History

TIMELINE:

1987 - Loosely formed group among fellow detectorists that went to Olympia to meet with the WA ST Parks Department and the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. Their goal was to establish a good working relationship.

A short history..................

.. from the mid 80's they continued attending meetings and writing until they felt they were no longer making progress so then they contacted their senators and congressmen.

• 1994 - first Bill SB 6297.
• 1995 - HB1634 and SB 5515

"....Washington State Clubs Blaze A Legislative Trail

By Elizabeth Marie Demorest

From page 18 of the November, 1997 issue of Lost Treasure

Copyright © 1997 Lost Treasure, Inc. all rights reserved

They were a quiet group. One by one they filed into the committee meeting room at the Washington State capitol building. With determined smiles and nods of recognition, a word or two of encouragement, and a sense of unity, they signed in then took their seats. Fifteen minutes before the senate committee convened, the room filled with representatives from metal detecting clubs from all over the state of Washington. Their mission? To show united support for SHB (Substitute House Bill) 1061. ..... "

• 1997 - The first legislation HB 1061 passed. The first RCW was written promising to add 50 acres a year to open areas for Metal detecting.
• 2002 - A huge campaign was waged between February and August to get in more ground in writing and mapped out.
• 2005 - November 18, 2005 a Directive was written to ensure future staff set aside land in 60 State Parks for Metal Detecting.
• 2008 - We campaigned for additional legislation with SB5306.
• 2009 - We met with the new Parks Representative Kathy Hale in hopes we could get all the areas we had been promised.
• 2010 - Standardized maps were started in .Pdf format and slowly made available to the rangers and put online for the general public.
• 2012 - We reminded club members to review WAC 352-32-235 "Use of metal detectors in state parks". Budget cuts continued to slow the posting of the final maps.
• 2013 - Parks Dept has explained that more budget cuts make it nearly impossible to keep all lists properly updated.
• 2016 We started all over when they had a new mandate to protect heritage sites and vegetation. A computer algorithm was used to draw new maps. Acreage open to Metal detecting dwindled to 1102 acres out of 6988 - from 75 parks down to 33.
• 2017 We worked directly with our Senator and top park officials to bring it back to 53 parks and 2068 acres