Courthouse

Just being on the National Register has nothing to do with what you can and can't detect.

I went ahead and called the courthouse and they basically laughed at me and said no. Oh well doesnt hurt to try.

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spencer817 said:

....and said no.....

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Welcome to the "No one cared until you asked" club.

Tom_in_CA said:

Welcome to the "No one cared until you asked" club.

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In this thread and others, I am definitely seeing the value of your school of thought on this subject.

For people like this saying no is just the easy way out. This is definitely a lesson I'm taking with myself going forward.

PrussianBleu said:

In this thread and others, I am definitely seeing the value of your school of thought on this subject.

For people like this saying no is just the easy way out. This is definitely a lesson I'm taking with myself going forward.

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Ha, well thanks for the kind words. And I'll be the first to acknowledge it's a personal unhealthy "bee in my bonnet"

Having started in the mid 1970s as a teenager, it amazed me that , during the 1980s, for example, I'd bump into people saying "such & such spot is off-limits". Yet oddly, they were often-time spots that had never been an issue before. So us oldtimers were left scratching our heads saying "since when ?"

And the more I looked into the evolutions, the more my theory began to be confirmed.

spencer817 said:

I went ahead and called the courthouse and they basically laughed at me and said no. Oh well doesnt hurt to try.

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Don't feel bad I am a County employee and work in the maintenance department at a1890 courthouse,and I was told no.

Dan B. said:

Don't feel bad I am a County employee and work in the maintenance department at a1890 courthouse,and I was told no.

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It doesn't surprise me that the safe "no" would come, even to employees. Reminds me of the following true story :

Our detecting club was owed a favor by the local sheriff's dept, because we'd helped them find a murder weapon that had been ditched near a crime scene. And in exchange, I .... as club president, asked them to allow our club to have a group outing at their local Posse-grounds picnic site. It was a picnic site that dated back to the 1920s/30s. And it's open by reservation only, for things like group events, weddings, rodeos, etc...

The sheriff's agreed, and the date was set. The plan was that the caretaker of the picnic grounds would meet us to open the gate, on the appointed day.

The club members all showed up on the appointed day, and the caretaker was there to open the gate and let us in. And as he did, he was a bit ... uh ... "miffed". And told me that he had a detector too. And that he had asked his superiors for "permission to metal detect there" (at the place HE WORKS AT, mind you), and they'd told him "no". Yet now here he was, opening the gates for an entire group to detect ? He just couldn't understand it.

And what was also odd was that I happened to know for a fact that this place had been routinely detected for years and years by all sorts of past md'rs (whenever the gates are occasionally opened for other purposes). So it struck me as odd that he even needed to "ask", in the first place. Especially given that he is the caretaker !

Moral of the story ?

Typically the county courthouse is overseen by the county it's in. Try another county, they may have a different answer for you. I maintained the outside of an 1840's courthouse in the 70's and they probably wouldn't have allowed that even back then. And I don't think the historical nature of it would have had that much to do with it as it was and still is in active use to the public. A lot of counties have bought private properties for future county development and most of the time these are pre 1900's properties. Don't discount these as they don't fall under they're "park rules" typically. You have to know where there out though

kweis said:

.... Try another county, they may have a different answer for you. ....

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Why even play that arbitrary whimsical Russian Roulette anyhow ? Even if/when the day comes that someone can fetch a "yes" with their grovelling, I guarantee you that I can go to that exact same courthouse lawn @ the following day, ask another authority-figure there, and get an entirely different answer. Just depends on who you ask, how you phrase the question, and their mood and image of your actions.

So why even go there ? Since when is md'ing so evil that it needs someone's princely permission say-so ?

I treat courthouse lawn parks no different than any other county park. And I do not hesitate to hunt them, whenever and wherever I go.

And naturally, like ANY park, you avoid obvious historic sensitive monuments, and don't be in the middle of deep retrievals if busy-bodies are studying you, etc.... Ie.: Use a little common sense. But beyond that, no, I refuse to be the latest victim of "No one cared till you asked" routine.

Dan B. said:

Don't feel bad I am a County employee and work in the maintenance department at a1890 courthouse,and I was told no.

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You're in the maintenance department, you're not metal detecting, you're looking for the main suppling water since you suspect there may be a slow leak in it. You will find and repair it to save the county money and do it on company time as well.

T-Man said:

You're in the maintenance department, you're not metal detecting, you're looking for the main suppling water since you suspect there may be a slow leak in it. You will find and repair it to save the county money and do it on company time as well.

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Correct. And not only that, he's also looking for the wedding ring his niece lost their last week. He should be given a medal for his altruism !