Las Vegas NowAncient Sites Being Destroyed by Vandals

Ancient Sites Being Destroyed by Vandals

Thousands of Nevada's most historic sites are under attack. They have been around for hundreds of years, but one day of off-roading or partying can turn our history into dust -- everything from ancient petroglyphs on rock walls to the smallest pot shards carried hundreds of miles from the Grand Canyon.

The people who deface the ancient art and the ones driving over burial sites try to make a sport of their reckless pastime. But even if you don't know what you're destroying, you could be one of history's vandals.

Out past the neon and the traffic, on the outskirts of Overton, there are bluffs and mesas stretching as far as the eye can see. Buried in the dirt, there's a living history of a people long gone.

Want to be a Site Steward? The Nevada Historical Preservation Office seeks volunteers. Call 895-4863 for more information.

"For some unknown reason, around AD 1200 they all up and left," said reclamation archeologist Laurie Perry.

Perry works for the Bureau of Reclamation. On a bluff, she's surveying an Anasazi storage depot and housing complex that has been around for 800 years.

It's just pot shards, broken tools and the remnants of dirt dwellings. That leaves questions, "What were people doing here? Why were they here? What brought them to this particular location?"

Site Steward George Philips is also on the hike. Instead of pot shards, he looks for more recent signs of human habitation -- or in this case, destruction, "It's usually just carelessness or a lack of knowledge. It's just ignorance of what is out here."

Philips and Perry have seen a growing number of archeological sites being driven through, written on and simply trashed. So stewards put up signs to tell people to be careful.

"People don't know that they're trampling over an area that's valuable," said Phillips.

When signs are ignored, off-roaders take their ATV's and bikes, drive them along the thin paths and they literally carve cuts through history.

"One pass by a couple of vehicles can just virtually destroy the site," said Perry.

For Perry and Phillips, ATV's are fine, they just don't belong here. The deep cuts aren't fixed easily. No one should make a sport out of destruction.

"There's plenty of land and plenty of ways to do it," said Phillips.

For these vulnerable targets, 800 years is a long wait to be discovered, even if one day can ruin them forever.

Perry notes that any intentional act of vandalism on one of these sites is a federal crime -- the government could seize the vehicles used during the destruction. The vandal could face a fine as much as $100,000 and potentially five years in prison.

Email your comments to Investigative Reporter Jonathan Humbert