On state park land
Permission needed
The superintendent can give permission for two things only: a scientific project already approved by the state, or retrieving something you lost.
This state also reaches city and county land — see below
1. The rule, in full
New Mexico – 19.5.2.24 NMAC
Operative text, read from the consolidated NMAC at srca.nm.gov (State Records Center and Archives, the official NMAC publisher):
19.5.2.24 NMAC METAL DETECTING: "Metal detecting within a state park is prohibited unless a visitor obtains the superintendent's permission to use metal detectors for scientific activities such as projects permitted through the New Mexico cultural properties review committee or to retrieve lost items."
Scope, 19.5.2.2 NMAC:
"19.5.2 NMAC applies to persons using the New Mexico state parks system."
Determination: the state parks system only. Does NOT reach municipal parks.
Note the shape: prohibited by default, with superintendent permission available for two named purposes, one of which – retrieving lost items – is an ordinary detectorist errand rather than a scientific one. Status is permit_required, and the "to retrieve lost items" clause should be quoted on the page, because it is the part a reader will actually use.
Latest amendment shown: 1 January 2013.
RESOLVED: New Mexico DOES reach municipal land
Resolved 19 Sep 2026 by reading NMSA 1978 chapter 18 at source, in the official consolidated compilation at nmonesource.com.
18-6-3(E): "'state land' means property owned, controlled or operated by a department, agency, institution or political subdivision of the state."
18-6-9(A): "Any person who knowingly excavates, injures or destroys cultural property located on state land without a permit is guilty of criminal damage to property."
A municipality is a political subdivision of the state, so the Cultural Properties Act reaches New Mexico city parks. The full entry has moved to STATE-LAND-political-subdivision.md, which now holds six states rather than five.
The two instruments do different jobs and both belong on the New Mexico page:
- 19.5.2.24 NMAC governs the state parks system and is a
superintendent-permission rule – this entry, above.
- NMSA 18-6-9 governs state, county and municipal land and prohibits
knowingly excavating, injuring or destroying a cultural property – the political-subdivision file.
Do not merge them. The first is a rule about where you may sweep; the second is a crime about what you may dig up, and it applies in every New Mexico city on the list.
Why the flag was nearly resolved the wrong way. The NMAC rules carry the municipal enumeration but are scoped to "archaeological investigations", which is the Kansas answer – reaches the land, not the activity. Stopping at the rules would have produced "does not reach the hobbyist". The statute is what settles it, and only reading the statute settled it.
Sources: srca.nm.gov parts/title19/19.005.0002.html; srca.nm.gov parts/title04/04.010.0008.html; srca.nm.gov parts/title04/04.010.0016.html. Checked 19 Sep 2026.
2. Where it reaches city and county land
New Mexico – NMSA 1978, 18-6-1 to 18-6-17 (Cultural Properties Act)
Read from the official consolidated NMSA 1978, chapter 18, at nmonesource.com (New Mexico Compilation Commission), parsed locally.
Scope text, 18-6-3(E):
"'state land' means property owned, controlled or operated by a department, agency, institution or political subdivision of the state."
Scope: reaches municipal land. A New Mexico municipality is a political subdivision of the state, so a city park is "state land" for this Act. Note that the statutory definition is broader than it looks and broader than the term suggests – this is the one place in the project where a defined term means close to the opposite of its ordinary reading, and the page must quote the definition rather than the term.
Definition, 18-6-3(B):
"'cultural property' means a structure, place, site or object having historic, archaeological, scientific, architectural or other cultural significance."
Operative text, 18-6-9(A) and (C):
"A. Any person who knowingly excavates, injures or destroys cultural property located on state land without a permit is guilty of criminal damage to property." "C. Whoever commits criminal damage to property pursuant to the provisions of this section and the value of the property excavated, injured or destroyed is: (1) less than one thousand dollars ($1,000) is guilty of a petty misdemeanor…; or (2) one thousand dollars ($1,000) or more is guilty of a fourth degree felony."
What it actually prohibits: knowingly excavating, injuring or destroying a cultural property. Not detecting. The words "metal detector" appear nowhere in the Act.
What makes New Mexico the most serious of the six, and the reason it should not be flattened into the same sentence as Kansas:
- It reaches objects, not only sites. Kansas and Washington reach an
"archaeological site"; Colorado reaches a "resource". New Mexico's defined term expressly includes an object having historic, archaeological, scientific, architectural or other cultural significance. A single artefact in a city park is within scope on its own, with no site around it.
- The exposure is felony-grade. At a value of $1,000 or more it is a
fourth degree felony under 18-6-9(C)(2). No other state in this group carries that.
- "Knowingly" is doing real work. The offence requires knowing
excavation, injury or destruction of cultural property. A detectorist who digs a modern coin has not knowingly excavated cultural property. One who recognises what is under the coil and digs anyway has. The page should say this, because it is the distinction that actually governs a reader's conduct, and it is the one an aggregator would drop.
No permit route for a hobbyist. Permits under the Act run through the cultural properties review committee and the implementing rule, 4.10.8 NMAC, whose scope at 4.10.8.2 is entities "conducting or proposing to conduct archaeological investigations" – defined at 4.10.8.7(A) as "[t]he study of archaeological sites, isolates and areas of historic and scientific interest". That is a scheme for archaeologists. There is nothing a detectorist can apply for.
Directory entry should read: on state, county and municipal land in New Mexico it is a crime to knowingly excavate, injure or destroy a cultural property – which includes a single object of historic or archaeological significance – without a permit, and at $1,000 or more it is a felony. It should NOT read that metal detecting is prohibited in New Mexico city parks. New Mexico state parks are governed separately by 19.5.2.24 NMAC, which is a superintendent-permission rule and reaches only the state parks system.
How this was nearly missed. The NMAC rules (4.10.8.7(SS), 4.10.16.7(T)) carry an enumerated definition of "state land" that lists "county and municipal property including open space areas" – but those rules are scoped to archaeological investigations, which is the Kansas answer, so the rules alone would have supported a "does not reach the hobbyist" finding. The statute is what settles it, and the statute had to be read to settle it. This is rule 11 paying for itself a second time in one day.
Sources: NMSA 1978 chapter 18, nmonesource.com item 4346, document.do, parsed locally with pypdf; srca.nm.gov parts/title04/04.010.0008.html. Checked 19 Sep 2026.
3. Cities in New Mexico 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.