John,
I live in Tidewater Virginia where everywhere is a Civil War site. My yard
has a ravine on it where Hookers men caught hell. I guess I'm doing damage
everytime I dig up my peanuts or dump my compost. Because I live here I am
aware that there are many different types of pothunters--and I suppose I
have been sloppy in including the purchasers of rusted rubble in that
category, I should probably make a better distinction there.

Without doubt there are cowboys out there--every now and then they bag one
on the Yorktown land and take his (and they are mostly men) car and fine him
25 grand. We are all very happy when this happens--rightfully. But I still
can go to that great antique store in Tombstone Az. and see colonial
artifacts "Dug on the Yorktown Va. Battlefield" for sale and feel my blood
pressure skyrocket. The law is in place to deal with these folks and more
power to the brave men and women in green and brown who enforce it.

But, there are also tons of less nefarious pothunters who act legally to
work their own land or some local farmer's. These are sites just as rich as
Yorktown but as yet protected by no law. In England these folks are
registered and licensed and tied into local historical societies--might this
be a solution? I agree that we can have no meaningful dialog with rogues.
But there are plenty of people out there who engage in legal site
destruction who we may be able to rope into our way of seeing things. Again
there is a heavy overlap between the bullet nuts and the battlefield
preservation movement--this seeming contradiction may be the key to
understanding the mindset.

And what about the purchasers? These folks also break no law (with certain
exceptions obviously). Williamsburg had been fairly successful in closing
down local relic shops, but that is a local practice and not a real legal
policy. The folks who buy want a connection--and as has come up here many
pros are not much different. Can we offer a connection and maybe undermine
the desire that helps fuel the market?


-----Original Message-----
From: Dendy, John <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, January 20, 2000 4:58 PM
Subject: Re: clandestine digging for dough


>        Phil Levy writes:
>        "(T)he majority of enthusiasts (for lack of a better term) obey
>those laws".
>and
>        "Most pothunting is legal and I don't see how people involved in a
>legal activity can be outlaws."
>
>        I don't know where you're living, but a great many "pothunters"
>start the slippery slope to crime with trespass and move on from there.
When
>I worked in Denver there were two cases of "pothunters" killed during their
>"avocation" while trespassing under somone else's building looking for
>goodies.
>
>        I concur that "pothunters" are our competitors in the sense that
>they trash scientific information for the sake of a few "good" pieces. I
>have historic refuse sites here on federal land that look like Slack's
Farm,
>where "enthusiasts" have lined up tens of historic bottles on the sides of
>their looter's pits only to select two or three for re-sale. Worse yet,
>there are people always trying to find the location of known sites so that
>they can help themselves to artifacts.
>
>        But, I think the saddest state of a "pothunter" is the addictive
>one. These are the people that have oil drums full of arrowheads on their
>porches. They can't keep from picking up things. Eventually, they start
>picking up bones, pots, whatever. It's cool stuff! No mystic
>connections....No spiritual communing.....Just grab it. Try working with
one
>of them some time.
>
>        Finally, I think you're all being a bit naive about the level of
>criminality involved in pothunting. Many of these people are armed and
>dangerous and know damn well that they're breaking the law.
>
>        John Dendy
>