On state park land
Depends who owns the park
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.
So the answer turns on which agency runs the park you are standing in – check that first.
Everywhere else on this site we explain that the federal Archaeological Resources Protection Act does not reach your local park. Washington is the exception. Much of the District’s parkland is federal - National Park Service ground - and on it, ARPA and the federal park rules apply directly.
1. The rule, in full
District of Columbia – no parks rule, and the land is mostly federal
DC is structurally unlike every other row in this project. It is simultaneously the state-equivalent and the municipality, so the question this file exists to answer – does the state instrument reach municipal land – has no purchase. DC's own law is the municipal law.
Read from the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations at dcregs.dc.gov, Title 19 "Amusements, Parks, and Recreation": the chapter list for the whole title, and the complete section lists for chapter 19-7 and chapter 19-11. Re-read 4 Oct 2026. And from the D.C. Code at code.dccouncil.gov, section 6-1102, for the definition of "alter" at 6-1102(1)(D) quoted below; checked 20 Sep 2026. Federal provisions from ecfr.gov, 36 CFR 2.1.
*Sentence corrected 7 Oct 2026. It previously named only the DCMR, while the page's operative quotation is a D.C. Code section – so the coverage check in build_state_pages.check_read_from reported this entry as sourced but not covered, and it was right to. The Code section had been read and was recorded only in the source line at the foot of the entry. The instrument field was accurate; this sentence was incomplete.*
The 4 Oct 2026 re-read checked a second chapter and the answer did not change. Title 19's chapter list was read in full, which turned up 19-11 "RECREATIONAL USE OF PUBLIC SPACE" – a title that sounds directly relevant and had never been read. It is not relevant: the chapter has three live sections and they are 19-1100 "Temporary Street Closings", 19-1101 "Application for Temporary Street Closing" and 19-1105 "Community Beautification Projects", with 19-1102 to 19-1104 reserved. Zero occurrences of "detect".
Chapter 19-7 was re-read as well: 31 sections, 19-700 "Operation of Recreation Units" through 19-735 "Dog Parks: Operating Rules" and 19-799 "Definitions". Zero occurrences of "detect".
So this entry was incomplete rather than wrong, and it is now complete for Title 19. A retrieval note for anyone repeating it: dcregs.dc.gov navigates by ASP.NET postback, so there is no URL for a section list until you have made one. Posting __EVENTTARGET=ctl00$MainContent$rpt_ChaptList$ctl<N>$lnkFile against ChapterList.aspx?TitleNum=19 with the page's viewstate redirects to the real address, which is RuleList.aspx?ChapterNum=19-7&ChapterId=141 and ...19-11&ChapterId=145. Those work as plain GETs once known.
1. DC's parks regulations contain no metal detecting rule
Checked directly against the official DCMR section list for Title 19, chapter 19-7 (Department of Parks and Recreation) at dcregs.dc.gov. The chapter runs 19-700 to 19-735 plus 19-799 Definitions, and covers operation of recreation units, reporting accidents, smoking and gambling, responsibility for government property, school facilities, fees, permits, priority of use, commercial activities, dog parks and definitions.
No section addresses metal detecting, digging, excavation or artifacts. This is the Arizona result: the absence is the finding.
2. DC's historic protection law reaches designated archaeological sites
D.C. Code 6-1102(1)(D), defining "alter" or "alteration": "Excavation or action disturbing the ground at an archaeological site listed in the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites or an archaeological site identified as a contributing feature in the designation of a historic landmark or historic district."
So digging at a listed archaeological site is an alteration requiring a permit under the Historic Landmark and Historic District Protection Act. It is designation-dependent – the Texas and Rhode Island shape – and it does not reach ordinary DC parkland.
2a. The permit that ground disturbance actually needs, and what it costs to skip it
The definition at 6-1102(1)(D) is the trigger, but it is only a definition. The chain that makes it operative has three links, and the previous version of this entry carried only the first:
Link one, what counts as an alteration. 6-1102(1)(D), quoted above: excavation or action disturbing the ground at a listed archaeological site is an "alteration".
Link two, the section that requires the permit.
D.C. Code 6-1105(a), "Alterations": "Before the Mayor may issue a permit to alter the exterior or site of an historic landmark or of a building or structure in an historic district, the Mayor shall review the permit application in accordance with this section and 6-1108.03…"
The words that carry the archaeology are "or site". An archaeological site has no exterior to alter, so without that phrase the definition at 6-1102(1)(D) would have nothing to attach to.
Link three, the consequence.
D.C. Code 6-1110(a), "Penalties; remedies; enforcement": "Any person who willfully violates any provision of this subchapter or of any regulation issued under the authority of this subchapter shall, upon conviction, be fined not more than $1,000 for each day a violation occurs or continues or be imprisoned for not more than 90 days, or both."
6-1110(b), the civil remedy: "Any person who demolishes, alters or constructs a building or structure in violation of 6-1104, 6-1105, or 6-1107 shall be required to restore the building or structure and its site to its appearance prior to the violation… This civil remedy shall be in addition to and not in lieu of any criminal prosecution and penalty."
Three things a reader should take from 6-1110 specifically. The fine is per day, not per offence, and it runs while the violation "continues". The restoration remedy names 6-1105 expressly, so it reaches an alteration and not only a demolition, and restoring a disturbed archaeological site to its prior appearance is not something a detectorist can do. And both are available at once – the statute says the civil remedy is "in addition to and not in lieu of" the criminal penalty. The criminal limb needs a willful violation; the civil restoration duty in (b) is not written with that qualifier.
This is the only penalty figure on the DC page, and it is for the historic limb alone. It does not attach to DPR land, because DPR has no detector or digging rule to violate, and it does not attach to National Park Service land, which is governed by 36 CFR and ARPA instead.
3. The fact that actually governs most DC parkland is federal
A large share of DC's parks, circles and squares is administered by the National Park Service, not by DPR. On that land the operative rule is federal:
36 CFR 2.1(a)(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."
DC is therefore the one jurisdiction in this directory where ARPA genuinely governs a lot of the public land a reader will stand on, because ARPA applies to federal land and much of DC's parkland is federal. Every other entry in this project exists partly to explain that ARPA does not reach the reader's park. The DC page has to say the opposite, and the ARPA explainer should link to it as the exception that proves the rule.
The practical entry for DC is therefore a question about which agency's land the reader is on, not a rule lookup. The page should say: DPR publishes no metal detecting rule; on National Park Service land – which is much of it – 36 CFR 2.1(a)(7) prohibits possessing or using a detector outright; and at any listed archaeological site, disturbing the ground needs a permit.
Not established, and left open: the precise proportion or parcel-level split of DC parkland between NPS and DPR. That would need the NPS and DPR land inventories and has not been done. The page should describe the split qualitatively and tell the reader to check which agency manages the specific park, rather than asserting a figure.
Sources: dcregs.dc.gov DCMR Title 19 chapter 19-7 section list; code.dccouncil.gov D.C. Code 6-1102; ecfr.gov 36 CFR 2.1. Checked 20 Sep 2026. Deepened 18 Oct 2026 with D.C. Code 6-1104, 6-1105, 6-1107 and 6-1110 read that day from code.dccouncil.gov, the D.C. Law Library's Code of the District of Columbia, and archived with their sha256.
2. Cities in District of Columbia that publish a rule
The District is the municipality. The rule set out above is its own, and there is no separate city layer to add.
3. County rules
No county check has been run for District of Columbia. That is not a finding that District of Columbia’s counties publish no rules. It means the question was never asked here, and this directory does not assert an answer it has not looked for. The county sweep covered 21 states; District of Columbia was not one of them.
4. Cities checked - no published rule
No city in District of Columbia has been checked yet.
5. Clubs in District of Columbia
We have no clubs on record in District of Columbia. If you run one, tell us and we will list it - see the club directory.
6. Land this page does not cover
This page answers for District of Columbia 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.