Got permission from Park Director Some do understand!!

[SearcherBilly]

My day job brought me to a park District office one day. After my work was done, I happen to talk to Director and brought up our hobby. I asked if it is ok to detect in his parks. His answer was yes. We have guys all the time, what little damage they do is no big thing, just kinda stay away or be careful in the "nice" grass. He said his budget is so low that yeah he wishes his parks could have nicer turf but it just ain't gonna happen. They cant even afford weed killer he said. He even says he wishes he had more time and he would like to try himself.
The reason I am sharing is there are bureaucrats that understand and are realistic. I was so elated at his response and hope to further our relationship down the road. I felt was like a school kid asking the prettiest girl to the dance not wanting to hear NO! I did realize if I didn't I would just hate myself later and just would always wonder. I think dealing with the person in charge will help down the road. If anyone below him tells me to get lost I can always say "xxxx said it was OK "
In this case it worked for me will try another town maybe in same manner sans the day job part.
Billy

 

[Greek2Me]

You just never know until you ask. Congrats on the go ahead.

G2M

 

[blk86trbo]

Way to go and good luck at the park!

 

[Liberty_1776]

I just recently asked the park district director in my town for permission. I got a email response saying 1) thanks for asking permission out of respect for your local park 2)they don't see any reason why I would not be able to use the park for recreational metal detecting purposes. This is great because the park is in the middle of town, it has a baseball field, a pond, sand volleyball court, they show outdoor movies there, and the best part... The town was established in 1886. I'm not sure how long the park has been around but I know it's been there at least since the 60's, probably longer.

Just goes to show there are still some people out there who understand.

 

[dogbit]

I do believe that most of the people who actually are in charge of the parks don't mind at all as long as we take care. I believe most issues come from non-hunting "citizens" who seem to think the parks are there for only their pleasure and have no idea how detecting works. I've talked to many a ranger, caretaker etc, and have always had a pleasant experience with them. Now then that being said, I've had more than one tell me about people that they did toss out because they were either not filling there holes or they were out there with a full sized shovel digging craters and making a mess. Respect goes a long way in this hobby.

 

[Dark Chameleon]

I just recently asked the park district director in my town for permission. I got a email response saying 1) thanks for asking permission out of respect for your local park 2)they don't see any reason why I would not be able to use the park for recreational metal detecting purposes. This is great because the park is in the middle of town, it has a baseball field, a pond, sand volleyball court, they show outdoor movies there, and the best part... The town was established in 1886. I'm not sure how long the park has been around but I know it's been there at least since the 60's, probably longer.

Just goes to show there are still some people out there who understand.

Haveyou got a nice waterproof detector?...i know i been waiting to do my first water look see...mines a local park with a lake, island and history of some witch they chased onto the island and forced to stay there till she died years later....if theres sand though most of its trucked on so no relics usually...but plenty of clad...thos kids drop everything..even got two tot parks...love the parks...and the fact massachusetts is a mostly detector friendly state

 

[Liberty_1776]

Haveyou got a nice waterproof detector?...i know i been waiting to do my first water look see...mines a local park with a lake, island and history of some witch they chased onto the island and forced to stay there till she died years later....if theres sand though most of its trucked on so no relics usually...but plenty of clad...thos kids drop everything..even got two tot parks...love the parks...and the fact massachusetts is a mostly detector friendly state

Nope, all I have is an Ace 250. I'm not too interested in the water right now though. I did look at some historical aerial photos and the pond and park have been there since at least 1938. I see where some old paths were from the photos and an area where they cleared some trees in the center of the park between the 30's 50's. The same picnic shelter that is still there has been there from the 30's as well. I can't wait to go check it out soon.

 

[traie38]

I did the same thing the other day...I looked up the county/city park ordinances for my area, and discovered that metal detecting is allowed with permission from the individual park supervisor. Well, since I wanted to detect multiple county/city parks, I thought the heck with it, I'd go straight to the county Park & Rec Director. I looked his email addy up on the city web site, and sent him a message explaining who I was and what my intentions were and asked if I could possibly get a "blanket" okay for all the city/county parks. He emailed me back the next day with the go-ahead and told me to use a printout of the email from him as my blanket permission slip. Awesome! I am going to keep the copy of the email with me when I go to these parks so that I might provide documentation to anyone, especially police officers or park workers, that might ask me what I'm doing.

 

[hillbillydigger]

The most important thing to tell them you will do and what you should always do is carry out all the garbage you find. Don't toss the pulltabs back like so many idiot MD'ers here do.

 

[flyguy784]

Permission

I posted this in another thread, but it's yet another positive experience.

A ray of hope however. Yesterday I sent an E mail to the director of parks and recreation in a nearby town. I respectfully requested to MD in a historic park, it's been a central attraction in the town since the mid 1800's. Concerts, flower sales, coble stone walks, the whole nine yards. His response, "Of course you may pursue your metal detecting there, please do fill in your holes". I almost wet my pants. Now there's kind of a yuppy community group that volunteers to take care of the park. They clean up after groups, plant flowers and mulch. Do park bake sales to pay for the little concerts they have etc. I figured, they're definetly going to have a problem with this activity. Soooo, I wrote them an E mail. Letting them know of my intentions and that I had the city guys OK. Their response, " Thank you for checking first, we'd be happy to have you enjoy your metal detecting in our park, we merely ask that you leave the park as you found it". This time I did wet my pants (but I'm old and feable, it happens now and then anyway). I was bowled over with their responses. So it does work.

 

[MD610]

Flyguy - Are you referring to the park in Downingtown? I'm thinking of getting into MD'ing but want to reassure myself sites are available before spending $. I'm from East Fallowfield.

 

[flyguy784]

MD610, yes sites are available. I've only been doing this for a few weeks now and the more I research, the more sites I find. We're very fortunate that we live where we do. Our local history goes back into the 1600's. If you go to , http://www.historicmapworks.com , you will see that nothing in our area is as it once was. Old farms, mills, roads, even the old trolley tracks to Downingtown. I don't know much about the places to go find "clad" and have concentrated my efforts on more historic locations. By that I mean places where I can hunt, that were once populated or inhabited. I'm fortunate to know quite a few people in Marshalton. They're working on getting me permission to hunt on some of the local, very old (early 1700's) farmsteads etc. In other words, where there's a will, there's a way. In my years of hunting snakes, fishing, bird watching and fossiling, I recall many old foundations in remote areas that I can now visit with a different goal.

If you're interested in clad. Look into the Downingtown Fair grounds, the West Goshen Fair grounds. Places like that. I'm very good friends with a guy that lives on a big farm in the area that goes back to the late 1700's. It has many out buildings and I now have complete run of the property. Basically, word of mouth and tapping into people you know will pay dividends.

I have a small woodlot near my house. By doing some research, I found out it was once part of a thriving farm. Before that, a grist mill with several buildings now long gone. When I started MD'ing, a scant three weeks or so ago, I went there and tryed to put myself in the mindset of that time. Where would people sit, eat, relax and get out of the heat. Thus far I've found 2- Mecury dimes, a 1916 and a 1917, my first wheat (1927), a middle 1800's bullet and my favorite find, a 1700's stirrup. Two home made lead fishing sinkers and more headstamps than I care to count.

Yea, locations are available!

 

[MD610]

Flyguy - Very interesting, thanks for sharing. I think I'll give it a try.