NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Friday, April 9, 2010
INCIDENTS
New River Gorge NR
Two Caught Collecting Historic Artifacts In Park
On Saturday, March 27th, rangers monitoring the former McKendree Hospital cultural site contacted a local man and woman who were collecting historic era artifacts from a beach on the New River known to be rich with them. When contacted, the pair had in their possession a variety of ceramics, metal objects, glassware, buttons, and medical artifacts, including a glass syringe and needle and part of a glass thermometer. The pair had made piles of various other objects to come back and get later. When contacted, one of them referred to the artifacts as “my treasures.” The artifacts were seized; the man and woman were identified and released. The investigating rangers are consulting with the park cultural resources management specialist on the nature and significance of the artifact assemblage prior to filing charges. Charges being considered include violations of the Archeological Resource Protection Act (ARPA), the Antiquities Act, and/or 36 CFR 2.1. McKendree Hospital no longer exists, but served first as a state medical facility for coal miners and their families, then as a nursing school and as a retirement home. It was built around 1900 and closed around 1956. There is little left of the main structure. The site is in a remote area of the park. Recent high river levels have washed out and exposed artifacts from the river bank. [Randy Fisher, Park Ranger]
OTHER NEWS
The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS:
Big Bend NP - Housing for Border Patrol agents and NPS employees is being constructed in the park as a joint project by the two agencies. The collaborative effort will result in increased security by having more Border Patrol agents stationed in the park.
WASO Public Affairs - The National Park Service has announced the seven regional recipients of the Harry Yount Award.
Rocky Mountain NP - Blaine Gillingham, property management specialist at Rocky Mountain National Park, passed away unexpectedly on Saturday, April 3rd. Photo.
To see these and other stories posted on InsideNPS (or NPS Digest, its public version), click on one or the other of the following links (please note that not all stories in the former appear in the latter):
NPS employees: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index
Non-NPS employees: HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/
NPS serious incident submission standards can be found at the following web site: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/notify" http://inside.nps.gov/notify
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Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).
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