Metal Detecting Rules by State

In a state park, AAC 220-5-.08(6) makes it unlawful to use any metal detection device without permission from the Park Manager – a conditional ban, not a flat one. Separately and across the whole state, Code of Alabama 1975 §§ 41-3-1 to 41-3-6 reserves exploring, excavating and surveying aboriginal mounds, earthworks and burial sites to the state's own officers, declares state ownership of any objects found in them, requires the landowner's consent for any excavation, and makes a contrary excavation a misdemeanour at up to $1,000 per offence, with no permit route and no reporting duty. On state-owned submerged land, 41-9-292 separately requires a Historical Commission permit for a cultural resource unclaimed over 50 years and National Register eligible or listed.

Allowed for recreation, and no special use permit is required. The Division said so in writing on 12 Oct 2026 and rewrote its FAQ, withdrawing a prohibition it could not find a regulation for. What limits you is general rather than detector-specific: 11 AAC 12.170 on natural objects, 11 AAC 12.175 on cultural material, plus park-specific closures and posted requirements. Alaska has no metal detector regulation at all.

Arizona State Parks does not allow it, as published policy. There is no regulation behind that – the state's park rules contain no metal detecting provision at all.

Only on the public swim beaches of nine named state parks, on a free registration form you carry with you, and only from the day after Labor Day to the weekend before Memorial Day, 8am to 5pm.

Each state park unit sets its own position, so there is no single statewide answer – check the unit you are going to.

Park manager's permission on state park land.

In a state park, removing earth or rock material is prohibited except as authorised by DEEP, so the hole is the problem rather than the detector, and the only written-permission route is for scientific or educational work. Separately, disturbing an archaeological site on any state land or a designated preserve needs a permit from the Department of Economic and Community Development. Connecticut counts anything fifty years or older as archaeological, and that is a definition rather than a reporting duty or a claim of state ownership.

Prohibited on Division of Parks and Recreation land except during normal park hours on ocean beaches east of the dune line, 9201 section 3.6.1, and possessing digging tools there is prima facie evidence of an offence. The statute is wider: 7 Del. C. 5305(a) puts title to every archaeological resource on state land under the State's exclusive domain, 5308 requires a Division permit before anything is excavated or removed, and only a professionally qualified person may apply. An archaeological resource is at least 50 years old and of archaeological interest, 5304(c), and surface collection counts as an archaeological investigation, 5304(b). Penalty $1,000 to $10,000 or up to 30 days with each day a separate offence, 5312(e). Human burials carry a stop-and-notify duty on any land, 5404.

The District publishes no rule for its own parks. Much of Washington's parkland is National Park Service ground, where federal law bans even carrying a detector.

By the park service's published policy, only on beach areas of coastal state parks that the park manager designates, between the toe of the dune and the high-water line. The rules themselves forbid digging or removing anything from state park land. On Florida Forest Service land a separate rule prohibits using a metal detector outright.

Banned outright on land in the Department of Natural Resources' custody and control, with no permission route and no exception for lost property.

Detecting itself is not regulated anywhere in Hawaii law. Taking or digging up anything over fifty years old that qualifies as a historic property needs state permission.

In a state park the park or program manager may allow it, as what IDAPA 26.01.20.175.11 calls a non-traditional recreational activity; Idaho neither permits nor forbids it by default there. Separately, Idaho Code 67-4120 requires a permit from the Idaho State Historical Society's board of trustees before any excavation in or on an archaeological site or deposit on any public lands in Idaho, and those permits go only to applicants qualified by experience or professional training. On endowment land the restriction is IDL policy rather than code.

On Department of Natural Resources property, a handheld detector needs an advance permit from the Chief of Lands naming the location, and a non-handheld detector is not allowed.

On a sand swimming beach that an authorized representative has approved, and nowhere else on Department of Natural Resources property; digging or excavating is separately prohibited across all DNR property, so a find cannot lawfully be recovered without a license. Separately and across the whole state, IC 14-21-1-26 requires a department-approved plan before ground is disturbed in order to find artifacts – an artifact being anything formed, made, modified or used before 31 December 1870 under IC 14-21-1-2 – a Class A misdemeanour to violate and a Level 6 felony where human remains are disturbed. IC 14-21-1-29 adds a stop-and-notify duty for an artifact found while disturbing the ground for some other purpose.

In state parks and recreation areas, only on designated beaches during set hours, and on drained lakebeds after an archaeological survey, with probes and scoops limited in size.

On state park land, permission is needed to disturb an archaeological site.

Metal detectors are barred from state park property outright by 304 KAR 1:050. Separately and statewide, KRS 164.720(1) requires a permit from the University of Kentucky's Department of Anthropology before a person may explore, excavate, appropriate or remove an archaeological site or object of antiquity on land owned or leased by the Commonwealth, a state agency, or any political subdivision or municipal corporation. KRS 164.730 requires any person who discovers such a site or object to report it to that department, with no deadline set. The penalty under KRS 164.990(1) is a Class D felony plus forfeiture of equipment.

State land only. Louisiana was checked for municipal reach and does not have it.

On State Parks and Historic Sites the device is prohibited at historic sites and allowed elsewhere "only by written permit obtained at the park", 01-670 c.1 item 4 – but item 1 separately prohibits removing anything natural, physical, prehistorical or historical, with no permit route, so the permit authorises the search rather than the recovery. The antiquities statute turns on a "protected site", which in every limb must be POSTED, 27 M.R.S. 373-A(7-A); unlawful excavation there is a Class E crime with a fine of not less than $250 and each day a separate violation, 375(2). The Bureau publishes no use rule for public reserved lands, nonreserved public lands or ecological reserves.

On designated swimming beaches operated by the Maryland Park Service, excluding Point Lookout and Calvert Cliffs, with permission from the Service. Barred 9 a.m. to dusk from 30 May to Labor Day, AND at other times at the park manager's discretion.

On coastal and inland sandy beaches you need no permission at all. Anywhere else on state conservation land you need a staff member's permission, and only to look for lost property.

Order 5.26 allows the device inside the areas the access map published by 15 April each year shows as open, and elsewhere in a state park or recreation area with the unit supervisor's written authorization. It reaches no other class of state land. The statute reaches further: MCL 324.76102 reserves aboriginal antiquities and abandoned property of historical value on all state land to the state, 76105 requires a department permit, issued free, before exploring or excavating an aboriginal remain there, and 76106 forbids removing a relic from the premises where it was found without the land owner's consent, with no land qualifier at all. On Great Lakes bottomlands 76108 allows hand recovery outside a preserve with a written report within 30 days for anything over $10.

In state parks, a detector may be used only to find a specific item of lost property, with the park manager's prior written permission and under the manager's supervision.

Barred outright on Mississippi State Park property, 40 Miss. Code R. 6-1.2 item 17, and on every Wildlife Management Area, 40 Miss. Code R. 2-1.1 item DD. Neither rule carries a permit exception. Wider than both, Miss. Code Ann. 39-7-11(1) declares an archaeological site on any land belonging to the state or to any county, city or political subdivision a Mississippi landmark and the sole property of the State of Mississippi, which may not be taken or excavated without a permit from the board. On private land 39-7-31 requires the owner's written consent, and a board permit as well for an aboriginal burial.

Only on designated beaches at eleven state parks, with a free annual registration and during set hours – under park division policy, which the regulation adopts. On Department of Conservation land, a different agency, digging or excavating is prohibited outright and cannot be permitted.

At FWP public use sites – state parks, wildlife management areas and fishing access sites – the device needs written permission from the department, ARM 12.12.106(1)(f), and 12.12.106(1)(b) separately prohibits disturbing or removing topsoil, subsoil or a cultural or archeological resource. On state trust land anyone 12 or over needs an annual recreational use license to be there for recreation at all, MCA 77-1-801 and ARM 36.25.1204(1) – and ARM 36.25.1202(9)(a)(i) excludes taking or disturbing archeological, historical or paleontological items from the general recreational use that licence covers. Statewide on land owned by the state, excavating or removing a heritage property needs an antiquities permit from the historic preservation officer, MCA 22-3-432, available only to institutions and qualified persons, and what is collected is the permanent property of the state; discovering one carries a duty to report promptly to that officer, MCA 22-3-435. A breach of either is a misdemeanour at up to $1,000 or six months with each day a separate offence, MCA 22-3-442. The rule number most sources still cite, ARM 12.8.802, was repealed effective 13 January 2024.

On Game and Parks property, detectors are permitted year round at designated state recreation area swimming beaches posted as open, restricted to 6 to 9 a.m. between 22 May and 7 September, below the vegetation line, with hand tools no more than twelve by four inches; use in State Parks and State Historical Parks is expressly prohibited except as provided. Separately, appropriating or excavating an archaeological resource – at least fifty years old and of archaeological interest – on public land needs written permission from the State Archaeology Office. Whether that reaches a city park is not answered by the Act.

The park supervisor can authorise the device, NAC 407.103, and that covers only land the state parks division runs. Removing a historical relic from that land is separately prohibited by NRS 407.250(2), which no supervisor waiver touches. NRS 383.435 reaches further: "state land" is defined by NRS 383.425 as land owned or controlled by a state agency or political subdivision, so removing or excavating a historic or prehistoric site on county or city land is a gross misdemeanour at first offence. Discovering a native Indian cairn or grave carries an immediate duty to report on any land, NRS 383.170, a $500 fine to fail.

Detecting is expressly permitted on seven named kinds of state land – beaches, athletic fields, school grounds, cemetery edges, unpaved roads, near picnic tables and pavilions, and working dumps – unless a historic site there is on record and signposted.

A permit from the Superintendent or designee, on all land the State Park Service administers – which expressly includes state forests, and expressly excludes wildlife management areas and reservoir lands. The Division of Fish and Wildlife's rules carry no detector provision, though DEP's own page says detecting is prohibited on WMAs.

The superintendent can give permission for two things only: a scientific project already approved by the state, or retrieving something you lost.

On Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation land a permit is required to use a detector and is granted for designated areas only, 9 NYCRR 372.7(o); making an excavation there is absolutely prohibited by 9 NYCRR 375.1(e), which carries no permit route. On Department of Environmental Conservation Fish and Wildlife land a written permit from the Department is needed to use or even possess a detector afield, 6 NYCRR 51.8(f)1, with a carve-out for licensed surveyors. On DEC's Lands and Forests holdings, which 6 NYCRR 190.0(a) lists as State forests, reforestation areas, multiple use areas and the forest preserve, no rule regulates the detector itself, but 6 NYCRR 190.8(g) prohibits removing soil, rock or an object of archaeological or paleontological interest except for personal consumption or under permit from both the Commissioner of Environmental Conservation and the Commissioner of Education, pursuant to Education Law 233. Wider than all of these, Education Law 233(4) makes it a class A misdemeanor to investigate, excavate, remove, appropriate or destroy any object of archaeological, historical, cultural, social, scientific or paleontological interest on, in or under land owned by the State without the written permission of the commissioner of education, with forfeiture of the items and of the instrumentalities; it sets no age test, and its reporting duty falls on the managing agency rather than the finder. The park sections were read from a mirror and not from an authoritative text; the official NYCRR exists only in print.

Metal detectors are not allowed in any NC state park area except to locate lost personal property under a Special Use Permit, 07 NCAC 13B .0203 with .0104(b)(1). Separately and statewide, G.S. 70-15(a) bars excavating, removing, damaging or defacing an archaeological resource on any land owned, occupied or controlled by the State without a permit from the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources under G.S. 70-13. The test is material remains at least 50 years old and of archaeological interest – there is no date cutoff. G.S. 70-15(c) sets $2,000 or six months and G.S. 70-15(d) makes each day a separate offence; G.S. 70-16 adds a civil penalty up to $5,000 and G.S. 70-17 forfeiture of vehicles and equipment.

Written permission, state park land, under N.D.A.C. 58-02-08-16. On trust land NDCC 15-08-19.4(1)(h) prohibits metal detecting outright, although the criminal penalty in that section attaches only to subdivision (n). NDCC 55-03-01.1 separately requires a permit from the State Historical Society director to investigate, excavate or otherwise record cultural resources on land owned by an instrumentality of the state – defined to include all political subdivisions – and to excavate them on private land, and permits go only to the professionally qualified.

In state parks, on sand beaches and on mowed areas other than those at golf courses, rental facilities and campgrounds, with no permission needed. Anywhere else in the park, the area manager's written permission. On state forest land nothing is permitted without the division chief's written permission.

A permit from the State Archaeologist is needed before exploring or excavating at any prehistoric ruin or archaeological site in Oklahoma, whoever owns it.

On state park property and the ocean shore, only where the department's published 'Detecting Allowed' list says so, unless the park manager gives written permission. On State Forest Land, which is any state-owned land the Forester manages, written permission of the Forester is required everywhere.

No detector provision exists in the state park regulations: the device is governed by DCNR policy, which needs the park manager's prior approval and allows only narrow pronged digging tools. What the regulations prohibit without the Department's written permission is excavating and removing an artifact, 11.209(a) in state parks and 21.122(a)(2) and (6) in state forests, a summary offence under 21.123. On State Game Lands 58 Pa. Code 135.2(6) bars removing a historical or archaeological artifact without the permission of the person in charge. Statewide, appropriating an archaeological specimen on Commonwealth land is a third-degree misdemeanour under 37 Pa.C.S. 511, up to $2,500 and a year, with forfeiture of everything collected.

Only on sites the state has formally designated as archaeological landmarks, and there you need both the commission's permission and the landowner's. Nothing in the chapter carries a fine or a jail term.

Banned outright at seventeen named historic sites and battlefields. Everywhere else you need a signed permit from the park manager before each visit, and any modern jewellery you find goes to the park office.

Written authorization from a department representative, on any land the Game, Fish and Parks Department owns, leases, manages or controls – which is all of it, not only parks and recreation areas.

Prohibited outright on Division of State Parks land, 0400-2-2-.18(6), with three narrow exceptions and none of them a route for recreational detecting. On state forests an artifact is a "natural resource" and removing one needs the district forester's written authorization, 0080-07-01-.03(1). Statewide, T.C.A. 11-6-105 reserves field archaeology on any site owned or controlled by the state to the state itself, makes what is recovered from state land state property, and grades unpermitted excavation a Class A misdemeanor, or a Class E felony on a registered site above $5,000, with forfeiture. On private land, excavating and removing artifacts without the owner's express permission is trespass and a Class A misdemeanor, 11-6-109(a). The artifact definition carries no age test.

Archaeological sites of every character on state, county or city land are state archeological landmarks and are eligible for designation – the statute says both – and all treasure imbedded in the earth on state land is declared a landmark too. Conducting an operation on a landmark needs a permit, in your possession at the site. Violation is a misdemeanour of $50 to $1,000 and up to 30 days, with each day a separate offence. The chapter never mentions metal detectors.

Park manager's permission on state park land.

A permit from the state historic preservation officer, and Vermont is unusual in opening those to amateurs as well as professionals.

The Code carries no detector provision. By DCR policy, only on designated man-made beaches at six parks and only with a DCR special use permit from the park manager. On state forests the Department of Forestry's chapter bars removing an artifact without the State Forests Superintendent's approval.

In a state park, detecting is permitted only in portions of approved parks as posted, in posted daylight hours, and you must register with park staff before starting. Removing small contemporary materials is expressly allowed; anything that is or appears historical or archaeological may not be removed, must be reported immediately, and closes the area. Separately, on any land in Washington including a city's and private ground, disturbing a historic or prehistoric archaeological resource needs a written permit from the director.

Written authorisation from the Chief of Parks and Recreation is needed to remove anything at all from a state park, forest or wildlife management area – which in practice is what detecting is for.

On DNR property the rule that reaches an ordinary detectorist is NR 45.04(1)(a): removing or disturbing natural growth or a natural or archaeological feature needs the department's authorisation, so the hole is the problem rather than the detector, and the carve-out for collecting rocks, minerals and fossils by hand is not a detecting allowance. Separately, only the state archaeologist and licensed individuals may do what Wisconsin calls field archaeology, and that covers archaeological sites owned by a city or county as well as the state.

Banned outright at state historic and archeological sites, with no permission available. Everywhere else on state park land, the superintendent's written permission. Separately, on state or federal land, excavating a prehistoric ruin or an archaeological deposit needs a permit from the state board of land commissioners, and removing artefacts worth more than $500 cumulatively is a felony carrying up to $10,000 and ten years.