Civil War relic thief engaged in 'heartbreaking' destruction

[JimKindred]

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/23/10827391-civil-war-relic-thief-engaged-in-heartbreaking-destruction

[Trail Otter]

Re: Civil War relic thief engaged in 'heartbreaking' destruction

Good thing they caught him. As one who has done some archaeology, I understand the importance the location of an artifact is to the story of the site. The fact that he may have disrupted graves of lost soldiers is even more disturbing. Hopefully they can get some good out of the damage using his notes regarding where he dug.

[Cumpston1862]

Re: Civil War relic thief engaged in 'heartbreaking' destruction

I thought the National Park Service blanketed several of those battlefield parks in Virginia with metal disks years ago to discourage metal detecting. If they did it wasn't enough apparently.

[Doughboy]

Re: Civil War relic thief engaged in 'heartbreaking' destruction

It does sound as if he did record in detail where and what he found. Lets hope that is true at least

[Jimmayo]

Re: Civil War relic thief engaged in 'heartbreaking' destruction

I thought the National Park Service blanketed several of those battlefield parks in Virginia with metal disks years ago to discourage metal detecting. If they did it wasn't enough apparently.

They did seed some areas but they were ferrous blanks and can be discriminated out. It would be my guess that most of them have rusted away by now. I suggested to one ranger to use aluminum tab tops which are not bio-degradable, available for next to nothing and hard to discriminate out. Nobody paid any attention.

[Cumpston1862]

Re: Civil War relic thief engaged in 'heartbreaking' destruction

Jim- Not a bad idea with the aluminum tab tops. That ranger may have actually passed on your idea to the higher ups but the EPA probably went ballistic at the thought.