Interview with Ryan Marcus of Subterrix: Addressing Misconceptions, Platform Security, and Why Detectorists Are Divided

For many detectorists, the hardest part of metal detecting is not learning tones, buying the right metal detector, or digging clean plugs. It is finding places worth detecting legally, responsibly, and with enough historical context to make the hunt meaningful.

That is where Subterrix enters the conversation. Built for detectorists who want more than random park hunts and overworked public sites, Subterrix is developing tools that combine mapping, research, property analysis, artificial intelligence, and permission-based detecting opportunities. The company’s goal is not to replace field experience, but to help detectorists make better decisions before they ever swing a coil.

Focus Speed spoke with Ryan Marcus, founder of Subterrix, about the company’s tools, technology, resources, and the misconceptions that have surfaced since its launch.

The goal of this article is to clarify what Subterrix does—and what it does not do. If someone assumes Subterrix tells detectorists exactly where treasure is, replaces detecting skill, or removes the need for common sense and legal judgment about whether a location can be detected, it may be difficult to understand the platform’s actual purpose. Subterrix is intended to support research, planning, and access to potential detecting locations—not replace experience, responsibility, or good decision-making in the field.

Some detectorists worry that AI and mapping tools may replace experience. However, technology cannot teach someone how to swing a detector properly, interpret tones, understand iron falsing, read soil conditions, or know when a site “feels right.” In this interview, Ryan shares where he stands on these concerns, what Subterrix was built to do, and how the platform fits into the future of responsible metal detecting.

About Ryan, the Driver & Founder Behind Subterrix

Before starting Subterrix, how did you personally get into metal detecting? Did you learn from the internet, other detectorists, books, clubs, or trial and error in the field?

I got my start at about ten years old. I grew up on three acres in Holmdel, New Jersey — a town with deep colonial roots tied to the Revolutionary War and the Battle of Monmouth. When I learned about that history in school, a teacher showed us an old colonial coin, and something clicked. I went home and told my dad about it, and his response was simple — “You should try metal detecting.” He took me to RadioShack and bought me a Micronta 3001. Within minutes, I was hooked.

Of course, I was ten. After a few months, my attention drifted back to sports and everything else that comes with being a kid. But the seed was planted. Virtually every decade after that, I’d tell myself, “I should get back into metal detecting.” It took until I was 42, when I came across a Metal Detecting NYC video, for that to finally happen. And from there, my life genuinely changed.

I learned through every method available — trial and error in the field, and a lot of time studying creators online. Merrill at Metal Detecting NYC, Brad at Green Mountain Metal Detecting, John at Dig That Beep, Mark at Brass Medic, and Jason at Quarter Hoarder were all instrumental in my education. But more than anything, my club — the Staten Island History Hunters — has been at the heart of my love for this hobby. Mike DiTrani, the club’s president, has been a true mentor to me. Mike has been such a vocal advocate for Subterrix from early on that we actually named one of our tools after him. That kind of support from the community is something I never take for granted.

Above: A small sample of Ryan’s metal detecting finds.

Can you share some of your professional background and explain how your experience has prepared you to take a product such as Subterrix from concept to production? Many people can come up with an idea, but not everyone has the technical skill, discipline, and business understanding needed to execute it professionally, build it for real-world use, and plan for long-term growth. How has your background helped you develop Subterrix from an initial concept into a scalable platform?

My career has been in financial services for over two decades. I started as a senior executive at Morgan Stanley and Oppenheimer & Co., then moved through a series of roles that gave me a specific education in how platforms are built and scaled. I was Head of Custody at RBC Advisor Services, Executive Director of New Partnership Development at United Capital, a $23 billion wealth management firm, and helped build out Aurora Private Wealth’s platform from scratch as their Managing Director. At MarketCounsel Consulting, where I spent the better part of a decade, I was involved in over 300 breakaway transitions and acquisitions, working directly alongside founder Brian Hamburger. Today, I’m the Chief Business and Engagement Officer at Binah Capital Group, a publicly traded firm on NASDAQ.

What all of that gave me wasn’t a coding education; it was something harder to teach. I learned how to identify a gap in a market, build the infrastructure to fill it, and create systems that hold up when real users show up with real expectations. I’ve built platforms, teams, and go-to-market strategies, and I know the difference between an idea and an executable business.

When it came to Subterrix, I knew the metal detecting community was underserved by technology –  not because nobody cared, but because nobody with platform-building experience was paying attention. I’m not a traditional software engineer, and I’ve never pretended to be. What I am is someone who understands product architecture, user experience, and how to leverage modern AI tools to build at a level that would have required a full dev team five years ago. Subterrix is over 200,000 lines of custom code with over 7.7 million data points. I built it the same way I’ve built everything in my career, with an unrelenting work ethic and a refusal to ship anything I wouldn’t stake my name on.

About the Metal Detecting App Subterrix

Many detectorists are tired of detecting the same public parks, beaches, and hunted-out locations over and over again. What problem did you see in the hobby that made you want to build Subterrix?

That frustration is exactly where Subterrix started. I lived it myself. You get into this hobby, you’re excited, and then you quickly realize that your options are the same public park everyone else is swinging at, a beach that gets detected every weekend, or a spot someone on YouTube already cleaned out. The finds dry up fast, and so does the motivation.

But here’s what I noticed the detectorists who were consistently pulling great finds weren’t necessarily better at swinging a coil. They were just more dedicated and more patient. They were the ones willing to spend hours clicking through broken links, going down Reddit rabbit holes, chasing suggestions on Facebook groups, piecing together fragments of information from a dozen different sources that were never designed to work together. They didn’t give up. Most people do.

That’s the problem Subterrix was built to solve. I wanted to take the kind of deep historical and geospatial research that used to require that level of persistence – or years of local knowledge and put it in the hands of every detectorist in seconds. Where were the old homesteads? Where did colonial roads run? What does the soil composition tell you about what’s preserved underground? Where can you actually get permission to detect? These are the questions that separate a frustrating hobby from a rewarding one, and Subterrix answers all of them.

The goal was never to replace the fieldwork because that’s the fun part. The goal was to make sure that when you do get out there, you’re detecting smarter, not just detecting more.

People often ask why Focus Speed is called Focus Speed, so we have to ask the same question about Subterrix. Where did the name come from, and what does it mean to you?

I wish it were more interesting, but I’m quite proud of the meaning. The name is rooted in Latin. “Sub” means below, and “Terrix” comes from “terra,” meaning earth. Subterrix – beneath the earth. That’s what this entire hobby is about. Everything we’re searching for is hidden underground, and every tool on the platform is designed to help you understand what’s beneath your feet before you ever put a coil to the ground. It’s also where our podcast name, “Beneath the Surface,” came from. The whole brand is built around that same idea; digging deeper, whether that means into the soil or into the history and data behind a location.

For new technology in the metal detecting world, adoption can take time. Detectorists are often cautious, especially when a tool involves permissions, AI, maps, property information, or paid access. What helped people begin to trust the platform? Was there a specific moment when you felt the platform start to gain traction?

People should be cautious about technology — and I mean that. There’s no universal standard for quality when it comes to AI-powered tools. There’s very little qualitative accountability, so most of what gets delivered is purely quantitative. The problem is that AI models like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini are built natively to please the user. That sounds like a good thing until you realize what it actually means — when these models can’t answer something with a high degree of confidence, they’ll often “hallucinate” and make things up just to deliver a response. They’d rather fabricate an answer than tell you they don’t know.

We found that out the hard way. Early on, we saw AI-generated results that looked convincing but were completely fabricated — embellished historical data, invented site details, things that could send a detectorist to a location based on information that never existed. That was unacceptable. So we instituted a strict no-hallucination policy across the platform. Subterrix is trained to never make anything up or embellish any historical data that gets researched and returned to the user. And it gets smarter every day.

The other thing people don’t realize is that AI isn’t one thing. Each model has its strengths. Claude may be exceptional at research, analytics, and applying logic, while ChatGPT is better at taking that data and articulating it in a way that reads well. We use five different AI models across the platform, each deployed for what it does best, with a filtration system that stitches everything together into a single cohesive result. That level of intentionality is what builds trust — not just using AI, but knowing how to use it responsibly.

As for when the platform started gaining traction — I think it happened when users realized this wasn’t a weekend project. This isn’t something I threw together and walked away from. Our highest priority has always been to be good stewards of the hobby before making money. If we don’t maintain a high ethical standard, we’re just as guilty as the people who don’t fill their holes.

Does Subterrix currently have investors? Are you looking for angel investors, angel groups, strategic partners, or venture capital? What stage is the company in now? Are you pre-seed, angel stage, Series A, Series B, or still founder-funded?

Yes and No. Merrill is an investor in Subterrix. His investment was less of a financial play and more of a statement — he believed in the platform and where it could go, and I respect that enormously. But I am the sole founder of Subterrix. I own more than 75% of the company and intend to keep it that way.

I’ve been approached by private equity firms and venture capital, but that’s the world I already live in professionally. I understand how those partnerships work, what they require, and what you give up. I don’t have an interest or a need to take on additional partners. There’s no board to answer to, no pressure to chase short-term metrics that don’t align with what’s best for the community. Every decision I make is based on what’s right for the platform and the detectorists who use it. That’s a freedom I’m not willing to trade.

Subterrix has been and will remain founder-funded for the foreseeable future. That’s not a limitation — it’s a competitive advantage.

Which Subterrix products, services, and tools are close to being fully launched so that any metal detectorists who sign up today have access to, and which features are still in the pipeline for future release?

Launched:

Explorer — An interactive map and intelligence hub that analyzes any location using reverse geocoding, a database of over 1.8 million historical sites, soil composition data, geological bedrock data, and AI synthesis. It includes MD Shield Scan — a dual-AI aerial comparison engine that detects vanished structures by stitching historical and modern aerial imagery and scoring each site by metal detecting accessibility. Explorer also features toggleable map layers, including terrain hillshade, historical topographic maps, and Sanborn Fire Insurance maps. It’s the home base of the platform.

Expedition Planner — Our flagship tool. It runs a nine-stage pipeline — starting with a verified features database of over 1.35 million historical records, then dispatching parallel queries to live geospatial APIs, running AI research through Perplexity and Claude, analyzing terrain evidence through USGS 3DEP LiDAR data, detecting satellite anomalies via Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery, generating historical structure visualizations, and scoring every zone through a compound confidence system. Reports export to ArcGIS, Google Earth, and GeoJSON.

Strata — A double-filtration research engine. Every query passes through Claude Haiku as a decomposer, which routes it to the relevant specialist lanes — Vision, Numismatic, Historical, Research, Land, and Field Conditions — then Claude Sonnet reassembles all lane outputs into a single cited, detectorist-voice answer. Five AI models, six specialist lanes, all working in parallel.

AIdentify — A dual-AI coin and artifact identification engine. Google Cloud Vision matches your find against billions of web images while GPT-4o independently analyzes it as a numismatic expert. When both systems agree, the identification is flagged as high confidence. Six logic guards catch material contradictions, size mismatches, and region anomalies before results display.

iLiDAR — A terrain evidence pipeline with behavioral pattern detection. It processes USGS 3DEP elevation data to detect eight specific terrain features — flat benches, depressions, ridges, drainage channels, slope breaks, and more — then models human behavior on the landscape, identifying activity shelves, travel corridors, and observation overlooks. A modified A* pathfinding algorithm reconstructs likely historical travel paths, and an artifact probability heatmap highlights the highest-value search areas.

HuntCast — A real-time detecting conditions tool with dual Land and Beach modes. Land mode scores locations 0–100 based on rainfall timing, soil drainage, ground temperature, frost risk, and humidity using live NOAA weather and USDA SSURGO soil data. Beach mode evaluates tide timing, storm surge history, and wave action via NOAA CO-OPS. Elite users get soil zone mapping with weather-aware condition labels for each zone on the parcel.

FieldIQ — An AI settings engine covering 15 detectors across Minelab, XP, Nokta, and Garrett. It combines a structured knowledge base built from complete official manuals, a community intelligence layer drawn from hundreds of thousands of forum posts and field reports, and live soil calibration from USDA NRCS — then generates a fully personalized settings profile with step-by-step, button-by-button navigation instructions. Results include a QR code for mobile field use.

Property Re-Con — A four-pipeline property research and permissions tool. GPT-4o handles historical research, Claude runs a four-layer legal analysis, RentCast provides ownership data, and Realie delivers parcel boundary polygons with USDA soil composition. It includes a built-in AI permission letter generator customized with your credentials, club membership, and the property’s historical context.

Care Almanac — A five-stage artifact conservation engine. It classifies your find’s material, maps condition zones directly on the artifact using Gemini Vision’s spatial bounding boxes, retrieves conservation protocols from the National Park Service, the Canadian Conservation Institute, and the Smithsonian via RAG, generates three tailored care tracks — Stabilize Only, Clean & Preserve, and Full Conservation & Display — and runs a final safety audit through Claude to catch hazards and mandate professional referrals when needed.

Deepstrike — An automated site-prediction engine that divides a search radius into a grid and scores every cell using 31 data layers across two scoring passes. It queries NRHP sites, battlefield data, Library of Congress maps, historical newspapers, BLM land records, USDA soil profiles, and geological data — then ranks locations by convergence, where multiple independent historical sources point to the same spot.

Rent and Detect — A marketplace connecting detectorists with private landowners who are willing to grant property access for detecting.

Next To Launch (In Development) 

Hunt Intelligence — A post-hunt GPS track analysis engine. It records your path in the field, stores data offline for areas with poor cell service, then runs four analysis algorithms when you’re done: fast-pass detection to flag areas you moved through too quickly for thorough coverage, dwell cluster analysis to show where you spent time versus where you didn’t, missed pocket detection that cross-references your track against saved high-potential locations you walked near but never searched, and low-density grid analysis that reveals gaps in your sweep pattern. An AI narrative layer translates all of it into plain-language insights and recommendations for your next visit.

Regarding archaeologists and Cultural Resource Management (CRM) firms, many professionals currently rely on tools such as ArcGIS, Esri products, QGIS, Global Mapper, Google Earth Pro, Mapbox, CARTO, LiDAR, historical maps, parcel data, and other research platforms to conduct contextual analysis before visiting a project area. How could Subterrix help streamline that process by bringing key research layers, property context, historical data, mapping tools, and site-screening information into one platform before fieldwork begins?

The short answer is time. Right now, a CRM firm preparing for fieldwork is pulling from a dozen different platforms — ArcGIS for spatial analysis, QGIS or Global Mapper for terrain, Google Earth Pro for aerial review, separate databases for NRHP records, another source for parcel data, another for historical maps, and then manual research for landowner contact information. That’s a lot of tabs, a lot of licenses, and a lot of hours before anyone sets foot on a site.

Subterrix consolidates the core layers that matter in that pre-field workflow into a single platform. Historical site data, topographic overlays, parcel boundaries, soil composition, LiDAR-based terrain analysis, historical aerial comparison, and landowner identification with contact information — all accessible from one interface. Instead of spending a day assembling context from five or six tools, a firm can pull up a location and have that baseline intelligence ready in minutes.

Beyond consolidation, Subterrix brings AI-driven predictive modeling to the table at a fraction of the cost of what’s currently available in the archaeology and CRM space. Our Expedition Planner runs a multi-stage pipeline that cross-references verified historical records, terrain evidence from 3DEP elevation data, and satellite anomaly detection to score and rank areas by probability of historical activity the same kind of predictive site modeling that existing platforms charge significantly more to deliver. And because Subterrix can identify property owners and generate outreach correspondence, it also shortens the access and permitting side of the equation, which is often where projects stall before they even begin.

We’re not trying to replace the professional GIS tools these firms rely on for regulatory deliverables, but we can dramatically reduce the research and screening phase that happens before those tools come into play. And when it’s time to move into those tools, Subterrix exports directly to ArcGIS Shapefile, Google Earth KMZ, and GeoJSON, so everything generated on the platform ports seamlessly into whatever GIS environment a firm is already working in. The data doesn’t stay locked inside Subterrix. It’s built to feed into the workflows these professionals already have.

Can Other Detectorists See Your Spots? Subterrix on Privacy, Security, and Accessibility 

For users who care about privacy, data handling, and security, where is Subterrix based? Is the company based in the United States? Are the programmers, development team, and technical staff located in the U.S.? Are the servers hosted in the United States?

This is one of the most important questions we get, and I’m glad it’s being asked. Privacy is foundational to how Subterrix was built.

No, other detectorists cannot see your spots. Your saved locations, expedition reports, hunt data, and research are private to your account. There is no social feed, no shared map, no public layer where your locations are visible to other users. What you find and where you hunt is your business. That said, detectorists do have the option to share finds and place them on a map for others to see  but that’s entirely voluntary. Nothing is ever shared unless you choose to share it.

As for the infrastructure, Subterrix is a U.S.-based company. I’m the sole founder and primary developer. On the development side, I’m supported by a contractor who works with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and helps execute on the platform’s framework. There is no offshore development team. Every line of code on the platform has been written domestically, right here in the United States.

Subterrix is hosted on Google Cloud Platform in the United States on dedicated, single-tenant server environments. The database is managed through Neon, a secure serverless PostgreSQL provider, and Cloudflare provides an additional layer of edge security and performance optimization. Compute resources, data storage, and credentials are fully isolated; they are never shared with any other application or customer. Your data sits on U.S.-based servers, managed by U.S.-based infrastructure, built by a U.S.-based developer.

The detecting community is built on trust. You trust the person next to you at a club hunt to respect the hobby, fill their holes, and not poach your permissions. I built Subterrix with that same standard. Your data is yours.

Which browsers currently work best with Subterrix?

Subterrix runs best on Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari — all at recent versions. The optimal experience is Chrome or Edge on desktop, which is what the platform is designed for.

Can Subterrix be used offline in the field? Will users be able to download maps, property reports, permissions, and research information in advance, or is there an offline mode for areas with limited or no cell service?

Right now, Subterrix is a web-based platform, so it does require an internet connection to run its tools and access the AI pipelines. That said, we’ve built several features with fieldwork in mind. The Expedition Planner can be run directly from your phone you grant location permission, the system uses your GPS coordinates, and once the report generates, you can navigate to each zone natively from your device. Reports can also be exported to ArcGIS, Google Earth, and GeoJSON before you head out, so you can carry your research with you in formats that work offline. FieldIQ generates a QR code that loads your full detector settings profile on your phone, designed to be referenced in the field. HuntCast gives you a conditions snapshot you can check before you leave the house.

But the bigger answer is that offline capability and a dedicated mobile app are very much on the development board — and we’ve already begun the process of building it. The vision is to give users the ability to download maps, expedition reports, property data, permission letters, and research in advance so they have everything they need in the field, even in areas with limited or no cell service. That’s a priority for us, because we know that the best detecting spots aren’t always the ones with the best signal.

If a metal detectorist searches one of their favorite locations to see what additional research or historical context Subterrix can provide, does the platform store those coordinates or location searches? If so, are those searches ever used to recommend the same area to other detectorists nearby? Also, does Subterrix AI use user-searched locations for machine learning, and are there safeguards to ensure a detectorist’s private research spots are not exposed, shared, or indirectly suggested to other users? 

This is probably the most important question we get, so I want to be direct about it.

Yes, Subterrix stores your searched coordinates — every tool you use, from Explorer to Expedition Planner to Deepstrike to HuntCast, saves your location data to your account. That’s how you’re able to go back and reference your research, track your saved spots, and build on previous work. But that data is cipher-stacked, and every record is tied to your user account and gated so that only you can see it. There are over 100 individual access controls in the codebase that enforce that.

There is no recommendation engine that uses other detectorists’ activity. Deepstrike does predict high-potential sites, but those predictions are generated entirely from public historical records, government datasets, and terrain analysis — not from what other users have searched or where they’ve been. Your research never feeds into another user’s results. There is no “popular spots near you” feature. There is no trending searches list. Your searched locations are yours alone.

The only time any location data becomes visible to others is when you choose to make it visible — sharing a find on the community map, generating a share link for an Explorer analysis, posting to the community feed, listing a property on Rent and Detect, or sharing within your club. Every one of those actions requires you to opt in. The default across the entire platform is private.

As for AI and machine learning — Subterrix does not fine-tune, retrain, or modify any AI models, and we don’t export your searches into any training dataset. When we say the platform is trained not to hallucinate, what that means is that we’ve built strict prompt engineering, multi-stage filtration pipelines, and verification layers that constrain how the AI behaves — not that we’re feeding your data back into the models themselves. When you use a tool, the platform sends an inference request to providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Perplexity to generate your results in real time. Each of those providers contractually does not train on API inference traffic by default. Your search goes in, your result comes back, and that’s the end of it.

We built the platform this way on purpose. In this hobby, your research is your edge. We’d never compromise that.

Are payment details handled through a secure third-party processor?

Yes. All payment processing on Subterrix is handled through Stripe, one of the most widely trusted and secure payment platforms in the world. Subterrix never sees, stores, or has access to your credit card number or payment details. That information goes directly to Stripe’s PCI-compliant infrastructure, which is the same standard used by companies like Amazon, Google, and Shopify. Your financial data never touches our servers.

Is user data encrypted, and if so, what level of encryption does Subterrix use? Is any data stored or verified on a blockchain, or does the platform rely on traditional cloud-based security infrastructure? Additionally, how does Subterrix protect sensitive information?

Yes, user data is encrypted at every layer. All traffic between your browser and Subterrix is encrypted in transit with TLS;  that’s the same standard your bank uses. On the storage side, all data at rest is encrypted with AES-256 through our database provider, Neon PostgreSQL, and our object storage through Cloudflare R2. AES-256 is the encryption standard used by the U.S. government for classified information. User passwords are never stored in plain text,  they’re hashed with bcrypt using per-password salts, meaning even if someone were to access the database, they’d see nothing usable. API keys and platform credentials are held in a managed secret store, never in the source code, and several are rotated automatically at the infrastructure level.

Subterrix does not use blockchain. We rely on traditional cloud-based security infrastructure because, frankly, it’s more proven, more reliable, and more appropriate for what we’re protecting. We run rate limiting at multiple tiers to prevent abuse — general API traffic, AI-powered tools, and authentication endpoints all have separate thresholds. Sessions are server-side and database-backed with secure, HTTP-only cookies that can’t be accessed by scripts running in your browser.

The short version is this: your data is encrypted in transit, encrypted at rest, and access-controlled at every endpoint. We take it seriously because our users trust us with their research, and that trust isn’t something we’re willing to risk.

Using Subterrix to Find Places to Detect? Legal Responsibilities Detectorists Should Understand 

If someone finds a property through Subterrix, believes it is legal to detect, and then authorities show up, issue a fine, or confiscate equipment, who is legally responsible? Is it the detectorist, the landowner, or the platform? Does Subterrix provide legal permission, or does it provide research and access tools that detectorists must still verify if they can legally detect there?

This is a critical question, and I want to be completely transparent about it. Subterrix is a research and access platform — it is not a legal authority, and it does not grant legal permission to detect anywhere.

Our Property Re-Con tool does include a four-layer legal analysis that evaluates federal, state, and local statutes, identifies the managing authority and jurisdiction type, infers rules where no explicit law exists, and assigns a risk score. That’s a powerful research tool, and it gives detectorists more legal context than they’ve ever had access to before. But it is exactly that  context. It is not a legal opinion, it is not a permit, and it does not replace the detectorist’s responsibility to verify that they are legally allowed to detect at any given location.

The responsibility always lies with the detectorist. If you’re on private land, you need permission from the landowner and we give you the tools to identify that owner, reach out to them, and generate a permission letter. If you’re on public land, you need to understand the regulations governing that specific property, because they vary by jurisdiction and land type. We surface as much of that information as we can, but it’s on you to confirm it.

Subterrix will never tell you, “You’re clear to detect here.” What we will tell you is, “Here’s what we found about this property,  the ownership, the land classification, the applicable regulations, and the risk factors. Now make an informed decision.” That’s a meaningful difference, and it’s one we’re very intentional about.

We built these tools to help detectorists do the right thing more easily — not to create a false sense of legal cover. Fill your holes, get your permissions, and know the rules. Subterrix helps you do all three, but it doesn’t do them for you.

Technology such as Subterrix can make research faster, but it can also create risks when used carelessly. What safeguards are in place to prevent registered archaeological sites, tribal cultural resources, sensitive areas, and protected locations from being targeted or looted? 

This is something we take extremely seriously, and it’s built into the architecture of the platform  not bolted on as an afterthought.

First, Subterrix integrates the Protected Areas Database of the United States, known as PAD-US, which is the official national inventory of federal, state, and local protected lands. When a user searches a location, the platform classifies the land type and flags whether it falls within a protected, restricted, or prohibited category. Our Property Re-Con tool runs a four-layer legal analysis that evaluates written law — including the Archaeological Resources Protection Act and the National Historic Preservation Act — maps the managing authority and jurisdiction, infers rules from related regulations where no explicit statute exists, and assigns a risk score. If a location is restricted or prohibited, the report says so clearly, with citations and legal warnings not a green light.

Second, our admin moderation system includes a suppressed historical sites table. If a site is identified as culturally sensitive, tribally significant, or otherwise inappropriate to surface to users, it can be removed from the platform entirely at the administrative level. We have the ability to act on that quickly and decisively.

Third, the platform’s data philosophy itself is a safeguard. Subterrix pulls from verified public records — the National Register of Historic Places, the American Battlefield Protection Program, state historic preservation offices, USGS data, and other government sources. We don’t fabricate sites, we don’t invent coordinates, and we don’t point users toward locations that exist only in an AI’s imagination. Every data point has a source.

But I want to be honest,  no technology platform can prevent every bad actor from misusing information. What we can do is make the responsible path the easiest path. When a detectorist uses Subterrix, they’re not just getting a pin on a map. They’re getting legal context, land classification, ownership data, and risk assessment  all of which make it harder to claim ignorance and easier to do the right thing. The goal has always been to raise the standard of how this hobby interacts with history, not to lower it.

Do you have concerns that regulators, governing bodies, archaeologists, archaeological oversight agencies, State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs), Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (THPOs), the National Park Service (NPS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Army Corps of Engineers, or other land managers may scrutinize the platform? 

Not only am I not concerned about it, I welcome it. If any of those agencies want to look under the hood, I’d invite them to do so. Subterrix was built to raise the standard of responsible detecting, not to undermine it.

Every data source on the platform is publicly available government data the National Register of Historic Places, the American Battlefield Protection Program, state SHPO records, USGS topographic and elevation data, USDA soil data, NOAA weather data, and Bureau of Land Management land records. We’re not exposing anything that isn’t already accessible to anyone willing to spend the time finding it. What we are doing is organizing it in a way that makes responsible decision-making easier.

The reality is that the metal detecting community has operated without any meaningful technology infrastructure for decades. In that vacuum, people detect without legal context, without understanding land classifications, and without knowing whether a site is protected. Subterrix is the first platform that puts that information in front of the user before they put a shovel in the ground. That’s not a threat to preservation, it’s an asset to it.

If a regulator, a SHPO, a THPO, or the NPS wants to have a conversation about how we can work together to better protect sensitive sites while still supporting responsible hobbyists, that phone call is one I’d be happy to take. We’re on the same side.

How Accurate Is Subterrix Property Data? Ownership, Boundaries, and Updates 

How often does Subterrix update property data, including owner names, parcel boundaries, land-use restrictions, and user-submitted corrections? Because parcel data, ownership information, and property restrictions can change over time, platforms that rely on this type of information need a clear update process and a reliable way to correct errors. Does Subterrix update this information automatically, manually, or through a combination of data sources, internal review, and user reports?

Property data on Subterrix is pulled in real time from our data providers RentCast for ownership information and Realie for parcel boundaries at the moment a user runs a query. That means you’re getting the most current data those providers have every time you search, not a cached snapshot from six months ago. When those providers update their records, those updates flow into Subterrix automatically the next time that property is searched.

For historical site data, we maintain a database of over 1.8 million verified records compiled from federal, state, and municipal sources  the National Register of Historic Places, state historic preservation offices, the American Battlefield Protection Program, Wikidata, USGS Geographic Names, and others. That database is expanded regularly as we seed new data from additional states and sources. We also re-run federal data pulls periodically to capture records that may have been added or updated at the source level.

On the correction side, Subterrix has a built-in site corrections system. If a user identifies an error – a misplaced pin, an incorrect land classification, an outdated property detail they can submit a correction. Those submissions are reviewed and processed at the administrative level. We also maintain a suppressed sites table so that entries identified as inaccurate or inappropriate can be removed from the platform entirely.

The honest answer is that no property data platform, Subterrix or otherwise, is perfect in real time. Ownership changes, zoning updates, and land-use reclassifications happen at the county level across thousands of jurisdictions, and there is no single national source that updates instantaneously. What we’ve built is a system that pulls live data wherever possible, maintains a growing verified historical database, and provides a clear mechanism for corrections when something is wrong. That combination gives our users the most reliable picture available and the transparency to know where it comes from.

If Subterrix indicates that a property or area may be detectable, but a user knows it is not legal or appropriate to detect there, how can they report that? Can users flag bad data, incorrect boundaries, wrong ownership information, restricted land, public land issues, archaeological sensitivity, or places where detecting is prohibited?

Yes, and we want them to. Subterrix has a built-in site corrections system that allows users to flag inaccurate data directly from the platform. If a user knows that a location is restricted, that a boundary is wrong, that ownership information is outdated, or that a site is archaeologically sensitive or otherwise off-limits, they can submit a correction and it gets routed to us for review. Plus, every user gets my personal cell phone number and email. Any of them will tell you that I often respond within minutes of contact. As a small business, I firmly believe that you have to be engaged with customers, and often that’s how you build trust. 

On the administrative side, we have the ability to suppress any site on the platform entirely removing it from search results and reports and we can update land classifications, boundaries, and legal designations as corrections come in. That process is handled manually and deliberately, not by an algorithm, because these decisions carry real consequences and deserve human judgment.

This is also where the community plays a critical role. Detectorists are on the ground. They know their local areas better than any database ever will. When someone tells us, “This parcel was recently rezoned,” or “This site is now under a preservation easement,” or “This is tribal land and should not be surfaced,” that’s information we act on. The platform gets better every time a user takes the time to report something, and we take every submission seriously.

We’d rather have a user tell us we got something wrong than have someone detect somewhere they shouldn’t because our data was outdated. That’s the standard we hold ourselves to.

“Rent & Detect” The Airbnb Versions for Getting Permissions

One of the most interesting parts of Subterrix is the idea of Rent & Detect, where detectorists may be able to access private properties through the platform. How does Rent & Detect work? For example, if a property owner has 30 acres of unused land, wooded acreage, an old home site, or land that is not currently leased for hunting or another use, can they list that property for detectorists?

That’s exactly the idea. Rent & Detect is a marketplace built into Subterrix that connects metal detectorists with private landowners who are willing to grant access to their property. If a property owner has acreage sitting unused — old farmland, wooded lots, former home sites, rural parcels that aren’t leased for hunting or agriculture — they can list that property on the platform and make it available to detectorists.

From the landowner’s perspective, it’s simple. They submit their property, and we handle the listing, the coordination, and the booking. It’s passive income from land that’s otherwise generating nothing. They’re not giving up control of their property — they’re granting temporary access under terms they agree to, and they can set the conditions for how and when that access happens.

From the detectorist’s perspective, it solves the single biggest problem in the hobby access. The best sites in this country are on private land, and most detectorists have no way to find those landowners, let alone convince them to say yes. Rent and Detect removes that barrier. You can browse available properties, see the historical and geospatial context Subterrix provides for each one, and book access through the platform.

We’ve also built a strategic partnership with BlueCrest Group to help scale the property supply side. They work directly with landowners to bring inventory onto the platform, so the marketplace isn’t dependent on detectorists cold-knocking on doors.

The goal is to create a system where landowners benefit, detectorists get access to productive ground, and everything is done with proper permissions documented through the platform. No gray areas, no handshake deals that fall apart. A legitimate marketplace built around trust and transparency.

How does Subterrix management/staff decide whether a property is a good fit for the platform?

We don’t curate or gatekeep which properties get listed. If a landowner wants to make their property available to detectorists, they can list it. The market sets the interest. Detectorists will naturally gravitate toward properties with historical significance, favorable terrain, and productive ground  and Subterrix gives them the research tools to evaluate that for themselves before they book. We’re not in the business of telling landowners their land isn’t good enough. We’re in the business of connecting them with people who want to detect on it and letting the marketplace do what marketplaces do.

Will Rent & Detect hurt traditional door-knocking permissions? Some detectorists may worry that platforms like this could change traditional permission hunting. If landowners realize they can charge for access, could that make it harder for detectorists who still knock on doors and ask permission the old-fashioned way? 

I think it’ll actually do the opposite. Rent and Detect isn’t targeting the properties detectorists are already knocking on. We’re not listing old lady Gertrude’s corner lot that she’s been shooing people away from for twenty years. Those relationships; good or bad –  already exist, and nothing about this platform changes them.

What Rent and Detect does is open up properties that almost nobody knows exist. We’re talking about wooded parcels, rural acreage, farmland, old estates, former home sites, hunting land, and forgotten lots that aren’t on any detectorist’s radar because there’s been no way to find them or reach the owners. These are properties where no one has ever knocked on the door because no one knew there was a reason to.

If anything, this expands the pie rather than dividing it. Door-knocking isn’t going away  it’s a tradition in this hobby and it works. Rent and Detect just adds an entirely new category of accessible land that would have otherwise gone undetected. More properties in play means more opportunities for everyone, not fewer.

If someone’s personal permission falls through at the last minute, or they simply need a new place to detect, could they book a property through Subterrix and be detecting that same day? For example, if a group of friends decides on a Friday that they want to detect over the weekend, how quickly can they book a property and receive approval?

It depends on the property owner, and we built it that way intentionally. When a landowner lists their property on Rent and Detect, they choose how they want to handle bookings. They can opt for auto-accept, which means a detectorist can book and receive approval immediately – no waiting, no back-and-forth. If your Friday night plans fall through and you want to detect Saturday morning, you can browse available properties, book one with auto-accept, and be in the field that same day.

Some landowners prefer to review each booking before approving it, and that’s their right. In those cases, there may be a short turnaround while the owner confirms. But the platform is designed to make that process as fast and frictionless as possible for both sides.

The point is flexibility. Whether it’s a last-minute solo hunt or a group of friends looking for weekend plans, Rent and Detect gives you options that didn’t exist before, without the stress of cold-calling landowners at the last minute and hoping someone picks up.

If a property owner wants to list land on Subterrix and generate income from it, what is the submission and approval process, including property review, ownership verification, access rules, property boundaries, safety requirements, and any liability insurance needed before detectorists are allowed on the land? 

The process is straightforward but thorough. A property owner registers on the platform, accepts our versioned Host Listing Agreement  which is recorded with timestamp, IP address, and user-agent for legal documentation  and pays a one-time listing fee. That fee is waived for Steward-tier members, who receive unlimited free listings.

From there, the owner submits their property with all the relevant details — title, description, address, acreage, terrain type, historical significance, photos, and pricing. They set their own day rates and weekend rates, and they control the terms of access: maximum number of detectorists allowed at one time, available days of the week, access hours, whether multi-day or overnight stays are permitted, blackout dates, and any specific rules for the property. They can also list amenities like parking, water access, or restrooms.

Ownership is established contractually through the Host Listing Agreement, where the owner represents that they have the legal authority to list the property. On the detectorist side, every renter must accept a separate Detectorist Participation Agreement, Liability Waiver, and Assumption of Risk before they can book. Both agreements are versioned, and if we update the terms, both parties are re-prompted to accept the current version before their next transaction.

Liability insurance is not mandated by the platform, but property owners have the option to flag their listing as insurance-required if they want detectorists to carry coverage. The platform does not currently verify proof of insurance — that responsibility falls to the parties involved.

Once a property is submitted with a valid agreement and listing fee, it goes live on the marketplace. The owner then chooses per listing whether incoming bookings are auto-accepted or require their manual approval  the default is manual. For manual-approval listings, the detectorist’s payment is held until the owner approves or denies the booking through their dashboard or via a signed email link. If the owner doesn’t respond within the approval window, the booking auto-refunds. No one gets charged for access that was never confirmed.

Subterrix Shop

If a supplier, manufacturer, or small business wants to be added to the Subterrix shop as a vendor, what is the process?

The Subterrix shop is not an open marketplace — everything in it is curated by us with great discretion. We don’t accept bulk vendor submissions or let anyone list products without our review. If a supplier, manufacturer, or small business is interested in being featured, they can reach out to us directly, and we will evaluate every potential product on its own merits. Does it serve the metal detecting community? Does it meet our quality standard? Is it something we’d personally stand behind? If the answer isn’t yes to all three, it doesn’t make it into the shop. Our name is on everything we sell, and we treat that seriously.

The best example of that is Aventor. I spent over $10,000 of my own money testing every cleaning solution, vice, pencil, brush, and conservation tool I could find on the market. And I’ll be blunt — almost everything out there was disappointing. Then I came across Aventor, a company based in Spain that manufactures cleaning solutions and conservation tools for coins and artifacts. The quality was on a completely different level from anything I’d ever used. The problem was they were exclusive to Europe with no U.S. distribution. So I chased them for six months. I made the case that there was a market here, and I eventually convinced them to let Subterrix become their exclusive U.S. distributor.

Once I got the solutions in hand and tested them myself, I was floored. Take it from someone who has bought everything out there — Aventor is the Lamborghini of cleaning solutions and conservation tools. And the name is a funny coincidence — Aventor, Aventador. Completely unrelated, but it fits. That’s the standard we hold the shop to. If it doesn’t earn that level of conviction from us personally, it doesn’t get listed.

Are you looking for specific types of vendors? What makes a product a good fit for your audience?

Retail is not our focus.  Subterrix is a technology platform first. But when we come across a product that is genuinely innovative and meaningfully better than the status quo, we make considerations. We’re not looking to fill shelves. We’re looking for the rare product that makes us stop and say, “This is actually different.”

We have a lot of tentacles out there in the detecting community, and we’re regularly contacted by manufacturers and small businesses asking to be considered. We evaluate everything that comes our way, but the bar is high. If a product doesn’t clearly outperform what’s already available, it’s not going to make the cut. We’d rather carry five exceptional products than fifty mediocre ones.

Ryan’s Final Thoughts

Subterrix represents a larger shift happening in metal detecting. The hobby is becoming more research-driven, more digital, and more connected to mapping, land access, AI, and responsible permissions.

For some detectorists, that is exciting. For others, it raises fair questions about legality, ethics, privacy of their own lucrative metal detecting spots, and whether technology could change traditional permission hunting.

Part of that shift means investing in the future of the hobby itself. SubterrixG2 is the platform’s free program for metal detecting enthusiasts ages 13–25, built on a simple premise: the next generation of detectorists needs a way in.

The hobby’s long-term health depends on younger enthusiasts picking up a detector, learning to research responsibly, and developing the field skills that only come with time. G2 gives them access to the platform’s core tools at no cost, with a guided path designed to grow alongside them.

Subterrix Clubs brings that same community-first thinking to established groups. Clubs that join the platform receive 20% back on member activity and significantly reduced rates on anything beyond the free tier, making it practical for organizations of any size to put research-grade tools in the hands of every member without absorbing the full cost individually.

The best version of this technology will not replace field skill, common sense, or responsible detecting. Instead, it should help detectorists make better decisions, access new opportunities legally, and better understand the land before they step onto it.