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Sadly this type of crap happens all too often. I see the evidense of this much more on the above water metal detecting part of my life though. First off, these jokes that they call laws are written by archealogists who think that nobody but them and their archy pals should be allowed to take ANYTHING out of the ground. Then they have these laws put before the legislators (who know nothing about archies or treasure hunting) and they say 'hmmm, sounds good to me'. Then BAMM we are now criminals for picking up an arrow head or civil war bullet from our own property. This is no exageration either. In some states it is now illegal to collect anything over 50 years old from your own yard, coinage is sometimes exempted. And park rangers typically become the archies' strong-arm. Park rangers at national battlefield sites have been known to harrass and intimidate detectorist on private property, outside the park boundaries.
The whole notion of 'they're stealing our cultural heritage' is so much crap. If the state wanted or cared about these historical items, they would recover them themselves. Instead they prefer to let us recover them, then take them away and say we broke a law (which 99.99% of people dont even know exist)
In this case, it wasn't private property, but a river habitat patrolled by state officials.
Still, getting arrested for "theft" is lame. It's not like Massie was trespassing over a protected antiquities site; he just happened to pull up an old gun while diving. The man should be congratulated for recovering the artifact! Heck, that musket's now sitting somewhere at my university, probably being oogled by dozens of faculty and students!
what part of this story leaves out is how the arrest happened.
They basically were waiting on this guy at the boat dock when he got back.
a DNR cop, regular cop and some other people. It was a political arrest.
I don't know the person involved, but he has a huge collection of artifacts
on display in his store I'm told. He'll show them to anyone i'm told.
Ironically, I think he "was" planning on donating them to the Alabama Historical
Society, which is part ot the group I think that had him arrested. (I
think that is correct, but not 100% sure).
I'm for preserving shipwrecks personally. If there are tools or rifles or coins laying around, leave them sit. Take photogaphs. Thirty years ago the wrecks around here were routinely looted. The items recovered were never seen again by anybody as they sat in peoples garages for the most part. There have been laws inacted and it has slowed the looting down, but it will never stop. If its something on your own land, its yours as far as I'm concerned. But if its on a paddle wheel steamer that went down in 1856 or a brig that went down in 1865, look at it, photograph it, but leave it on the wreck for others to examine. We wreck dive to see the wrecks. if some idiot destroys part of the wreck to recover a go***mn pickle jar all the divers that come after suffer. Yes it has happened. I'll get off my box now. Looting is one of my pet peaves though. Usually the national guard shoots those people. To bad I can't get that job as a diver. Its too important of a job to be left with the imbeciles who call themselves DNR.
all kinds of additional info on this at this URL below.
note, it's in reverse order with latest info posted at top. so you'll
have to scroll to the bottom and read stories going upward for
them to be logical order
I'm for preserving shipwrecks personally. If there are tools or rifles or coins laying around, leave them sit. Take photogaphs. Thirty years ago the wrecks around here were routinely looted. The items recovered were never seen again by anybody as they sat in peoples garages for the most part. There have been laws inacted and it has slowed the looting down, but it will never stop. If its something on your own land, its yours as far as I'm concerned. But if its on a paddle wheel steamer that went down in 1856 or a brig that went down in 1865, look at it, photograph it, but leave it on the wreck for others to examine. We wreck dive to see the wrecks. if some idiot destroys part of the wreck to recover a go***mn pickle jar all the divers that come after suffer. Yes it has happened. I'll get off my box now. Looting is one of my pet peaves though. Usually the national guard shoots those people. To bad I can't get that job as a diver. Its too important of a job to be left with the imbeciles who call themselves DNR.
Jim
That point is well understood and I agree with it in some instances, like in the Great Lakes, or Truk where there is significant historical value, and the wreck and its artifacts can be visited by the many. But a musket on the bottom of a muddy river, that if not picked up will likely never be seen again, is a different story. Rivers are routinely dredged, or subjected to pipleine and dock constructions. Or floods will wash the artifact completely away or damage it shortly after its exposure on the river bottom. I personally would donate such an item as a musket to a museum, and I agree that no one should bring up anything they aren't prepared to conserve properly. The majority of artifacts in museums are actually found by non-acedemics. If we waited for archeologist to bring things like this and deep shipwreck artifacts, the museums and the science would suffer. For a good read on the subject, read about the recovery of the Wydah, and the recovery of the SS Republic and how private salvors contribute to scientific historical knowledge. Yet, read Daniel Lenihans book about his service with the Park Services Cultural Rescources Unit and it seems like a lot of worthless diving junkets on taxpayers dollars, the I learned absolutely nothing from.
I'm for preserving shipwrecks personally. If there are tools or rifles or coins laying around, leave them sit. Take photogaphs. Thirty years ago the wrecks around here were routinely looted. The items recovered were never seen again by anybody as they sat in peoples garages for the most part. There have been laws inacted and it has slowed the looting down, but it will never stop. If its something on your own land, its yours as far as I'm concerned. But if its on a paddle wheel steamer that went down in 1856 or a brig that went down in 1865, look at it, photograph it, but leave it on the wreck for others to examine. We wreck dive to see the wrecks. if some idiot destroys part of the wreck to recover a go***mn pickle jar all the divers that come after suffer. Yes it has happened. I'll get off my box now. Looting is one of my pet peaves though. Usually the national guard shoots those people. To bad I can't get that job as a diver. Its too important of a job to be left with the imbeciles who call themselves DNR.
Jim
I'm for preserving shipwrecks personally. If there are tools or rifles or coins laying around, leave them sit. (Posted by SwimJim)
I guess you promptly replaced that anchor in your avitar back where you found it after taking a few photos.......
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Originally Posted by SwimJim
