The New Detectorists

As an old outdoor hobby draws new followers, metal detectors are sweeping the country.

People have been metal detecting since 1881, when Alexander Graham Bell invented a device to find the bullet lodged in President James Garfield. But it took several more decades for recreational metal detectors — devices that resemble “sort of a skillet on the end of a pole,” as one newspaper put it in 1927 — to develop a serious cult following. Now, that cult following is growing. Detector makers are reporting record sales. According to an annual report from one brand, Minelab, in 2020 the company sold 30 percent more detectors than the previous year, which had climbed 18 percent the year before that.