Indiana roadcut legality

[connorp]

I'm looking to visit a few road cuts in Indiana this month, including St. Leon and a few around Bloomington. I've read differing accounts here about the legality of collecting on roadcuts in Indiana. Would anyone be able to clear it up?

[grandpa]

So OK, I don't live in Indiana nor have I ever collected in Indiana.  I know nothing officially nor personally regarding Indiana state laws.  All I can offer is that I do know a little about using the web machine to search for information - some of it may even be accurate.  With all of these provisos offered up front, I present you with this:

https://www.mindat.org/mesg-145521.html#145525

[caldigger]

@Nimravis

[Nimravis]

I collect at St Leon and Lawrenceburg Indiana road cuts, quite often and have never had a problem, I fact the last time that I collected at St. Leon I parked about 200 feet from a local police vehicle and he had now issues. It was the same case when I was collecting at AA Highway in Kentucky, and there are a ton of road cuts to collect on that road. 

 

I think you would have issues collecting on the Interstate Highways, that is something that I do not do.

[Mediospirifer]

My understanding is that they don't want collectors digging at the roadcuts. Surface collecting only, and don't disturb the plants.

 

I've been collecting at St. Leon and a few other cuts in the Brookville area about once a year for the last four or five years. Two or three years ago, there was a sign at St. Leon saying "No Digging". I think that was the year that a cop saw us pull off at St. Leon and stopped behind us to ask if we were having problems. When we told him we were fine, and looking to collect fossils, he broke into a big smile and said "Hey, that's great!" He wanted to know what we were after, and wanted to be sure that we had plenty of water and were prepared for the hot day, then went on his way and left us to it.

 

I notice that the Mindat thread linked by grandpa above is from 2009. They may have relaxed since then, or it may have been all talk. In any case, I see periodic talk about the state banning collecting, but I haven't yet seen anyone claim to have been hassled by police. 

 

Until then, I plan to keep visiting the sites, with appropriate care.

 

[connorp]

Interstate highways seem to be consistently a no go, so I'll steer clear. I was just worried about what was stated in the Mindat thread as I've seen similar things posted here a few times too, about all road cut collecting being banned.

[Mark Kmiecik]

17 hours ago, grandpa said:

So OK, I don't live in Indiana nor have I ever collected in Indiana.  I know nothing officially nor personally regarding Indiana state laws.  All I can offer is that I do know a little about using the web machine to search for information - some of it may even be accurate.  With all of these provisos offered up front, I present you with this:

https://www.mindat.org/mesg-145521.html#145525

This information is dated from July, 2009. Ten years ago. There has probably been some resolution to the issue by now.

[erose]

As you said above, stay off the interstate highways and only surface collect.

 

Make sure your vehicle is fully off the road and if possible even off the berm  

 

DON'T DIG. That sign that went up at St Leon was in direct response to a mess that some collectors created when they attempted a serious dig into a productive layer. The debris spilled into the drainage and onto the road and created a hazard. 

 

This advice gets repeated fairly often on the Forum, but it is important to reiterate.