Virginia

Yes, on private land with the landowner’s written permission. That is the clearest legal route in Virginia, and it is the only thing we do.

Federal land is closed. Access to state land is decided by Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and the rules are not the same at every property. Private ground, with the owner’s written agreement, avoids all of it.

On federal land, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 makes it an offence to disturb or remove archaeological resources over 100 years old without a permit. The National Park Service prohibits metal detecting outright in national parks.

DCR sets the rules for Virginia state parks. Separately, state law protects archaeological objects and sites on state controlled land, which reaches further than the park system alone. Confirm with the managing office before assuming access to any state property.

We do not publish a summary of individual park rules, because they change and they differ site by site. The authority above is the one that decides, and they will answer directly.

Public land is complicated. Private land with written permission is not.

Ask the landowner and get it in writing, or book ground where the permission already exists. Knowing where to look is only half of it. The right to be standing there is the half that decides whether the day is detecting or trespass.

1. Identify the ground. Old maps, cellar holes, vanished settlements and terrain will all point you at likely land in Virginia. None of that grants access to it.
2. Find who owns it. County parcel records name the owner. Knocking on the door still works, and still fails most of the time.
3. Get the agreement in writing. Who may search, which fields, on what dates, what happens to anything found, and who carries the liability.
4. Or skip to the end. Every FieldFinders listing in Virginia is land whose owner has already agreed, set their own rate, and approves each request by name. The written search agreement comes with the booking.

Virginia carries more history per acre than any state on this coast. English settlement began at Jamestown in 1607, the colony spread up the rivers on tobacco, and Yorktown ended the Revolution in 1781. Then the Civil War was fought largely in Virginia, from First Manassas in 1861 to Appomattox in 1865, with both armies moving back over the same counties year after year. The result is farmland carrying three centuries of material, layered rather than scattered.

1. 1607Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America
2. 1600s to 1700sTobacco plantations up the James, York and Rappahannock
3. 1781Yorktown, and the end of the Revolution
4. 1861 to 1865Four years of campaigning across the north and centre of the state

Piedmont clay is heavy and iron rich, which is slow work but preserves brass and lead well. Tidewater soil is sandier and far easier going. Ploughed ground in the northern counties has been turning up material every season for a hundred and fifty years and has not stopped.

Colonial coppers, tobacco era buttons and buckles through the Tidewater, Civil War bullets, plates, buttons and camp material across the Piedmont, and domestic material anywhere a house stood. Every National Park Service battlefield is closed entirely, and there are a great many of them here.