'historical Preservation'

You have to be careful, there are many places where they will confiscate your machine if they catch you. It falls under the law entitled "we're the police, we're allowed to steal stuff".

I'd just be very cautious when metal detecting in various state parks/beaches/monuments. I imagine many ghost towns are state or national landmarks so one must be cautious there. It is often illegal to keep a rock or pine cone or anything from those places (which I still would do if all alone).

Kurt......

Do you know the story of Ishi.....the last Yahi indian ? I believe he was the last surviving Yahi Indian after the tribe was taken out through raids and even the Governor of California put a bounty on any Yahi scalp brought in. This took place in the very late 1800's, near the turn of the century.
That's a very fascinating story ! Grahm Greene (Native American) played that role in an amazing movie about Ishi's life and the Professor from the University that took him in.
My uncle lives in the Fremont, Ca. area and his wife's relatives own property that is where Ishi and the Yahi Indians lived. He says there are "mounds" in the area and artifacts are found all the time just laying around after a rain.
I sooooooo want to take a walk in that area !

Good !.....not many people seem to know about it. It really was a great movie too. I made my Uncle watch the movie and he became facinated and I pointed out that "this area" wasn't all that far from him. Then I bought him several books about Ishi and the Yahi. And so he eventually realized that the same place where his wifes family has property was the same general location. He, for years, remembered them talking about these mounds and always finding stuff, but none of them knew about the Yahi or Ishi until my Uncle told them and showed them maps and areas and village locations and campsites and historical "occurences" with white men, etc. etc. (thanks originally to me of course bringing this to his attention and providing him with the material!)
And so someday, when I visit them, I may get to walk the same ground as Ishi, possibly near the spot where his wife and children were slain......dunno. But I'd do it with great respect and reverence for what happened to him and his people.
I'm not sure if I could disturb even a "refuse" pile, but if an object was just laying on the dirt as I'm walking along ?.......I don't know.
But, yeah, a very "moving" "soul stirring" film if anybody's interested in the plight of what many tribes had to endure.

Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce in Washington State was another heartbreaking/facinating story........but there's sooooo many !

You better not tell anyone about your "back yard" find Kurt !
They (the state, or a tribe) may try to claim ownership of your yard.....or close it off until they can come in there and complete an archaeological dig fact finding mission or something ! They might tell ya that you have to move ......or arrest ya for disturbing the arrowhead on what was previously unknown sacred ground.....
shhhhhhh !

eaglefoot, I think there must be a statue of limitations here because as far as I know, no tribe has laid claim to a homeowner's property. However, they did halt development of hill/ridge where native artifacts were found. I'm glad they won in that case--and preserved some of their heritage, as their identity is tied to the land.

Yeah...2/1/2 hours away, probably not Yahi. From what I've read, a lot of CA tribes used mounds, sometimes for burials or sometimes not. Usually though, if there was a "dump" mound, a burial was nowhere near. I don't blame them for keeping quiet, because things can get really difficult. An example is "Kennewick Man", a prehistoric burial scientists uncovered near the Columbia river in WA. Despite being 9300 years old, the remains were claimed by 5 different tribes, although there isn't a direct cultural or skeletal link to any contemporary tribe. In fact, some scientists argue the body is closest to the Ainu of Japan. Surprising results.