Looters Damage Fortifications at Vicksburg NMP

[Vicksburg Dave]

Relic hunters hit the park last week doing major damage to the north corner of the Railroad Redoubt. They dug over 80 holes including one the size of a golf cart. It was a sickening sight.
Several Jackson TV stations came to the park today to survey the damage. WLBT may have video on their website soon, and I will post it here when they post it. Needless to say, the park welcomes any information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the guilty parties.

[coastaltrash]

Re: Looters Damage Fortifications at Vicksburg NMP

Shannon Tilley and I are in Vicksburg right now handling some of the event items with the NPS and had a chance to view the parks recent damage. All I can say is that both of us were sick when we saw this damage and the rainstorm that came this past Thursday night made a bad situation even worse. Hopefully these people are caught.

[Vicksburg Dave]

Re: Looters Damage Fortifications at Vicksburg NMP

Links to News articles:

http://www.vicksburgpost.com/articles/2007/05/12/news/news01.txt

http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=6504159&nav=2CSf

[Dignann]

Re: Looters Damage Fortifications at Vicksburg NMP

Relic hunting continues to be a problem on NPS lands, but sometimes you get lucky and actually catch the bad guys. Let's hope the Vicksburg incident results in some arrests.


Crime against history? Feds charge 5 with digging in battlefields

Five people charged with hunting for relics on Civil War battlefields in Spotsylvania County

BY BILL FREEHLING

The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
April 13, 2007

Five people have been charged with illegal relic-hunting at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, and two pleaded guilty yesterday.

Park Superintendent Russell Smith said the five were all caught digging and using metal detectors on the federal land. He said they dug up artifacts, including Civil War bullets.

Smith said the bullets themselves aren't of great value, but the digging left numerous holes in the park's earthworks.

"They have destroyed the context of understanding that portion of the battlefield," said Smith.

On March 11, according to a National Park Service news release, a park ranger saw three men digging for relics at the Spotsylvania battlefield. They were caught leaving the park. Their equipment and the relics they got were seized.

National Park Service authorities along with the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office later searched the homes of two of the men.

Fenton E. Terembes Jr., Jeremy L. Burroughs and Vincent E. Williams, all of Spotsylvania, were charged last week with felony violations of the Archeological Resource Protection Act, according to the news release.

On March 17, two 16-year-olds were caught metal-detecting in the Hill-Ewell Drive area of Wilderness battlefield, according to the release. One lives in Orange County, and the other lives in Spotsylvania.

Both teens pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges yesterday in U.S. District Court in Charlottesville, said Keith Kelly, chief ranger at the military park.

The boy who was described as the leader was sentenced to serve 200 hours of community service and pay about $2,000 in restitution, Kelly said. The other was fined $1,372 and given 150 hours of community service.

Smith said relic-hunting on national park land appears to be getting more common, perhaps because of private land being rapidly developed. He said it's most common in the spring, as the weather gets warmer and the grass is still short.

He said it's a federal crime to damage archaeological sites on or remove property from federal lands. It is illegal to collect or search for artifacts on federal land without permission.

People who violate those laws can be fined up to $250,000 and sentenced to two years in prison. Smith said the laws are posted around national parks.

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/042007/04132007/275336

Eric

[Gary of CA]

Re: Looters Damage Fortifications at Vicksburg NMP

Community Service should be reenacting Civil War period punishments like Riding the Horse, carrying the rail, marching with full pack, barrel shirt. I'd stop short with buck and gagging.

[coastaltrash]

Re: Looters Damage Fortifications at Vicksburg NMP

I think that the real life penalty of the NPS driving their vehicle until it breaks down and the fact they'll spend some time in the pen and fines is a better idea.

[garyjd]

Re: Looters Damage Fortifications at Vicksburg NMP

The boy who was described as the leader was sentenced to serve 200 hours of community service and pay about $2,000 in restitution, Kelly said. The other was fined $1,372 and given 150 hours of community service.

Sadly a mere slap on the wrist. Until the boom is lowered on these clowns and an example is set this will continue to be a problem. At the least I would have them do the max time of community service possible, and I don't mean mowing lawns for part of the summer. I also think $100,000 in fines would also have been appropriate. Given their ages they could pay it off in their lifetime.Nothing chaps my butt more than criminals being able to plead guilty to get off being held fully accountable for the crimes they've commited. That's why they call it "criminal justice".~Gary

[Vicksburg Dave]

Re: Looters Damage Fortifications at Vicksburg NMP

From the Vicksburg Post

Reward offered in vandalism at military park

By Glenna DeRoy


A Crimestoppers reward of up to $1,000 will go to anyone who can aid in the arrest of the individuals involved in an expensive act of vandalism at the Vicksburg National Military Park.

The vandals left about 100 holes, ranging in size and depth, in the military park during what appears to be a late-night search for valuable Civil War artifacts more than one week ago.

However, the more troubling problem, supervisory park ranger Patty Montague said, is that the culprits dug out the back of the Texas Monument, leaving extensive damage on what she called a "historically significant area."
Though a final report will contain a more specific number, Montague said damages would likely reach into the "tens of thousands."

In response to the incident, the county sheriff's department will increase its patrol activity on park borders at the request of the park service, said
Sheriff Martin Pace.

[Jim Mayo]

Re: Looters Damage Fortifications at Vicksburg NMP

Too bad they didn't dig into a large nest of fire ants. That would have been a lesson learned!

How much of a problem are the ants for you guys doing events at the park.? I toured there a couple of years ago and noticed many ants in the earthworks. Having spend some time in Mississippi and sitting on an ant hill one night I try and avoid these buggers.

[hiplainsyank]

Re: Looters Damage Fortifications at Vicksburg NMP

I think that ther multiple hours of community service should see them doing all the dirty jobs the park rangers and staff don't like to do.

Put their destruction of our property to benefit the park. Their fines should go to the park as well.

[coastaltrash]

Re: Looters Damage Fortifications at Vicksburg NMP

Hey Jim,
It depends on where you're at really. The staff at the park does a pretty good job of managing those things from what I have seen but you are bound to find the occasional hill in various places.

[Dignann]

Re: Looters Damage Fortifications at Vicksburg NMP

These guys are brazen.


Park vandals returned, officials say

By Paul Bryant

The Vicksburg Post [Vicksburg, Miss.]
May 23, 2007

The people believed to be responsible for digging more than 100 holes around the Texas Memorial earlier this month were persistent, returning to the Vicksburg National Military Park even after media reports of their criminal acts, a park official said Tuesday.

“Even after all this hit the papers and television stations, they came back,” said Rick Martin, the park's chief of operations.

The illegal relic hunting on the battlefield was reported on May 11. Stories appeared in Vicksburg, on Jackson TV and elsewhere via The Associated Press. But the culprits were not dissuaded. “I saw them about 3 a.m. (May 13), but I lost them in the woods,” Martin said.

A park ranger discovered the initial damage west and east of the Texas Memorial, causing “tens of thousands of dollars” in damage.

Archaeologists and historians with the National Park Service investigated at the scene, which extended west of the memorial near a Confederate marker to the Railroad Redoubt.

Patrols have been intense since, but digging up artifacts is a high-risk, high-reward pursuit. The Internet has made sales of illegally obtained Civil War items more popular and easier.

It's also high-tech. “They use night-vision goggles and also have communications,” Martin said. “They are doing it for a couple of things: to do the digging and for the excitement.”

Patty Montague, the park's supervising ranger, has said relic hunting is becoming a “main line of business,” although some keep the artifacts for their collections.

When Martin, using night-vision equipment, spotted the vandals near the Railroad Redoubt, they had been in the federal park for hours.

“There were two individuals out there, but I couldn't see them with night vision once they disappeared into the woods,” he said. “We are working some leads on that. People are calling us and telling us they heard this or heard that.”

Martin said the Warren County Sheriff's Department is helping.

Separately, while officials were investigating the vandalism site, they found human remains in a wooded area near railroad tracks. Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey said the remains, believed to be those of a man, have been sent to the Mississippi State Crime Lab in Jackson. Identification is pending.

Under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, it is against the law to excavate, remove, damage, alter, or deface archaeological resources on federal or Indian land. It's also illegal to traffic materials or items found on such land.

Penalties for ARPA violators include being fined $20,000 and imprisoned two years. Subsequent convictions could result in $100,000 fines and five years in prison.

Under Mississippi law, vandalism that causes more than $1,000 in damage carries maximum penalties of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The Texas Memorial is on the south loop of Confederate Avenue at the Railroad Redoubt. It cost $100,000 to build, and was dedicated on Nov. 4, 1961.

The park was created by Congress in 1899 to preserve the siege lines from the Civil War fighting here in 1863. Because thousands of soldiers were entrenched along the lines, the finding ammunition, weapons, belt buckles and buttons is not unusual at many places in the city. The park and its roads are closed at night.

http://www.vicksburgpost.com/articles/2007/05/23/news/news02.txt

Eric

[coastaltrash]

Re: Looters Damage Fortifications at Vicksburg NMP

Shannon Tilley and I were on the old Jackson Road bed that night getting ready for demos the next day. That is up near the Shirley House, and both of us were extremely shocked when Rick came down to our camp Saturday morning and told us the idiots returned.

[fortdonelsonrelics]

Re: Looters Damage Fortifications at Vicksburg NMP

What I dont understand is the park vandalism is getting more press than the dead body they found.

John Walsh

[coastaltrash]

Re: Looters Damage Fortifications at Vicksburg NMP

John,
That may be because there is no story to report on the remains. They weren't recent and it is still under investigation. What they do have good information on is that relic hunters came on to the property on multiple occassions and damaged NPS property, pulling money out of funds earmarked for other things badly needed in the park, to focusing on this. Pretty sad when individuals, be they just people out doing this for fun, or people out to make a buck sink to the level, not everyone is as professional as the folks at Fort Donelson Relics.