The ancient American Indian petroglyphs on the sandstone rocks in the Oregon basin near Cody, Wyo., are believed to be thousands of years old. The names scratched onto the surface several feet away are not.
During his 3 years working in the US Bureau of Land Management's Cody field office, archeologist Kierson Crume has responded to four incidents of bonfires near the drawings, which are among North America's earliest signs of human civilization. People brought discarded wooden cargo pallets to the remote area at night, set them ablaze, and partied, he told OGJ.
Human damage
Smoke and ash hit the petroglyphs and may have compromised them, as well as many buried subsistence sites, he indicated.
People also came there to "high-line," which involves driving all-terrain vehicles up the steep sandstone hills as fast and as far as possible, which leads to erosion, he said.
BLM initiated a site stewardship program with Wyoming's historic preservation office in 2008 to train volunteers to help monitor the site.
In 2009, they filled eight industrial-sized garbage bags with trash and worked to obscure vehicle tracks left from parties at the Oregon basin petroglyphs site.
Crume felt that more needed to be done. "It's a remote area, not visible from our major travel corridors," he said.
"It's hard to see activities there, except from the top of the ridges," he said.
Fence idea
During a visit to the site with Randy Meabon, a regulatory compliance representative from Marathon Oil Co., which has operated in the area since 1917, Crume mentioned that a fence might discourage unwanted activities but added that it might result in more bonfires if it was wooden.
Meabon suggested using drillstem instead of wood for the fence's posts. "We had all this extra pipe that would go to scrap metal if it wasn't used," he said.
Marathon not only donated the pipe, but also had welders cut it into 40 lengths of 2½ ft and place a cap on the top of each piece.
A BLM contractor pounded the posts into the ground and strung cable left from previous projects between them.
The resulting fence is about 350 ft long with the strand of cable keeping people from driving up to the petroglyphs, but allowing access on foot.
Crume said it also blends into the background since the drill stem had rusted. "It's designed to be accessible, but not for hauling a keg and partygoers up to the drawings," he told OGJ.
"It's nice to help save something of significance like this for the future," said Meabon.
"It was great we could be part of preserving this area."
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