As soon as I arrived at the park I quickly noticed a group of about 15 people gathered under the pavilion. From the colorful streamers and balloons that were hanging everywhere I could tell that they were having a birthday party. I’m a master of avoiding kids in the park, so I did a turn, and moved away from them and worked my way towards the tree line around the edge of the park.

I’ve been trying to locate the exact spot of a hotel that stood in this park in the early 1900s. Prior to this visit I found an online map of the park and it shows that the hotel stood right in the center of the park. That would put the hotel behind the pavilion maybe 50 feet or so. I concentrated on the side that would have been closer to the creek and ‘healing springs’ that were the attraction of the hotel.

I found a brass electrical outlet cover that was twisted and put it in my pouch. I thought to myself “I wonder what room that went in?” After about 20 minutes of digging the usual trash and occasional clad coin I noticed a guy pull up in a silver truck. He got out and started pulling some large padded thing toward the front of the pavilion. That got me curious so I watched what he was doing and realized that he was setting up some kind of paintball bunkers that players could hide behind while shooting at each other.

I moved closer to the rear of the pavilion to an area where I have found alot of clad coins in the past and started pulling dimes from along the side of a small hill when suddenly I thought we were under attack from aliens. Laser sounds were penetrating the songs of the birds around me as about 10 boys started running towards the trees and hiding behind bunkers while shooting their laser rifles as many times as they could. I was somewhat relieved to know that I didn’t have to worry about getting hit by a paintball, but now I had to listen to star wars in 3D while detecting in the middle of a battlefield.

I thought “Oh well, it’s their park and that’s what kids do, play.” I went back to digging the dime signal I was excited about and that’s when I overheard a mother on her phone talking to another parent who was obviously lost and trying to find the park. As I was filling the plug with dirt I heard her yell to a guy who was facilitating the skirmish around me, “I just talked to Tanner Brown’s mom and they are on their way, they were lost.” I don’t know why, but that struck me as funny that a parent would name their child “Tanner Brown.”

Ten minutes later I had just finished digging the 3rd piece of can slaw when I heard a kid say “Hey, Tanner, what’s up?” I looked over to see Tanner who was a boy of about 9yrs old with red hair and freckles and thought to myself, “Oh that poor kid, why did his parents do that to him…lol”

Since it was around noon by that time I decided to rest for a minute and get a drink of water. I was at a picnic table when I noticed a guy watching me from a distance. I finished getting a drink and put my tool pouch back on. My belt also holds my propointer and digger. Anyway, I saw the guy who had been watching me earlier walking my way but thought nothing of it.

When he got close enough, I said “Hey bud, how’s it going?” He said, “Oh, I thought you had the new such and such knife and was going to ask you how you liked it?” I said “No, this is just a regular digger. I don’t bring the sharp one when I detect in parks.” I went back to swinging and he went back over to the party with everyone else. I’m used to people talking to me when I detect so that didn’t really seem odd to me.

It didn’t dawn on me until later that what he was doing was getting closer so that he could see what I had on my belt. He was curious, and maybe a little concerned about what I was doing and what I was carrying on my side in the park with children around.

As a parent I can understand the concern a parent might have about a guy moving along the tree line of the park where kids are playing with some kind of sharp object or holster on his side. Some people have never seen a pinpointer so from a distance one could probably be confused with a firearm to the unknowing parent.

What we use to dig with in parks and public places matters. Choosing the right digger for the surroundings is important. Showing up in a park with a shovel will surely draw negative attention to your activities just like showing up with a 12 inch bowie knife on your side will at a playground. A little common sense goes a long way, so choose the right digging equipment for the area that you are detecting. If you are hunting a playground that day, maybe leave the buck knife that you normally use for popping coins at home and bring along the garden digger for the playground mulch.

We’re all ambassadors for our hobby and we all have a chance to present the hobby to our communities in a positive light. Attention to little details like what digger we carry in public will ensure that we can enjoy our hobby for many years to come.

Garrett Edge Digger $33.96

Lesche Digging tool $49.95

Sampson T Handle $63.95