Army Corps Engineers Metal Detecting Question

I have NEVER found anything of any value what-so-ever on any COE beach

If one is with any government agency I have never found anything of value. Well maybe a few zinc pennies.

Texas has some nutty laws over COE lakes too. Some give permits out, some lakes just say no detecting at all. Mind you, these lakes by be are what I generally describe as a mudhole lakes to begin with.

I've found jewelry in these places over time. Rings and stud earrings, sand is cool to detect. So, say a ring is found, silver-melt value is maybe $10 tops. Whatcha gonna do? The COE's main office on site, is a good 5-10 dollar trip, gas, wear and tear, just to return a ring with is almost guaranteed to be for melt value only. It is idiotic to not simply keep it as a private memory.

The COE should appreciate metal detectors. We are constantly packing out the trash we surface in digs. Just like turkey buzzards...we are excellent scavengers and garbage collectors.

I ain't hunted a local lake in a few years. Closest lake to me quit giving the permits altogether. I do know that others are hunting them and they seem surprised to hear it's not "all OK".

A long time ago I worked for the ACOE in the personnel dept covering employee personnel files over a multistate area, when they drastically downsized the workforce, my workload pretty much doubled, (and it was already too much) and their "catch phrase" was "work smarter, not harder" as if that magically would solve things, I told the boss there is a physical limit to how much one person can do in a day no matter how "smart" they work

Anyhow the stress level from trying to keep up with an unhealthy workload started to effect my health so I had to end up quitting for the sake of my health.

As far as detecting COE lands I don't ever remember hearing anything about it pro or con when I worked there (I was not a detectorist at the time).

AtomDetector said:

....So has anybody ever found any items over the value of $25 if so did they let you keep it after you turned it in? ...

Click to expand...

Atom-detector, welcome to the forum. I am going to skip all the other aspects of your question (the particular type entity of government, and the tone of "permitted" or "prohibited, etc....). I'm just going straight to the part of your question that stood out. The part quoted above. Namely, the valuation factor, and "turning in an item", etc..

Let me save you some time: If this is the bugaboo that concerns you, then don't stop at COE land. Keep going to all levels of govt. land. Eg.: city, county, state, federal of ANY of sub-types within any of those. And you will find that all 50 states have lost & found laws. That sound very similar to what you found at the COE level.

They have varying criteria levels of $50 to $200-ish value cutoffs. By which , if you find something worth that much or more, you are to turn it in to the police dept. for proper lost & found procedures. The laws were born out of wandering cattle laws of the 1800s. And they make perfect sense. So that a crook can not say he "found" a mountain bike propped up next to the fountain in the park. Or if a Brink's armored car door swings open on the freeway, you can not scoop up cash and say "finder's keepers". Ie.: there's obligations for you to turn in to the police. Then ... supposedly ... in 30 days, if no one claims it, you can go claim it (if/when you pay storage/handling fees, etc...).

So don't stop at COE. You can't keep valuable items ANYWHERE you find them. So take a look at the other replies you've gotten so far. Take a look down the pages of any md'ing show & tell forums (esp. beach hunting forums where jewelry tends to be the finds). And ask yourself: How realistic is it go running to the police station each time ?

I bet that when such a rule gets SPECIFICALLY spelled out, when it comes to md'ing (such as you found) can probably be traced back to some well-meaning md'r, ages ago, waltzing into some pencil-pushing bureaucrat asking "Can we metal detect here?". They desk-jockey passes it past the legal dept, who finds something to "apply to the pressing issue". Then ... presto: It gets pushed into service and put into the rule book. Did anyone actually ever care ? Probably not.