GA State Parks and Geocaching

[Guest ScottJ]

While prowling around the Georgia State Park system web sites, looking for promising new cache sites, I found something that disturbed me because I'd never seen it before. In the park rules:

 

"Collecting: All wildlife, plant life, artifacts, driftwood, or any other natural or man-made features are protected at all state parks and historic sites. Please leave them undisturbed so other visitors may enjoy them too. Use of electronic devices for "treasure hunting" is prohibited. "

 

The last sentence is the scary part. It seems to me that it used to simply say, "Use of metal detectors is prohibited." With this wording, it would appear to prohibit geocaching in state parks -- a GPS receiver is an electronic device, and we are in a sense treasure hunting.

 

The page doesn't quote chapter and verse from GA state law, so I have no idea if the wording is verbatim from the law or if it's been paraphrased or simplified.

 

At any rate, it's unsettling. If state parks are off-limits for cachers, it limits our possibilities somewhat.

 

Scott

[Guest jeremy]

I'm no lawyer, but treasure hunting would describe relic hunting in this case, such as removing a Civil War belt buckle from state parks.

 

Geocaching loosely uses the word "treasure hunt" but it's more like a cache of items, not genuine treasure.

 

Jeremy