Desert Dog Blog

Massive vandalism at Inscription Canyon

Above: Petroglyphs at Inscription Canyon.  Desert Dog Joe Perry took a trip to Inscription Canyon last weekend, and found massive vandalism – the barrier to the canyon was taken down and petroglyph panels taken out.

Dear desertphiles and archaeology lovers,

There’s a growing problem in the desert.  It involves the vandalism of rock art, some of which are many thousands of years old.

Most recently, in Inscription Canyon someone has knocked down the barrier to the canyon, drove into the canyon with offroad vehicles, and removed entire panels of rock art.

Desert Dog Joe Perry is the one who spotted this last weekend (the weekend of March 20th).  Joe also said, “I ran across a motorcyclist who saw two trucks about 2 weeks ago with people actually carrying large rocks, (panels?) and loading them into trucks.   The motorcyclist got a partial description, but said they were armed so he just split the scene.”

The motorcyclist said that approximately 2 weeks earlier he saw 2 trucks, one a later model RAM and the other an older model Ford. There was maybe one or two middle to late age Caucasians, several young men, and a few younger women.  They were observed carrying large rocks (panels?) out of the canyon and loading them into their trucks. In addition, they were seen shooting into the canyon.   It’s possible they were local tweekers, but selling this kind of stuff would be difficult, except for the black market.  However, they might have thought these would be a nice decoration for their homes.  Either way, this sort of vandalism carries severe penalties.  A first-time conviction of archaeological site vandalism carries a fine of up to $20,000 or two years in jail.  Any other convictions entail a $100,000 fine or five years imprisonment.

Those of us who care ought to hook up with the BLM archaeologist for the area we visit the most.  In the case of the Barstow area where Inscription Canyon is, the archaeologist is Jim Shearer.  Ask the archaeologist if you can be a site steward for a particular area of the desert that you enjoy.  You can reach archaeologists for your area by calling the BLM at  (202) 452-5125.

We can also get involved with the California Archaeological Site Steward Program (CASSP).

You know me.  I like to keep it reasonable.  But when it comes to the vandalism of ancient treasures, I really think we should be more vigilant.

And of course, if anyone knows about the perpetrators of this crime, let us know or better yet call the Barstow Police Department at (760) 255-5111.

- Andrew Perry

New video out

Black Mountain Wilderness: Breaking through the veil

In this video, Ben gets attacked by a cactus and we find a huge obsidian knife (haha). I try to add some philosophy into the video in a fun way as well.

Be sure to watch the whole video here: http://therealdesertdogs.com/episodes/black_mountain_wilderness.htm

Lancaster mayor apologizes for his remarks, AFTER being confronted by Muslims!

Mayor Rex Parris apologized about his comments about making the City of Lancaster a “Christian community.”

Not because of any logical reason, but because he was approached by ANOTHER religious group who was offended. The Council on American-Islamic Relations approached the mayor and shortly afterward, said to a gathering of local Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims, that he is sorry about his comment, and that what he meant is that Lancaster should be a Christian community in the sense that it should be good to its neighbors.

Why didn’t he say that in the first place? Probably because it’s not what he meant in the first place.