Metal Detecting in Illinois

1. The rule, in full

Illinois – 17 Ill. Adm. Code 110.120(c)

Read from the Illinois Administrative Code as published by the Illinois General Assembly (ilga.gov, Joint Committee on Administrative Rules), Part 110 entire. Section 110.120 source note: "Amended at 45 Ill. Reg. 12553, effective September 24, 2021". Checked 21 Sep 2026.

Operative text, 110.120:

"It shall be unlawful, on Department-owned, -leased or -managed property or facilities: … c) For any person to operate a non-handheld metal or mineral detection device. Persons must obtain a permit from the Department through the Chief of Lands, in advance, indicating the location where handheld devices will be used. Further, only a small pen knife, icepick or screwdriver shall be used by the permittee to recover any find in the area designated. After completing detection activity, the permittee must return the work area to its original state. No shovels, picks or entrenching devices of any size shall be used."

Scope is carried in the section's own opening words: "on Department-owned, -leased or -managed property or facilities". Part 110 is titled "Public Use of State Parks and Other Properties of the Department of Natural Resources".

Determination: IDNR land only. The rule does NOT reach municipal parks.

The subsection does two things and they must stay distinct: a non-handheld device is barred outright, and a handheld device needs an advance permit from the Chief of Lands naming the location. Recovery is limited to "a small pen knife, icepick or screwdriver".

Artifacts on the same land, 110.70(c):

"For any person to collect or take artifacts and/or mutilate, destroy, deface or excavate any archaeological site, except as provided by permit issued according to 17 Ill. Adm. Code 370."

The Illinois result is not "state land only". The Archaeological and Paleontological Resources Protection Act defines "public land" to include land owned by "a municipality or a unit of local government". See the political-subdivision entry. The statute pass recorded Illinois as agency land only; that was an agency scope statement, and it answered a different question.

Sources: ilga.gov JCAR EntirePart 01700110. Checked 21 Sep 2026.

2. Where it reaches city and county land

Illinois – 20 ILCS 3435 (Archaeological and Paleontological Resources Protection Act)

Read from the Illinois Compiled Statutes published by the Illinois General Assembly (ilga.gov), 20 ILCS 3435, source notes to P.A. 103-446 (eff. 4 Aug 2023) and P.A. 103-616 (eff. 1 Jul 2024). Checked 21 Sep 2026.

Operative text, Sec. 3:

"(a) It is unlawful for any person, either by himself or through an agent, to knowingly explore, excavate, possess, or collect any of the archaeological or paleontological resources protected by this Act, unless such person obtains a permit issued by the Department of Natural Resources.
(b) It is unlawful for any person, either by himself or through an agent, to knowingly disturb any archaeological or paleontological resource protected under this Act."

Scope: reaches municipal land. Sec. .02:

"'Public land' means any land owned, but does not include land leased as lessee, by the State of Illinois or its agencies, a State university created by statute, a municipality or a unit of local government."

"'Archaeological resource' means any significant material remains or localities of past human life or activities on public land, including but not limited to artifacts, historic and prehistoric human remains, mounds, earthworks, shipwrecks, forts, village sites or mines."

Sec. 1 reserves to the state "the exclusive right and privilege of regulating, exploring, excavating or surveying, through the Department of Natural Resources, all archaeological and paleontological resources found upon or within any public lands."

Axis: borderline, and honestly so. Two words carry the reach and neither is defined anywhere in the Act.

• "Explore", Sec. 3(a). "Excavate", "possess" and "collect" are plainly

find/site verbs. "Explore" is not, and it bites before anything is taken: exploring for a protected resource is itself unlawful without a permit. Read that way it is an activity term, closer to the Massachusetts and Wisconsin formula. The Act does not say.

• "Significant", in the definition of "archaeological resource". It sets no

age, no value and no test, and nothing in the Act supplies one. Illinois has no equivalent of Oregon's 75-year floor.

Do not resolve either by inference. The Illinois entry quotes "knowingly explore, excavate, possess, or collect" and "any significant material remains", and says in terms that neither "explore" nor "significant" is defined and that the reach of each is untested. A reader must be able to see that the statute leaves the question open, rather than read our guess at it. This is the same treatment as Oklahoma's "exploration".

"Disturb" is defined broadly: it "includes defacing, mutilating, injuring, exposing, removing, destroying, desecrating or molesting in any way."

Penalty, Sec. 5:

"Any violation of Section 3 not involving the disturbance of human remains is a Class A misdemeanor and the violator shall also be subject to a fine not in excess of $5,000; any subsequent violation is a Class 4 felony. Any violation of Section 3 involving disturbance of human remains is a Class 4 felony."

Restitution is also mandatory. Sec. 7: "All materials and associated records remain the property of the State".

Permits are issued under DNR regulations after consultation with the land manager, Sec. 6. Those regulations were not read for this entry, so the page does not say who can obtain one.

Axis 1: borderline – see above; the entry says so rather than choosing. Axis 2: all of it – every acre a municipality or unit of local government owns.

Directory entry should read: in Illinois, it is unlawful without a DNR permit to knowingly explore for, excavate, possess, collect or disturb significant archaeological remains on land owned by the state, a state university, or any city, village, county or other unit of local government – and the Act defines neither "explore" nor "significant", so how far the prohibition reaches an ordinary search has not been settled. It should NOT read that metal detecting is prohibited in Illinois city parks, and it should NOT state a threshold the Act does not contain.

3. Cities in Illinois that publish a rule

Awaiting review. None of the city or county rows publishes until its status is set and its quotation chosen by hand.

4. County rules

Awaiting review. None of the city or county rows publishes until its status is set and its quotation chosen by hand.

5. Cities checked — no published rule

Awaiting review. None of the city or county rows publishes until its status is set and its quotation chosen by hand.