The State says that you can hunt Most State parks with permission of the park Manager. ......
This is not an uncommon "easy answer" that gets into print, at a variety of places. And a bit of "back-story" is in order :
In the 1980s (pre-internet era), a fellow wrote a book called "Treasure Laws of the United States". His attempt was to make a one-stop-shopping compendium detailing the laws, regarding each of the 50 state's state parks. Such that people who, for example, travel around in RV's, can simply turn alphabetically to each state's page, and know right-off-the-bat whether allowed or not -allowed.
And the way the author went about it , was (drum-roll): Asked. Yup, he xeroxed off 50 copies of the exact same letter, and mailed it to each state capitol heads-of-park's dept. The letter read something to the effect of
"What is your state park's policy regarding the use of metal detectors ", blah blah.
Pretty noble effort, eh ? And who-better-to-ask, than the powers-that-be there, eh ?
And, like your quote here, many of them, who perhaps had no express DIS-allowance (ie.: silent on the subject) would answer back, with odd answers like you cite. Ie.: "With permission" or "Inquire at each kiosk you come to", or "at the discretion of manager of individual site", blah blah.
Thus readers of the book took that to mean that they had to get permission at every park they came to. That certainly sounds like what the answer conveys, eh ?
BUT ODDLY, when you look into the ACTUAL WORDING of the park's rules and laws, it NEVER ACTUALLY SAYS "with permission" anywhere. In other words, whomever was saying this, was just giving .... uh ... the easy answer. And yes, for sure an individual park ranger can indeed call-the-shots on his terrain. Ie.: tell someone to stop doing something dangerous, etc... And sure, perhaps *some* state parks have a historical sensitive theme (that common sense logic tells us md'rs to avoid). Thus the *easy* answer was "With permission" or "inquire everywhere" blah blah.
Yet it doesn't actually say that anywhere, in actual laws or rules. It was merely commentary, so-to-speak. And after the book came out, you had old-timers scratching their heads saying "since when ?" . It was CLEARLY a giant case of:
"no one cared, till you asked" routine. And in those states, with the "with permission" line, no one was "asking permission", as it had simply never been an issue.
Then the problem with the people showing up at each individual park's office, and asking , as the book says, was a giant "self-fulfilling loop". Where this "pressing question" perpetually now pops up. And rank-&-staff at each location, pass the question up-the-chain to a purist archie. And then guess what happens ? Pretty soon, it becomes a new or invented rule, or policy that now-becomes-in-print. Gee, aren't we glad we all asked ?
I was there, as a young man, when all of this evolved. So I saw it first hand happen exactly like that.
.... However if one finds a relic you must leave it where found and inform the Manager of the location......
Oh gee, and let me guess how many md'rs "rush to the nearest ranger station" to turn in all their old cool objects. Eh ?
Reminds me of the "permit" that NYC dreamed up. In the fine print, on the back, it too says that any object over .... I think ... $25 value must be turned in to the city. And when a city personnel was interviewed, several years after the invention of this permit, could recall no items ever brought in to the city. Gee I guess those NYC hunters never find valuable objects, eh ?