• Forum server maintanace Friday night.(around 7PM Centeral time)
    Website will be off line for a short while.

    You may need to log out, log back in after we're back online.

Cemeteries and ethics....

Kale1278

Junior Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2020
Messages
93
Location
Sherman, TX
I had never seen anyone one metal detecting before, but now that I have gotten into the hobby I see people hunting all over.... kind of funny that I have not noticed it before.

Anyway, while driving home earlier I saw a guy detecting right outside of a cemetery.... he was outside the fenece but right up on it. I have never detected close enough to a cemetery to make anyone take a double look.

What do you all think about hunting that close to one? I’m undecided, I mean the guy wasn’t not inside but just doesn’t seem right to me. Thoughts?
 
The ethics of the detectorist digging in a cemetery is a big issue, but not the main issue (tho certainly a debate can be had on that issue); the real issue is how we are perceived.

We don't want to be perceived that way, so don't do it.

One does it, we are all lumped that way, just like we are all lumped in with the jackwagon who does not fill their holes.

I remember asking permission at a state park (which is the protocol in PA), and the ranger's station overlooked a 1700's cemetery. He was dismayed and said everyone hunts the cemetery. He wasn't gonna give me permission, but I said, truthfully, that I discovered the location of an 1800's train station in the park and I want to hunt that. It was a large park and far from the cemetery. He was ok, since he could see the cemetery, but the point remains about perception.

Just don't do it. If you can't find good sites to hunt besides cemeteries, you are in the wrong hobby.
 
Well I don’t hunt in or near cemeteries.... I was more looking to start a conversation about how close is too close.

The closest I have been is across a gravel road at a soccer field. I was just shocked that I saw someone right outside the fence of one today.
 
I’ve found many cemetery’s deep in the woods through the years . When I do detect I never go into the confines of the cemetery as most are small family plots . I do however occasionally detect the approaches to the cemetery as well as areas they may have parked the wagons when visiting.
 
Obviously an ethical prohibition on digging things up where you know people were laid to rest would cover the marked bounds of a cemetery. But people were often buried just outside of the known bounds of cemeteries. Either they may not have been able to afford a plot in the cemetery proper, or they were buried before the cemetery was established and bounded. In one case that came to mind, a grave that was lost 180 years ago and was only confirmed the year before last, was found just outside of an abandoned cemetery and probably had plenty of people walk right over it not knowing it was there.

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/coryell-james

The story of the grave of James Coryell is really interesting, at least to me.

Any way, the point is that you might actually be detecting and digging on someone's grave even if you're intentionally staying right outside of the marked cemetery boundaries.
 
The ground shifts over time so as many said outside the confines might be the new resting place of some. That being said it’s best to use some common sense.
 
I was once given permission to hunt an old historic cemetery but backed away. But I have detected around the outside of the walls. But in reality, the whole world is a cemetery so I’m not too judging on this.
 
I know a guy who owns an old 1800s cemetery. It was included with the farm that he bought. He deliberately told me to detect it because I was asking permission to detect the farm. I might detect the perimeter of it at night so traffic doesn’t see me but it just doesn’t feel like fun.
 
Well I don’t hunt in or near cemeteries.... I was more looking to start a conversation about how close is too close.

The closest I have been is across a gravel road at a soccer field. I was just shocked that I saw someone right outside the fence of one today.

If you use the search feature here you will find all your answers :lol:


This topic comes up all the time its been beaten to death ;)


I grabbed one for you.. enjoy :D

https://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=147017
 
I have permission to detect the 2 oldest cemeteries in Reno. The original pioneer cemetery and the one established when Reno became a town. I haven’t taken the caretaker up on the offer though.
 
I have permission to detect the 2 oldest cemeteries in Reno. The original pioneer cemetery and the one established when Reno became a town. I haven’t taken the caretaker up on the offer though.

Chris : I authorize you to come and hunt any and all cemeteries in CA. Because it is I, yes I, that own all the cemeteries here.

It's the least I can do for a fine fellow forumite such as yourself. :cool3:
 
I had never seen anyone one metal detecting before, but now that I have gotten into the hobby I see people hunting all over.... kind of funny that I have not noticed it before.

Anyway, while driving home earlier I saw a guy detecting right outside of a cemetery.... he was outside the fenece but right up on it. I have never detected close enough to a cemetery to make anyone take a double look.

What do you all think about hunting that close to one? I’m undecided, I mean the guy wasn’t not inside but just doesn’t seem right to me. Thoughts?

Why care? If he is not in the cemetary, and on public property what would it matter? Hunting close to an area that is psychologically objectionable or a historic landmark does not make it illegal or wrong.
 
Hey,as long as you don't have a bonesaw in your sheath instead of a leshe I think you'll be ok. Not good ethics to be cutting fingers off to get the rings:laughing:
 
I feel its bad form and disrespectful for many of the reasons given. But I've known folks that wouldn't hesitate to do it.

The draw seems to be the coins. Each culture is different. I once had an old timer tell me that a tradition was for each person to toss a coin in the grave as the dirt was being filled in. Those that couldn't make the actual burial pressed coins into the covered earth.

In another state we lived in, the grounds keeper had a jar filled with coins that were left on headstones and the perimeter fence. I believe the coins on the military graves were just pressed into the soil.
 
I feel its bad form and disrespectful for many of the reasons given. But I've known folks that wouldn't hesitate to do it.

The draw seems to be the coins. Each culture is different. I once had an old timer tell me that a tradition was for each person to toss a coin in the grave as the dirt was being filled in. Those that couldn't make the actual burial pressed coins into the covered earth.

In another state we lived in, the grounds keeper had a jar filled with coins that were left on headstones and the perimeter fence. I believe the coins on the military graves were just pressed into the soil.

Coins on the military graves around here are placed on top of the headstones. I see many like that at the National Cemetery

Steve
 
I get why people would want to search around/in graveyards. Probably all kinds of nice old coins/relics that mourning, emotionally destroyed people have dropped in there! I guarantee the people residing in the graveyard won’t care if you detect it. The people driving by or visiting a grave would definitely take offense to somebody swinging a detector and digging in the cemetery 😂. There are other places to go detect. Searching in or around cemetery is bad for the image of all detectors! JMO
 
Nothing left anyways, guys cleaned ‘em up years ago.
Plenty of opportunities though.

I once was given permission by a Catholic priest to hunt the cemetery of a large old country church. I declined, of course. Later, I dug my first Morgan dollar on the picnic grounds.

The mayor of a college town here gave me permission to hunt the large city cemetery.
The city worker at the cemetery also gave permission to hunt the same place.
Why was I in that cemetery?

I was installing hi-speed internet.
 
Coins on the military graves around here are placed on top of the headstones. I see many like that at the National Cemetery

Steve

Yes, that's traditional at most cemeteries, however, after a period of time they are removed. This particular cemetery pressed the coins into the soil.
 
I get why people would want to search around/in graveyards. Probably all kinds of nice old coins/relics that mourning, emotionally destroyed people have dropped in there! I guarantee the people residing in the graveyard won’t care if you detect it. The people driving by or visiting a grave would definitely take offense to somebody swinging a detector and digging in the cemetery 😂. There are other places to go detect. Searching in or around cemetery is bad for the image of all detectors! JMO

This pretty much covers it.
 
Back
Top Bottom