Serious question, has anyone else paid for a private dig tour that turned out to be a total scam?

I lost $300 on a 'guided excavation' near Sedona that was just a guy letting us poke at a random patch of dirt. He didn't even have a trowel, just a garden spade. What are some real ways to actually see a dig in progress?

4 comments

4 Comments

shanew591mo ago

Man, that sucks. I got burned once on a ghost tour that was just a guy reading from Wikipedia on his phone.

carr.abby19d ago

Is that really fair though? I got dragged on a ghost tour in Savannah last year that was basically the same deal, but I still had a good time hanging out with friends and walking around at night. Plus, how do you know the guide wasn't just using Wikipedia as a starting point and adding his own stuff? I'd rather have a normal person with some enthusiasm than some guy trying to sound like a dramatic professor for three hours.

green.iris1mo ago

I dropped $250 on a "paleontology experience" in Montana that was just a fossil gift shop owner pointing at a hillside. Total joke. It feels like these scams are EVERYWHERE now. The only real dig I ever saw was through a university's public volunteer day, and that was free. You really have to look for stuff tied to actual museums or science groups.

hannahcraig1mo ago

I saw a whole news report last year about fake archaeology tours in Arizona. The reporter found at least a dozen operations just like you described, all using the same basic script. It's a real problem because they ruin it for the real research teams. Your best bet is to check the websites for state parks or the Bureau of Land Management. They sometimes list legitimate volunteer opportunities with real archaeologists. I got to help screen soil at a site for a weekend through a BLM program, and it was totally free. You just have to dig through the official government pages, not the first ads that pop up.