Please don't think that anyone is offended. No one is upset about you asking. I think that it's great that you are thoughtful enough to ask.

Whatever you do, don't do any metal detecting on Federal property. Don't even bring a metal detector or shovel onto the park land. Big time offense there. I was a volunteer at Pea Ridge for 11 years and know of several who have been arrested and doing jail time for it.

There is a Federal law against it - the Archeological Resource Protection Act. That applies to pretty much everything - from bullets to deer antlers. It's there to protect the artifacts for future generations. Several years back, we did a major archeological survey at Pea Ridge. We came up with decent number of artifacts. From this we were able to plot unit positions and reshape the battlefield. Once they are properly conserved, the park will be able to display them. They would not have been able to do this if the act was not there. Unless the artifact is properly plotted and cataloged, it becomes useless to the historical record since it's position places it in a proper context. It is only useful to say that it was there on the battlefield.

Now, it is legal to relic hunt on private property, but you must have the property owner's permission. Most of the people whose property borders the Pea Ridge park are pretty strict on who they allow onto their property. Some of it goes back to the early history of the park, caused some pretty bad blood.

As for the park, check out the expanded website before you go. The main park site is www.nps.gov/peri. Hit the "in depth" button for the expanded site. This will tell you pretty much everything you need to know about the battle. When you get to the park, watch the film first. It'll give you a good background on the campaign. A couple of hints. Tour stop #1 is pretty well meaningless. The actual headquarters site is in the middle of highway 62. Back in the 70s, they created the "foundations" so that people would stop asking where the HQ was. Next, stop #3 (Leetown battlefield), most of the fighting did not occur in the field. There's a battery pointing towards Morgan's Woods. That's where the Confederate attack came from.

The museum in the visitor center is really weak. The displays are over 40 years old, so watch out for the anti-Confederate bias. If there's any help I can give you, let me know.