Metal Detecting in Kentucky State Property
Metal Detecting in Louisville City Parks and Property
Metal Detecting in Lexington City Parks and Property
Cities Don’t Need a Metal Detecting Ordinance to Ask You to Stop.
“Defacing or destroying public property” and “excavation” ordinances are on the books in almost every city and county in KY and are applicable to digging if public officials want to. These governments/councils do not need to enact specialty “metal detecting” ordinances any more than they need to enact “chopping down trees” ordinances.
They can readily and legally apply the general defacement or excavation ordinance to ask you to stop or even issue fines. If a county or city official gives you the go-ahead, realize that they may not have the authority to do so.
Metal Detecting in Other County and Small Town Property
Many small town parks lack any real enforcement, and if you’re friendly, most city officials will leave you alone. But this is more because of the nature of relaxed small towns than any lack of ordinances.
Metal Detecting in City or County-Owned Roadway Easements
Metal Detecting in Kentucky Streams, Rivers and Waterways
Kentucky has public trust / public use easement for commercially navigable waterways. This means if you can use the waterway for commerce most of the year, then it may be considered public property, and state property rules apply. This doesn’t mean you can float a dinghy or canoe and call it “navigable.” Here is a really well done article on this matter with references. Almost every waterway you can detect in is going to be private property with no public easement. Good article here on this.
Metal Detecting in Federal Property
(This includes Land Between the Lakes Federal Area. I know the head Archaeologist at LBL and verified this)
No. Just no. Don’t even pretend to do it. You’ll lose your detector and even the vehicle you used to drive there. Archaeology permits are required for this (in case you’ve seen my posts about detecting in Gettysburg, etc.) and it is extremely unlikely that you’ll ever gain one of these as a non-professional.
The Antiquities Act and Federal Preservation laws laws apply and are very strict.
Metal Detecting in Kentucky County or City Schools
Most school boards will say “no” if you ask them, but they are usually pleased to see litter removal. School grounds staff are usually very friendly and curious, but if they ask you to leave, don’t make life hard on them. If there’s a school you really want to detect, you can approach a member of the school board in question with the usual “leave it better than when I arrived” promises.