Is metal dectecting a harmless hobby or ‘looting?’

A marketing poster describes the pop-up event as a “metal detecting museum” with free admission that will take place at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 58, 1180 Barton St. E. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 27. It will feature “thousands of relics, coins, jewelry, and tools. All found in and around Hamilton ...”

Archeologists say digging for items from history anywhere in the province is a violation of the Ontario Heritage Act, unless a licensed archeologist supervises the activity.

“To me, it is illegal … It is essentially looting,” says archeologist Scott W.J. Martin, the operations manager of Sustainable Archaeology McMaster, a facility in the McMaster Innovation Park that stores artifacts collected by archeologists doing fieldwork.

“I get upset about the information that gets lost when something is stripped out of the ground,” Martin says.

“Context is everything. Provenance. Where did the thing come from? What layer was it in and what was found around it?”

Without contextual information that is carefully collected by someone who knows archeological procedures, he says, the artifact’s historical value can be greatly diminished.

But there doesn’t appear to be many prosecutions taking place when it comes to the activities of detectorists.

A spokesperson from the Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturalism, which administers the heritage act, would not comment on enforcement or how the act should be interpreted when it comes to detectorists.

“Archaeology in the province is regulated under the Ontario Heritage Act. Any activity that is archeological fieldwork, or any alteration or removal of an artifact from a known archeological site, must be performed by an archeologist licensed under the Ontario Heritage Act and in accordance with the requirements of that act,” is all the spokesperson would say in an email.

The City of Hamilton does not have a metal-detecting bylaw, but there is a parks bylaw that prohibits the removal of any property, including relics and artifacts, from city-owned parks. Information about bylaw violations by detectorists was unavailable because of the ongoing cybersecurity incident with the city.

Mike Guarascia, who is hosting the pop-up event, says members of the local detectorist community tend to focus their relic searches on public wooded areas or private property that they have received permission to use. Designated heritage sites such as Dundurn Park or Battlefield Park are avoided.

Guarascia, who calls himself Mike Relics, previously hosted a Cable 14 program called “Dirt Fishing” that featured relic-gathering adventures in the area and is author of a book on metal detecting called “The Relic Hunter: Buried Treasure in Hamilton.” He says he has more than 2,500 items in his personal collection that includes a lot of coins.

This year’s detectorist “museum” should have 15 per cent more items on display than the one held last year, he says. The Jan. 28, 2023, show brought out more than 400 people.

“The event is taking on a life of its own,” says Guarascia, 45, who works as a carpenter. “It is kind of exciting.”

He says metal detecting has been growing in popularity in recent years. There are numerous Facebook groups and online forums where detectorists share tips and pictures of their discoveries. Popular television programs such as “The Curse of Oak Island” and “Detectorists” have been raising the profile of the hobby.

Guarascia says he has never been charged for collecting relics and knows of no other detectorist who has faced legal consequences. But in January 2023, he received a warning email from the Heritage Branch of the Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturalism.

The email, signed by Gavin Downing, the director of the Heritage Branch, said provincial officials were aware of his detectorist work through his book and television show, YouTube videos as well as an article in The Spectator, which presumably referred to a column I wrote on Jan. 17, 2023 about the pop-up museum and his metal-detecting passion.

“No one shall carry out archeological fieldwork, knowingly alter an archeological site, or remove artifacts or any other physical evidence of past human use or activity from the site, unless that person has been issued a licence by the minister,” the letter said, adding that failing to comply with the act could lead to a $50,000 fine and/or one year in prison.

“ ‘Archaeological fieldwork’ is defined as any activity carried out on, above or under land or water for the purpose of obtaining and documenting data, recovering artifacts and remains or altering an archeological site and includes monitoring, assessing exploring, surveying, recovering and excavating. This includes the use of a metal detector as this is a form of survey that results in the recovery of artifacts.”

But Guarascia says provincial officials have backed off since writing the email and he hasn’t heard anything since. The legality of hosting an exhibition of relics was not specifically addressed in the letter he received from the ministry.

He can’t understand how metal detecting can be illegal when metal detecting equipment is widely available for purchase. “You can even buy one at Canadian Tire,” he says.

“I’ve never heard of anyone getting an email from the ministry, except for me. I think it’s because I have become so public,” he says. He feels the rise of metal detecting as a hobby is a positive development because relics are being discovered that would not be found otherwise.

Ben Mortimer, an archeologist from the Ottawa area, emailed me to express his concern about detectorists after my column last year.

In an interview, he said, “as a licenced archeologist, I have to check off so many boxes to even think about removing something from the ground ... and I would lose my livelihood if I didn’t tick off all the boxes that the ministry requires. Yet you have people coming in with metal detectors and digging up the stuff up with no care whatsoever.

“We are so heavily regulated about what we can do, yet detectorists are flouting the law. They may get an angry letter from the ministry but that’s it,” says Mortimer, who has complained to the ministry about detectorist activities he has heard about.

Guarascia says, “There has always been a rift between archeologists and metal detectorists because they go to school for a long time, and we don’t have all the red tape.”

Local historian Bill King, who is the master of ceremonies for the pop-up event, says he believes concern about detectorists is much ado about nothing.

“They just like to go out in the woods to find stuff,” says King, whose company, Attawandaron, published Guarascia’s relics book. “To me they are not doing anything that anyone needs to worry about. And I think it is good that they are taking an interest in history.”

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