Metal Detecting on South Carolina's Midlands, Lakes & Rivers

12 locations · 8 permit required · 3 limited · 1 prohibited

Rules last verified: 2026-08-24 · South Carolina statewide rules

The Midlands are lakes and rivers — and the crown jewel is the Cooper River, South Carolina's premier hobby-dive water for fossil shark teeth and Colonial relics. That's a dive under a SCIAA Hobby Diver License, not a beach walk, and the same underwater-antiquities rule governs Santee Cooper's Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie. The inland state parks — Santee, Dreher Island, Sesquicentennial, Poinsett and Lake Wateree — allow detecting with a park-manager permit. On J. Strom Thurmond Lake (Corps) and Lake Murray (Dominion) stick to the designated areas, while Congaree National Park and Columbia's dig-restricted city parks are off the table for recovering finds.

Beaches and parks on the Midlands

🟡 Cooper River (SCIAA Hobby Diver License) Permit required · Berkeley / Charleston County
Submerged artifacts and fossils on state bottomlands are declared property of the State (S.C. Code 54-7-630), so search and recovery require…
🟡 Lake Marion (Santee Cooper) Permit required · Calhoun / Clarendon / Orangeburg County
Lake Marion is a Santee Cooper (state public-service utility) reservoir on formerly navigable waters, so submerged artifacts and fossils are…
🟡 Lake Moultrie (Santee Cooper) Permit required · Berkeley County
Lake Moultrie is a Santee Cooper (state utility) reservoir connected by canal to the Cooper River dive waters; submerged artifacts and fossi…
🟡 Santee State Park Permit required · Orangeburg County
SC State Parks' Metal Detection Policy assumes an absolute prohibition unless the Park Manager gives prior approval and issues a signed perm…
🟠 J. Strom Thurmond Lake (Clarks Hill) Limited · McCormick County
On this USACE reservoir, 36 CFR 327.14 allows metal detecting only on designated beaches or previously disturbed areas, and prohibits diggin…
🟠 Lake Murray (Dominion Energy) Limited · Lexington / Newberry / Saluda / Richland County
Lake Murray is owned by Dominion Energy under FERC's Saluda Hydroelectric Project (No. 516), which manages the shoreline and most public par…
🟡 Dreher Island State Park Permit required · Newberry County
SC State Parks' Metal Detection Policy treats detecting as prohibited unless the Park Manager grants prior approval and issues a signed perm…
🔴 Congaree National Park Prohibited · Richland County
Congaree is a unit of the National Park System, where 36 CFR 2.1(a)(7) makes it illegal to possess or use a metal detector. All natural and …
🟡 Sesquicentennial State Park Permit required · Richland County
SC State Parks' Metal Detection Policy assumes detecting is prohibited unless the Park Manager approves it in advance and issues a signed pe…
🟡 Poinsett State Park Permit required · Sumter County
SC State Parks' Metal Detection Policy requires prior Park Manager approval and a signed permit before detecting, restricts it to non-sensit…
🟡 Lake Wateree State Park Permit required · Fairfield County
SC State Parks' Metal Detection Policy assumes an absolute prohibition unless the Park Manager grants prior approval and a signed permit for…
🟠 Columbia City Parks (incl. Riverfront/Canal Park) Limited · Richland County
Columbia's park code doesn't name metal detecting, but Sec. 15-1(3) makes it unlawful to 'dig or remove any soil... or make any excavation b…

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Other South Carolina regions

Grand Strand · Lowcountry · Upstate