I live in a small town next to a giant pile of gravel lol It’s probably not free. In my case, the owner of the property was planning on putting in a gravel driveway to a old house he was going to fix up but then never did. It’s been abandoned for years, no idea what’s going on now. But he owns the gravel and taking it would be theft. Although I could probably get away with it if I was in a desperate gravel situation.