Treasure hunters with metal detectors damage Oregon Trail

Documenting the damage (Photo: Zeke Robinson)

In the US, the BLM is seeking information from metal detectorists wanting to help individuals damaging archaeological evidence along the Oregon Trail near Burley in south-central Idaho. These people used metal detectors and shovels to illegally search for artifacts, federal officials said.

Bureau of Land Management officials are in disbelief after a massive amount of damage to BLM property. The BLM is investigating ripped up trail heads at the Oregon Trail near Burley. Archaeologists describe it as one of the worst cases of damage to historical public land in their careers. "So about six weeks ago our Burley field Office archaeologist was out near the Milner Historic Recreation area. She was with a group of volunteers and they were out doing trail work when they discovered a hole and then another hole," said Heather Tiel-Nelson with the Bureau of Land Management. In total three hundred and sixy holes had been dug along the historic Oregon Trail. "We assume that what happened is someone used a metal detector to discover where the artifacts were along this section of the Oregon Trail," said Nelson. Artifacts and gold coins can be worth major cash. [...] The BLM is hoping that education and awareness will prevent more damage from occurring at historical sites.

Yeah, right. Educate them.[The Oregon trail begins in St Louis doesn't it? St Louis with its looted mummy mask.]

Bureau of Land Management officials said they recently found about 400 holes over several miles of the trail, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and protected under the Archaeological Resource Protection Act of 1979. The holes are along wagon ruts made in the 1800s through the dirt and sagebrush by thousands of immigrants heading to Oregon, officials said.[...] BLM Burley Field Office Archaeologist Suzann Henrikson. "The recent damage to the trail near Burley has resulted in a significant loss of history for the American public".

We will see if law-abiding metal detectorists give the authorities any tips. 400 artefacts do not just disappear.

People with metal detectors likely visited the site in hopes of finding valuable artifacts. Henrikson has been expecting something like this to happen for a while, in part because of two TV shows. One on the cable channel Spike TV originally called "American Digger", now "Savage Family Diggers", features a former pro wrestler and a lot of explosions. It’s about people who go out with metal detectors, find and dig up historic artifacts and sell them. The National Geographic Channel has a less intense version called "Diggers".

You just have to see the gross video in this story (sensibly they've fixed it so you cannot embed it in blogs discussing responsible treatment of the records of a place's past):

One man's ruins another man's treasure
(One man's historic site another man's hoiking ground)

"H.V., baby", measured in dollars and cents.



 Adam Cotterell, 'Treasure Hunters Destroy Idaho’s Historic Oregon Trail Ruts' Wed August 28, 2013.

Associated Press  'Treasure hunters with metal detectors damage Oregon Trail', Aug 26, 2013

Brandon Redmond, 'Bureau Of Land Management Investigates Damage To Oregon Trail', KMVT News Aug 26, 2013

UPDATE 30.08.13:
Just for the record, because some artefact hunting metal detectorist is writing otherwise, the news items came to me from two separate Google alerts and then somebody in the States sent me a link to one of the articles asking whether I'd seen it, as did Heritage Action. So I decided to put together a post, then saw on a blog that artefact hunters were refusing to accept that these little holes were the work of people hunting for artefacts which seemed a bit ridiculous to me, thus I wrote the post which is below this one. When is an artefact hunter not an artefact hunter?

Vignette: The thieving bastards filled in their holes and took their trash home but that is not the problem with what they've done here.