Rancher fined for vandalism
A retired Escalante, Utah, rancher pleaded guilty to
"enhancing" 21 Anasazi petroglyphs at the Glen Canyon National
Recreation Area with a pocket knife. Rancher McKay Bailey agreed to
pay restoration costs and forfeit his 1990 Ford pickup for
violating the 1979 Archaeological Resources Protection Act. In
exchange for his guilty plea, the government recommended a $1,000
fine and dismissal of a destruction of government property charge.
Sentencing will be held in Salt Lake City in June. Archaeologists
call the sites Bailey vandalized the Mobius Message Panels, and
believe Native Americans used them some 1,000 years ago to leave
messages for each other. "The panels were scraped over pretty
good," says law enforcement specialist Bob Maguire. "It's basically
pretty hard to tell if it was the same petroglyph."