MO City Overturns MD Ordinance

A victory for hobbyists everywhere as a Missouri city official actually contemplated the "real" repurcussions of the hobby and realized it's trivial to try and govern a harmless hobby.


"Carthage Mayor Mike Harris said 'exaggerated and erroneous information' led the council to give preliminary approval to an ordinance controlling metal detecting in city parks.

At Harris’ request, the Carthage City Council tabled indefinitely final consideration of the ordinance that would have required anyone wanting to use a metal detector in a city park to sign a request sheet and turn any artifact that was older than 100 years over to the city.

The vote to table was unanimous."

Read more HERE.

Store Owner Preaches Ethical Hunting

"The way Tim Garton sees it, historical artifacts -- and the stories behind them -- remain forever lost if they stay buried in the ground.

But the owner of Metal Detector Sales of Southwest Missouri cringes at the thought of treasure hunters randomly digging up artifacts, leaving holes behind, with no concern for ethically extracting or documenting what they find.

'I'm trying to get people educated on how to do it right,' said Garton, cofounder and treasurer of the 417 Relic Hunters metal detecting club in Springfield."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Bob Linder / News-Leader

MO Research: Rules to Hunt

A nice little read for Missouri hunters looking on places to hunt.

"So you just got a brand new metal detector and can't wait to go dig up buried treasure.

Slow down a bit.

Rules about where and how you can use the device vary greatly.

Metal detector hobbyists also emphasize the need to always get permission before any dig.

Metal detectors are not allowed in national parks -- including Wilson's Creek National Battlefield -- and hefty fines and even jail time await people who remove artifacts from federal lands."

Read more HERE.

30yr Old MD Find Gets Returned

"A piece of Mason City history has been returned after being found more than 30 years ago in southern Iowa.

R.J. Piatt of Glenwood, Mo., found a police commissioner lapel pin belonging to a Mason City man named S.A. Koch while prospecting with a metal detector at a home in Ottumwa sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Historical documents list Koch as a Mason City councilman in 1919-21."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Jeff Heinz / The Globe Gazette

K & M Discovery Team

I'd like to welcome all the fine members of the K&M Discovery Team here to Jimmy's MD Blog.

"The origin of the K & M Discovery Team actually began Labor day weekend 2009 when a few guys from the friendly metal detecting forum made some plans to hunt together. This group of guys lived in Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri and they all met in Clinton, Missouri that year for a hunt. In 2010 some of the same guys made plans to have yet another group hunt, this time in Sedalia, Missouri. These guys involved more friendly metal detecting forum members from the Missouri Hunters social group and the Kansas Hunters social group. A decision was made that year for our second annual hunt to hold a t-shirt design contest on the forum and call our event the Mo-Kan Hot Treasure Hunt. We later found out, the name was "taken" only after our event and contest was over and done with.

We came up with an idea to bring all of our treasure hunting friends together to create the K & M Discovery Team. With that idea in mind, we took the K and the O and then the M from Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and developed those letters into our logo and team name. We have since become known as a specialized group of your average everyday treasure hunters. A team made up of guys and gals, husbands and wives, friends and family members. We have also chosen not to charge anyone a membership fee to join the team.

That is how we became known as the "K & M Discovery Team." We do our best to, not only get together for our annual hunts, but to meet up with members for other hunts throughout the detecting season. As a team we will be detecting sites that have taken a lot of research and special permission just to get onto. These sites usually require walking long distances to and from and for the most part, they don't have facilities to accommodate you when nature calls.

The K & M Discovery Team holds their annual Diggin' It With Friends treasure hunt for all members of the forum in our area. We try our best to find a location that is central to as many of the forum and team members as possible and with all the creature comforts of home. Our annual event is the time when we can all get together for a day of hunting and socializing and have the chance to put a face with a name. This is a great time to strengthen friendships and make new ones. We give away prizes and hold a picnic of some kind at our events. We would like all team members to contribute whatever you can with making this annual event happen. Help us make this (always free) event grow!"

I'm more than happy to have you guys on the site, and just as happy to be a member... see you all at this year's hunt!

Those of you interested in becoming a member of the K&M Discovery Team, give a look over at their social group on FMDF: HERE.

As a side note, here are my entries for their 2011 T-Shirt contest... if you're interested in voting please click HERE.