Is metal detecting legal in Wyoming?

It depends on what kind of state land you're standing on. Under 024-1 Wyo. Code R. §§ 1-15, confirmed directly against the regulation text via Cornell Law School's and Justia's mirrors, using a metal detector at a Wyoming state park or recreation area is prohibited without written permission of the superintendent — a permit-by-request structure similar to West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Idaho. At a state historic or archaeological site, though, the same code section bans metal detecting outright, except for official use. There's no written-permission path at that second category of site at all.

Can you metal detect at South Pass City?

No. South Pass City is formally designated South Pass City State Historic Site by Wyoming State Parks — confirmed directly against wyoparks.wyo.gov's own site listing — and 024-1 Wyo. Code R. §§ 1-15 bans metal detecting at any state historic or archaeological site outright, with no superintendent-permission exception available. That matters because South Pass City is Wyoming's actual gold-rush town: gold found there in 1866-1868 drew thousands of miners to the Sweetwater Mines, and 24 of the original structures still stand. The place that defines Wyoming's gold-rush identity is the one category of state land the rule doesn't let you ask permission for.

What's the penalty for disturbing human remains in Wyoming?

W.S. 7-4-106, enacted in 2019 via Senate File 78, makes knowingly violating Wyoming's archaeological-human-burial reporting and recovery procedure a misdemeanor punishable by up to 6 months in jail, a fine of up to $750, or both — confirmed via two independent sources reporting on the bill's text and its 2019 passage. That $750 ceiling is the lowest penalty documented anywhere in this state-guide series, well under Rhode Island's $5,000, California's $10,000, Hawaii's $20,000, or Idaho's $50,000. A separate, harsher statute, W.S. 6-4-502 (mutilation of a dead human body), is a felony carrying 2-5 years and up to $10,000 if the disturbance itself is deemed intentional mutilation rather than an accidental find — so the low misdemeanor figure isn't the full ceiling of what could apply.

Can you metal detect in Yellowstone or Grand Teton National Park?

No. Both parks, along with Devils Tower National Monument and every other National Park Service unit in Wyoming, fall under the standard nationwide ban confirmed throughout this series: 36 CFR 2.1(a)(7) prohibits possessing or using a metal detector anywhere inside an NPS boundary, with narrow exceptions only for stowed, non-operational devices and authorized scientific work.

How much of Wyoming is federal land open to detecting?

The federal government owns about 48.19% of Wyoming's total acreage (30,043,512 of 62,343,040 acres), per Ballotpedia's federal-land-ownership tracking — roughly the national middle tier, well under Nevada's series-high 80.1% but still nearly half the state. Most of that acreage is BLM and U.S. Forest Service land, where casual-use recreational detecting is generally allowed outside of designated wilderness, developed recreation sites, and any NPS boundary — but, as with every other state in this series, named historic sites and ghost towns on that federal ground can still carry their own closures layered on top of the general casual-use rule.

Metal Detecting in Wyoming: Its Own Gold-Rush Town Is a Historic Site, Not a Park (2026)

Quick Answer: Wyoming lets you detect at a state park or recreation area only with written permission from the park superintendent, under 024-1 Wyo. Code R. §§ 1-15 — but at a state historic or archaeological site, that same rule bans detecting outright, with no permission path at all. South Pass City, Wyoming’s own 1867 gold-rush town, is registered as a State Historic Site, so it falls under the full ban rather than the permission option. Disturbing human remains carries only a $750 / 6-month misdemeanor under W.S. 7-4-106 — the lowest penalty ceiling documented anywhere in this series — though a harsher felony statute can apply if the disturbance looks intentional.

Verified October 6, 2026: 024-1 Wyo. Code R. §§ 1-15’s two-tier park/historic-site language confirmed directly against Cornell Law School’s and Justia’s mirrors of the regulation text. South Pass City’s “State Historic Site” designation confirmed via Wyoming State Parks’ own site (wyoparks.wyo.gov). W.S. 7-4-106’s $750/6-month misdemeanor penalty, enacted via 2019 Senate File 78, confirmed via two independent reports on the bill’s passage and text. Wyoming’s 48.19% federal-land share confirmed via Ballotpedia’s federal-land-ownership-by-state tracking.

Wyoming is the 42nd entry in this state-by-state series — Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, New York, Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin, Alabama, Illinois, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Minnesota, New Jersey, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Arkansas, Iowa, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Idaho, New Mexico, Kansas, and Rhode Island came before it. Several prior entries used a single park-by-park permission rule across all of a state’s park land. Wyoming splits that rule into two tiers instead — one category you can ask your way into, and one you can’t ask at all.

State parks vs. state historic sites: two different rules in one code section

024-1 Wyo. Code R. §§ 1-15, Wyoming’s regulation on preservation of public property, draws a line most of this series’ prior park-permission states don’t draw. At a state park or recreation area, the use of a metal or mineral detecting device “is prohibited without written permission of the superintendent” — the same request-and-wait structure already confirmed in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Idaho. But at a state historic or archeological site, the same code section states flatly that detecting devices are “prohibited, except for official use.” No superintendent letter, no application form, no path in between — that category is simply closed to a civilian detectorist.

The honesty hook: South Pass City is categorized by Wyoming State Parks as a State Historic Site, not a state park or recreation area — confirmed directly against the agency’s own site listing. Gold discovered in the South Pass of the Rockies triggered a rush to the Sweetwater Mines starting in 1866-1868, swelling the town to roughly 2,000 people within a year; 24 of the original structures still stand today as the site’s main draw. Every prior gold-rush state in this series has turned up some version of the same pattern — California’s Marshall Gold Discovery SHP, Nevada’s Berlin-Ichthyosaur, Idaho’s Land of the Yankee Fork — where the place that actually defines the state’s gold-rush history sits inside a closed historic boundary. Wyoming’s version is the starkest yet, because its rule doesn’t even offer the superintendent-permission door its own state parks give you elsewhere.

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Human remains: the lowest penalty ceiling in this series, with a harsher statute standing behind it

W.S. 7-4-106, Wyoming’s archaeological human burial sites statute, took effect in 2019 after the legislature passed Senate File 78. It gives the county coroner jurisdiction over archaeological human burials discovered on state or private land, requires anyone who discovers remains to stop the activity that caused the discovery and notify law enforcement immediately, and routes the find to the State Archaeologist for recovery and respectful treatment. Confirmed via two independent reports on the bill’s 2019 passage and exact text. A person who knowingly violates the statute is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by up to 6 months in jail, a fine of up to $750, or both.

That $750 ceiling is the lowest documented anywhere across this 42-state series — below Rhode Island’s $5,000 felony, well below California’s $10,000 misdemeanor and Hawaii’s $20,000 iwi-kupuna fine, and a small fraction of Idaho’s $50,000 felony ceiling. It’s worth not reading too much comfort into that number, though: Wyoming also has W.S. 6-4-502, mutilation of a dead human body, a separate felony carrying 2-5 years imprisonment and up to $10,000 if a court finds the disturbance was more than an accidental find during otherwise lawful detecting. The low number in W.S. 7-4-106 covers the honest, report-it-immediately scenario the statute was written for — not every way a buried find could go wrong.

Federal land: just under half the state, with the same named-site caveat as everywhere else

The federal government owns about 48.19% of Wyoming — 30,043,512 of the state’s 62,343,040 total acres, per Ballotpedia’s federal-land-ownership tracking. That’s roughly the middle of the pack for this series, well under Nevada’s series-high 80.1% but still nearly half the state, managed mostly by the BLM and U.S. Forest Service. Casual-use recreational detecting is generally allowed on that ground outside designated wilderness and developed recreation sites, but — consistent with every other federal-land state checked so far — a specific named historic site or ghost town inside that acreage can still carry its own closure. Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and Devils Tower National Monument are all National Park Service units and fall under the standard nationwide 36 CFR 2.1(a)(7) ban on possessing or using a metal detector anywhere inside an NPS boundary — the same rule confirmed at every NPS unit this series has checked, from Acadia to Great Basin.

Getting started

Treat Wyoming’s two-tier rule as the first thing to sort out before you pick a destination. If it’s a state park or recreation area, write to the superintendent’s office and wait for approval before you go — don’t assume access just because a nearby park allowed it. If it’s a named historic or archaeological site, including South Pass City, there’s no permission request that opens the door; pick different ground. On BLM or Forest Service land, casual-use detecting is generally fine, but check for a site-specific closure first, the same way this series’ Nevada and Idaho entries found working gold districts sitting right next to protected ghost towns. Stop immediately and report to law enforcement if a target turns out to be human remains — W.S. 7-4-106’s $750 misdemeanor only covers the honest version of that scenario, and a felony charge is still on the table if it doesn’t look accidental. Our beginner’s guide and gold detector rankings are good next stops before a first Wyoming trip.

The bottom line

Wyoming’s park rule is one of the more reasonable permission structures in this series — ask the superintendent, wait for a written yes — but it only applies to state parks and recreation areas. At a state historic or archaeological site, including South Pass City, the state’s own actual gold-rush town, the same regulation closes the door outright instead of opening it on request. Underneath both tiers, W.S. 7-4-106 sets the lowest burial-disturbance penalty ceiling documented anywhere in this series — but a harsher felony statute still applies if a disturbance looks like more than an honest accidental find. See the complete field in our overall pillar rankings or the metal detecting legality guide for how other states compare.

Sources: 024-1 Wyo. Code R. §§ 1-15 — Cornell Law School, 024-1 Wyo. Code R. §§ 1-15 — Justia Regulations, South Pass City State Historic Site — Wyoming State Parks, Federal Land Ownership by State — Ballotpedia, Yellowstone National Park — National Park Service.