Metal Detecting in Tennessee

1. The rule, in full

Tennessee – 0400-2-2-.18(6)

Read from the Tennessee Code, title 11 chapter 6, copied from the state's public access viewer on 16 Oct 2026 and archived section by section with sha256s, and from three compiled chapters published by the Tennessee Secretary of State at publications.tnsosfiles.com: chapter 0400-2-2, Public Use and Recreation, of the Department of Environment and Conservation's Division of State Parks rules, footed "December, 2003 (Revised)"; chapter 0080-07-01, Protection of State Forests, of the Department of Agriculture's Division of Forestry rules, footed "March, 2019 (Revised)"; and chapter 1660-01-14, the Wildlife Resources Agency's rules for refuges, wildlife management areas and public hunting areas, footed "April, 2024 (Revised)". Parks chapter checked 3 Oct 2026, the other two read 15 Oct 2026.

Tennessee's three big public land classes are run by three different agencies and each answers the detecting question differently. The parks rule is a flat prohibition. The forest rule is a permission requirement that names artifacts. The wildlife rules say almost nothing except at one named lake.

Operative text, 0400-2-2-.18(6):

"The use of any mineral or metal detecting device capable of detecting the underground or underwater location of geological, archaeological or historical objects or materials is prohibited. Provided, however, that this section shall not apply to:
(a) fathometers, radar equipment and electronic equipment used primarily for the navigation and safe operation of boats and aircraft;
(b) to persons possessing a permit from the State Archaeologist to conduct legitimate archaeological research when such permit is signed by the Director of Parks and Recreation; and
(c) to an individual engaged in a limited search for a lost item under supervision of the park Superintendent." Authority: T.C.A. §11-1-108. Administrative History: Original rule certified May 24, 1974. Amendment filed August 24, 1987; effective October 8, 1987.

The provision does not say "in state parks". The rule ends "is prohibited", full stop; nothing in subsection (6) names a place at all. Scope is carried by the chapter, which is headed "Rules of Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Division of State Parks – Public Use and Recreation", with rule .18 headed "Preservation of Public Property, Natural Features, Curiosities and Resources". The chapter contains no applicability or definitions rule, so the confinement to Division of State Parks land rests on the chapter's heading and the promulgating division rather than on an express scope clause. That is weaker than most states in this directory and worth knowing.

None of the three exceptions is a route for recreational detecting. (a) is boat and aircraft electronics, (b) requires a State Archaeologist research permit countersigned by the Director of Parks and Recreation, and (c) is a supervised search for one lost item.

State forests: the rule names artifacts, and there is an authorisation route

The Division of Forestry sits in the Department of Agriculture, and its chapter is built differently from the parks chapter. It never mentions a detector. It does not need to.

0080-07-01-.02(6), what a natural resource is:

"Natural Resource" includes but is not limited to: fruit, timber, grass, rocks, roots, flowers, leaves, minerals, water, artifacts, and soil;

0080-07-01-.03(1), the prohibition:

"The cutting, removal, gathering, planting, destruction or damaging of any natural resource is prohibited in any state forest without the written authorization of the district forester or under the district forester's supervision."

0080-07-01-.03(2), collecting:

"The collection of plants, rocks, minerals, animal life, botanical specimens or other natural objects in state forests is prohibited; provided however, persons officially representing a reputable scientific or educational institution(s), federal or state agencies may be permitted for such collecting by the district forester."

So on a Tennessee state forest an artifact is a natural resource, and removing one needs the district forester's written authorisation. Unlike the parks rule this is a permission requirement rather than a ban, and the officer who can give it is named. Whether a district forester would authorise recreational detecting is a separate question from whether the rule allows them to; the rule does.

Scope, 0080-07-01-.02(8): "State forests," means those lands owned by the state and/or administered under the jurisdiction of the division. And 0080-07-01-.01 frames the chapter: "Tennessee State Forests belong to the people of the State of Tennessee and are for the use of the public. All visitors are welcome."

Penalty, 0080-07-01-.11(1): "Violation of these rules may be a misdemeanor and punishable under the general law relating to misdemeanors."

Wildlife areas: one named lake has an artifact rule, and the class does not

The Wildlife Resources Agency chapter for refuges, wildlife management areas and public hunting areas contains an artifact provision, and reading it carefully matters because it is not a rule for all WMAs.

1660-01-14-.11, Tellico Lake Wildlife Management Area and Refuge:

"(1) Artifact Hunting. (a) No person shall disturb or remove any artifact from the area without specific authorization. (b) Digging, probing sub-surface or the use of under water snorkeling or scuba techniques to identify artifact areas is prohibited without specific authorization."

That is the whole of rule .11, and its heading names one area. There is no chapter-wide artifact or detector provision. The two general rules that come closest are about ground rather than objects:

• 1660-01-14-.14(d), which applies to any Public Hunting Area: "No person shall deface, damage, destroy or remove any equipment, structure, sign, trees, plants, dirt or gravel from any Public Hunting Area without proper authorization." Dirt and gravel are listed; artifacts are not.
• 1660-01-14-.17(1)(d), for the managed recreation areas on Foothills Wildlife Management Area, in the same terms with "sod" added. So the honest statement for Tennessee wildlife land is narrow. Artifact hunting is prohibited without specific authorisation at Tellico Lake, and the sub-surface probing clause there is the only provision in the chapter that describes the activity rather than the object. On other wildlife management areas the chapter regulates removing dirt and gravel, which a dig disturbs, and says nothing about artifacts or detectors by name.

The archaeology chapter: what it reserves and what it leaves alone

T.C.A. title 11 chapter 6 is the statute behind all of this, and it answers the questions the three rule chapters do not.

What counts, 11-6-102(1), and note the absence of an age test:

"Artifacts" means all relics, specimens or objects of an historical, prehistorical, archaeological or anthropological nature which may be found above or below the surface of the earth, and which have scientific or historic value as objects of antiquity, as aboriginal relics, or as archaeological specimens"

There is no fifty-year test, no hundred-year test and no cutoff date anywhere in it. The test is what the object is, not how old it is. Two more definitions decide the rest of the chapter's reach:

11-6-102(6): "Field archaeology" means the study of the traces of human culture at any land or water site by means of photographing, mapping, surveying, digging, sampling, excavating and removing artifacts or other archaeological material, or going on a site with that intent

11-6-102(8): "Site" means any location of historic or prehistoric human activity such as, but not restricted to, mounds, forts, earthworks, burial grounds, structures, villages, mines, caves, shipwrecks, and all locations which are or may be sources of paleontological remains

State land: the exclusive right, 11-6-105(a):

"The state of Tennessee reserves to itself the exclusive right and privilege of field archaeology on sites owned or controlled by the state, its agencies, departments, institutions and commissions in order to protect and preserve archaeological and scientific information, matter and artifacts."

11-6-105(c) then forbids excavation on such a site by anyone not acting as a duly authorised agent of the division, and 11-6-105(d) gives the State Archaeologist the power to grant permits and contracts for exploration or excavation.

Note what it attaches to. The exclusive right runs to sites owned or controlled by the state, and "site" is a location of historic or prehistoric human activity. It is not a statement about every acre the state owns. A state park picnic lawn with nothing under it is not a site; a mound, earthwork, village or burial ground is, wherever it sits.

Who owns what comes out, 11-6-105(b) and 11-6-104(a):

"All such information and artifacts recovered from state lands shall be utilized solely for scientific or public educational purposes and shall remain the property of the state, unless the state archaeologist and the advisory council shall conclude that some artifacts do not merit retention."

"All artifacts and other materials excavated, discovered, donated, or otherwise acquired by the division of archaeology acquired in pursuance of this program shall be the property of the state of Tennessee and be placed under the custodianship of the division of archaeology."

The penalties, 11-6-105(f) and (g):

"Any person, corporation, society or organization conducting such explorations or excavations upon lands owned or controlled by the state or any agency thereof without having first obtained permit from the state archaeologist commits a Class A misdemeanor, except that any violation occurring on a site listed in the Tennessee register of archaeological sites where the commercial or archaeological value of the artifact involved and the cost of restoration or repair of such archaeological site or artifact exceeds the sum of five thousand dollars ($5,000) is a Class E felony."

"Any and all artifacts and material excavated by such person or organization shall be forfeited to the state and shall be delivered forthwith to the division."

Defacement is separate, 11-6-106, and it is a Class A misdemeanor to "write upon, carve upon, paint, deface, mutilate, destroy, or otherwise injure any object of antiquity, artifact, Indian painting, Indian carving, or sites" on state-owned or controlled land. 11-6-112 sets the default grades for the chapter: unclassified misdemeanors are Class A, unclassified felonies Class E.

Human remains: a duty on any land, and an exemption that matters

11-6-107(d)(1):

"Any person who encounters or accidentally disturbs or disinters human remains on either publicly or privately owned land, except during excavations authorized under this chapter, shall: (A) Immediately cease disturbing the ground in the area of the human remains; and (B) Notify either the coroner or the medical examiner, and a local law enforcement agency."

Failing either is a Class A misdemeanor, 11-6-107(d)(5). The notification goes to the coroner or medical examiner and local law enforcement, not to the Division of Archaeology; the coroner notifies the department afterwards if there is no forensic concern, 11-6-107(d)(3).

And the section says what it does not apply to, 11-6-107(d)(6): normal farming activity, and "(B) Surface collecting." Surface collecting is defined at 11-6-102(10) as "walking fields, stream banks, or other locations to look for and collect artifacts lying on the surface of the ground, or which are partially exposed on the surface of the ground, or which have been disturbed by plowing or natural processes of erosion". That is an express carve-out from the human-remains duty, and it is the only place in the chapter where surface collecting is treated differently from digging.

11-6-107(d)(7) is worth quoting as well, because it answers a question people ask about all of this: "Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to grant a right of access or occupation to the public without the landowner's permission."

Private land: permission, and trespass without it

11-6-109(a):

"It shall be deemed an act of trespass and a Class A misdemeanor for any person, natural or corporate, to excavate and remove artifacts from the private land of any owner without first obtaining the owner's express permission."

11-6-109(b) adds that no one may "excavate, damage, vandalize or remove any artifact from or otherwise alter or deface any site listed in the Tennessee register of archaeological sites without first obtaining landowner permission", and 11-6-109(c) prohibits selling, buying or exchanging an artifact from a registered site that was removed in violation of the section.

Note the verbs in (a): "excavate and remove". The trespass offence is framed around digging. Permission from the owner is required for being there at all, which 11-6-107(d)(7) states in terms.

Historic sites are inside the parks chapter, not outside it. Tennessee's state historic sites and historic parks are administered by the Division of State Parks, so 0400-2-2-.18(6) governs them; no separate historic-sites rule was found.

Determination: prohibited outright on Division of State Parks land, including state historic parks and sites, 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 requires the district forester's written authorization, 0080-07-01-.03(1). On wildlife land there is no class-wide rule: artifact hunting and sub-surface probing are prohibited without specific authorization at Tellico Lake WMA and Refuge, and other areas regulate the removal of dirt and gravel rather than artifacts. 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 as a Class A misdemeanor, or a Class E felony on a registered site where value and restoration exceed $5,000, with forfeiture of what was dug. On private land, excavating and removing artifacts without the owner's express permission is trespass and a Class A misdemeanor, 11-6-109(a). Human remains carry a stop-and-notify duty on any land, 11-6-107(d), from which surface collecting is expressly exempt. The detector rules themselves do NOT reach municipal parks.

Sources: publications.tnsosfiles.com chapters 0400-02-02, 0080-07-01 and 1660-01-14; T.C.A. 11-6-102, 11-6-104, 11-6-105, 11-6-106, 11-6-107, 11-6-109 and 11-6-112, read 16 Oct 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

2. Cities in Tennessee that publish a rule

2 cities in Tennessee publish a rule we can quote, out of 61 checked.

Of the 61 checked, 31 had pages on the city’s own site that we found and read. For the other 30 we could not locate a municipal source, so nothing is claimed about them either way.

3. County rules

No county check has been run for Tennessee. That is not a finding that Tennessee’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; Tennessee was not one of them.

4. Cities checked - no published rule

59 cities in Tennessee were checked and have no published rule on this page. Of those, 59 returned no rule, and 0 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 59 were checked on 13 September 2026, in one sweep, so that date applies to every row. 1 has no municipal site recorded and is shown without a link rather than dropped, because dropping them would understate what was checked.

5. Clubs in Tennessee

12 in our directory for Tennessee - 6 verified against their own website or group, 6 we could not verify. Verified means we opened the link and read it. All Tennessee clubs on the club directory, with meeting nights and contacts where we have them.

• Chattanooga Civil War Round Table - Facebook group · Chattanooga · verified
• East Tennessee Metal Detecting - Facebook group · verified
• East Tennessee Relic & Coin Hunters - etrac-h.com · Facebook group · verified
• Metal Detecting Tennessee - Facebook group · verified
• Middle Tennessee Metal Detecting Club - Facebook page · verified
• Tennessee Relics Live - Facebook group · verified
• Chattanooga Area Relic & Historical Association - Chattanooga · could not verify
• MidSouth Metal Detecting Club - Memphis · could not verify
• Murfreesboro Metal Detecting Club - could not verify
• Search and Recovery Metal Detecting Club Mt - Mt. Carmel · could not verify
• Smokey Mt. Artifacts Research & Treasure Soc - could not verify
• Tri-State Coin & Relic Hunters Club - could not verify

6. Land this page does not cover

This page answers for Tennessee 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.