I understand that the Grand Canyon is a National Park in the USA. Are there areas within the park that tourists are simply not allowed to go ?
I was reading an atricle about a Prof. S.A.Jordan of the Smithsonian who was investigating some caves in the Grand Canyon backin in April 1909. Darn it if I can’t find it again. I have searched the web and have only come up with theories that there were Egyptian artifacts that were 3000-5000 years old discovered. The article suggested that these caves were in a restricted part of the park. Any ideas ?
http://www.gci-net.com/users/v/vrartist/rumorfact.html
There are lots of rumors that the site is restricted. However, there are no indications of any restrictions on maps of the cave area. The Feds probably reason that the remoteness of the site makes it a good place to employ the black helicopter brigade.
The following are the areas that are closed to the public, period.
Everything else in the (lengthy) document is just basic rules about wilderness backpacking, jetskis on the Colorado River, where you may and may not drive your ATVs, etc.
But there’s this, relevant to the OP:
Note that this doesn’t say anything about ancient Egyptian artifacts. But of course, the Feds aren’t gonna tell you…
As you can tell yes there are places in the grand canyon that are restricted. I have lived outside of the park for a few years and I have been an avid hang glider for all of those years. I have seen many places that are restricted and even no fly zones for kiters. I have been down the Colorado countless times fishing and rafting, but I have to say the rumors about ancient Egyption stuff being found are simply that, rumors. There were native tribes that florished in that region 5 thousand years ago, they did indeed leave artifacts, old dwellings, and much lore, and most of the archaeological digs out there are restricted. They are restricted due to looters not to due to some underlying conspiracy to dig up egyption artifacts. interesting concept though.
As s side note, during the “government shutdown” a few years ago, the entire Grand Canyon was closed. We drove up and a ranger standing at the head of Bright Angel Trail (IIRC) told us “Sorry folks, park’s closed- moose out front should’ve told you.”
Actually, he said that we could not enter the canyon from that trail or any other. We wound up going to Canyon de Chelle instead, which is (at least partially) on a reservation.
And so on. The most recent incident was particularly galling–an entire rock-painting destroyed–but unfortunately I can’t find the details anymore.
Endangered sites are often put under the protection of the Department of Interior, either through the National Park Service or a number of other, less well known offices. The problem is that Interior can’t afford to protect these remote sites 24-7 any more than the states or Indian tribes could before them. Which finally brings me to the OP, sort of.
One solution has been to simply “disappear” the site. I know of at least one example where a wonderfully preserved slate-rock village was never identified on maps and has no signs leading up to it. If you find it, you might chance upon a single ranger making a weekly check to see if vandals and looters have found the place yet. (I’ve done a good job forgetting even the name of the place, so don’t ask me where it is.) That’s the best they can do with an ever-expanding list of sites to protect and an ever-shrinking budget.
This sort of practice is not confined simply to ancient archaeological and historical sites. Civil War buffs visiting the Wilderness battlefield in Virginia may be interested to know that asking a park ranger about the Lacy House will likely win them a free parking permit to an otherwise unadvertised section of the battlefield and a visit to the burial site of Stonewall Jackson’s arm (it had been coincidentally laid to rest there the year before the Wilderness battle). Staffing and budgetary constraints prevent it from being actively managed, so the site’s existence is downplayed and only the intensely interested are given the opportunity to see it.
I’ll try to shed some light on the OP in general. Patricinus Scriblerus seems to think it’s unusual for a national park to have restricted areas. Actually this is quite common. Just because lands have been designated ‘National’ , ‘Park’, etc does not mean that they are free from rules and regs. This is true at city, state and national levels including national forests.
Further, as stated by others here, it is unlawful to disturb sites of an historical nature. This is also common and can fall under the heading of a a federal law.
The Egyption aspect makes this seem suspicious (to some), but in general, most caves in national parks are off limits. Indeed, parks with no known caves have this restriction. This is a blanket policy designed to keep you out of any historical sites the authorities might not have been discovered yet. And I believe it’s a good policy.
As Sofa King points out, sites, pictographs, etc are being removed from maps as they are a guide for looters. However, lesser known sites (now classified as ‘class 2’) and rock art can be pointed out to you by park rangers if you have knowledge of and can describe said sites/art, at their discression.
Not to hijack, but along the lines of parks not being entirely green and having free access - in Canadian federal and provincial parks, you can find a full spectrum of industries happening all at once. The land may be a park, but it is allocated to many different uses such as recreational (ATV & 4WD areas, hiking, climbing, horseback riding, some of which may overlap or not), forestry, mining, tourism, research/archeology sites, grazing leases, and so on. Access to all these sites can be completely closed off to anyone “they” say. Ever been to Banff? Even when I was in K-Country this summer there were within a couple square miles of empty looking forest: dirt bikes and 4WDs… buzzing around a cattle lease… that had clear-cuts on the hills around it… through which flowed a trout stream containing endangered bull trout… which I was doing some work on for the government… with a Shell refinery basically across the road behind a hill; all of it legit :rolleyes:. Don’t know if it’s the same in the US, could be.
