Nothing on this page applies there.

BLM land is covered, partly, in its own place. The Bureau of Land Management holds about 245 million acres and the federal rule names metal detectors and permits them, which is the opposite of the national park rule. See BLM land: the detector is named, and permitted. That page covers the base regulation; it does not yet cover the supplementary rules individual BLM State Directors issue for particular field offices.

Named and not examined. These are recorded so their absence is visible rather than silent. No claim is made about any of them:

• Military withdrawn land, including ranges and training areas.
• Bureau of Reclamation land, which surrounds a great many reservoirs.
• Water district and irrigation district land.
• Wilderness, Wilderness Study Areas and National Conservation Areas, which carry designations of their own. And one general point about signs. The commonest piece of reasoning in this subject is "there was no sign, so it was allowed." Arizona's State Land Department answers it in writing, in condition 2 of its own Recreational Permit terms:

"You will comply with all laws, rules, regulations and ordinances. Posting is not required for these provisions to be enforceable."

That is Arizona's sentence about Arizona's provisions and this directory does not present it as the law of any other state. But the proposition it states is the one to carry: nothing read for this project makes a published rule's enforceability depend on a sign at the boundary. Where posting does matter, a specific provision says so, and that provision is quoted on the page where it occurs.