This Monday, authorities in northeastern Utah say they are looking for anyone who may have been involved in the placement of climbing bolts near the location of an old outdoor etching.
According to the Uintah County Sheriff’s Office, climbing bolts, also called anchors, were found on Nov. 10 at the location of the Pregnant Sheep Petroglyph Panel on federal territory in the northeastern part of the state.
On Thursday, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the sheriff’s office requested the public’s assistance in identifying anyone who may have been involved in the bolt installation near Musket Shot Springs Overlook on Highway 40, approximately 11 miles from Dinosaur National Monument in neighboring Colorado.
The bureau described the act as vandalism in a Facebook statement.
The installation was described by the sheriff’s office as occurring on the petroglyph panel. A request for additional information was not immediately answered by sheriff’s authorities.
Details about the particular panel were not immediately accessible.
Joel Pederson, a geomorphologist at Colorado State University, has radiocarbon dated elements linked to comparable engravings in Wayne County, Utah, in the southern third of the state, to A.D. 1100, according to the Natural History Museum of Utah.
“Some of the state’s petroglyphs represent persistence, reformulation, and integration of art, iconography, and ideology among peoples,” the museum quotes anthropologist Steven Simms, a collaborator from Utah State University.
Installing bolts at a petroglyph site is disrespectful to the state’s Indigenous people because the carvings are important to many, according to Autumn Gillard, cultural resource manager for the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, who spoke to Salt Lake City’s NBC station KSL.
She told the channel earlier this month that these are our churches as indigenous people. When people enter and damage panels or cultural sites, we associate it with the same thing as if someone entered a temple or other place of worship and started writing their name or graffiti all over it.
As the climbing advocacy group Access Fund celebrated a victory in December for legislation known as the Protecting America’s Rock Climbing Act, which was passed by Congress as part of the Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences Act, the hunt for the bolt installer continues.
The nonprofit organization said in a statement on December 19 that the bill, in part, makes it clear that climbing and the installation, usage, and upkeep of fixed anchors (such as bolts, pins, and slings) are acceptable and not forbidden in wilderness regions.
According to the Access Fund, the National Park Service retracted a plan last month that would have made fixed anchors illegal on government property.
Access Fund Executive Director Heather Thorne stated on Sunday that the group is in favor of actions that will prevent such vandalism from happening again.
“The desecration of cultural resources and sacred sites, and bolting done in close proximity to such sites, is completely antithetical to Access Fund’s values,” she wrote in an email. “We condemn such actions and fully support the removal of these bolts and mitigation of damage.”
According to Thorne, the fund has worked to educate climbers to guarantee that respect for historic, spiritual, and artistic locations is fundamental within the climbing community, even as it applauds legislation that permits climbers to use fixed anchors when otherwise permitted.
“Every climber’s behavior plays a role in our ability to preserve sustainable climbing access,” she stated.
Two individuals wanted for questioning in connection with the alleged vandalism of a petroglyph at Wire Pass, which is well-known for its picturesque rock formations, were found and contacted, according to the Kane County Sheriff’s Office in Utah on December 2.
Harry Barber, the district manager for the Bureau of Land Management, informed KSLa that a lady had been arrested and might be charged with several felonies related to the incident. The woman apparently drew her name and/or other items on the petroglyph, according to Barber’s video update on Facebook.
The case’s status was unknown, and it was unclear if the woman had legal representation. A request for comment on Saturday night was not immediately answered by Utah’s federal public defender’s office.
Sheriff’s officials in Uintah County, which is some 500 miles northeast of Wire Pass, said federal agents would be contacted if they had any leads in their hunt for the bolt installer.
According to a statement released by the Uintah County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday, BLM law enforcement is requesting that anybody with information that could help identify the person or people responsible for this incident contact it.
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