PSA: Check for looting at known but unguarded sites

I was out near Mesa Verde last fall, hiking a trail off the main park loop, and a ranger named Dave stopped me. He pointed to a spot where someone had dug a fresh hole right next to a sign marked 'Site 47' and said they'd lost three artifacts to thieves there in just one week. It stuck with me because that little pit could have held a pot or a tool that nobody will ever study now. Has anyone else run into damage like this at a remote site?

2 comments

2 Comments

angela89014d ago

Respectfully, I see it different. A lot of those "protected" sites are just piles of old rocks with no real history to learn from.

finleyfox14d ago

Yeah that totally tracks with what I've seen out in the backcountry near Chaco Canyon last year. Found a big gaping hole where someone just ripped a whole chunk of a wall out, probably looking for pots to sell.