Meteorites in AZ

Its pretty easy to blame the government, you can say anything and they don?t care.  But my contrary and practical nature says you should consider the other side of the equation too.  Very often (maybe always) the gov just reacts.  I just helped a friend sell his life long collection of petrified wood.  Many of the areas he was able to collect 20-50 years ago are now closed.  The recurrent story, a few entrepreneurs went in with a back hoe and truck and the place was closed to all.  The gov was just reacting to complaints by the same folks that had searched the areas for years and carried out pieces by hand.  A relatively recent case involved calico-pyrite petrified wood, I?m not a fan of wood but that stuff was magnificent, people were grabbing and selling it for the copper!  What I?m trying to say in my awkward way, if you push something hard enough you will get a reaction.

As for the tv show, I saw the pilot, it was filmed across the street from our museum.  Easy to remember as our museum sign went missing around the same time, what a coinkidink.  There was stuff in that show stated as matter of fact that was just not true.  Was there something in the show that played a role in blm policy? Or did people descend on the area (=the push hard enough effect)?

You can stick with privately owned land, as far as I know meteorites are still under control of the land owner (or lessee in some circumstances) and not the gov.  Get permission, don't be "that guy", try to have fun (i'm not usually so bossy). 

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  Public lands belong to the people.  Less government is better.  Shouldn't the BLM be re-assigned to protect our borders from the cartels?
In the UK if your find is of historic importance they pay you for it.  If they have one you get to keep it.

Autotune

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		Quote:			Posted by distimpson
	Its pretty easy to blame the government, you can say anything and they don?t care.  But my contrary and practical nature says you should consider the other side of the equation too.  Very often (maybe always) the gov just reacts.  I just helped a friend sell his life long collection of petrified wood.  Many of the areas he was able to collect 20-50 years ago are now closed.  The recurrent story, a few entrepreneurs went in with a back hoe and truck and the place was closed to all.  The gov was just reacting to complaints by the same folks that had searched the areas for years and carried out pieces by hand.  A relatively recent case involved calico-pyrite petrified wood, I?m not a fan of wood but that stuff was magnificent, people were grabbing and selling it for the copper!  What I?m trying to say in my awkward way, if you push something hard enough you will get a reaction. As for the tv show, I saw the pilot, it was filmed across the street from our museum.  Easy to remember as our museum sign went missing around the same time, what a coinkidink.  There was stuff in that show stated as matter of fact that was just not true.  Was there something in the show that played a role in blm policy? Or did people descend on the area (=the push hard enough effect)? You can stick with privately owned land, as far as I know meteorites are still under control of the land owner (or lessee in some circumstances) and not the gov.  Get permission, don't be "that guy", try to have fun (i'm not usually so bossy).

As someone who used to collect petrified wood, the commercial miners ruined it for everyone else. Like you stated, they all went in with backhoes and dug some of the areas up. It's no wonder some areas are off limits these days.

My ideas about why the BLM is claiming ownership of meteorites are pure speculation. But no doubt something happened.

Steve

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