NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

INCIDENTS

Fort Bowie NHS

Visitor Caught Collecting Artifacts In Park

On the afternoon of Tuesday, December 28th, a park interpretive ranger contacted a protection ranger to report a female visitor illegally collecting artifacts at the site. During periods of cold weather, melting snow and frost heaves often bring historic artifacts to the surface. The woman had posted her husband as a lookout - when he saw the ranger approaching him, he whistled and shouted, “He's here.” The ranger contacted the woman before she could empty her pockets and he could see artifacts in her clenched fist as he approached her. She had a total of 111 artifacts in her possession, including historic cartridge cases, a metal button, a barrel band from a rifle, square nails, and pieces of historic glass. She claimed she did not know she was in a national historic site even though she had been to the visitor center, talked to the interpretive ranger, and had a site brochure in her possession. The illegal collection of artifacts at Fort Bowie is an on-going problem and in recent months the park has had archeological sites disturbed by illegal immigrants in addition to the usual collectors. The park recently installed an outdoor surveillance camera overlooking the parade ground to help prevent the problem. The cost of either cataloging or repatriating the artifacts is being calculated. [Field Operations Supervisor, Southeast Arizona Group]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS. To see the full text, including images, NPS employees should go to the InsideNPS home page ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index). Non-NPS employees can see most of them on the NPS Digest page ( HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/):

Saint-Gaudens NHS - An iPhone app has been created for Saint-Gaudens, one of the first such for a national park. The app, a computer program that runs on iPhones, iPads and iPods, is available for download from the Apple iTunes App Store.

Submerged Resources Center - The National Park Service and the Our World Underwater Scholarship Society are pleased to announce the second year of the OWUSS/NPS research internship. Photo.

Kalaupapa NHP - The remains of a rarely seen pygmy sperm whale were found on a park beach last month. Following a traditional Hawaiian cultural ceremony at the site, an interagency team conducted a necropsy for laboratory analysis. Photo.

Yosemite NP - In a ceremony held at the Yosemite Valley Elementary School on December 17th, three school children were given awards for bravery for their part in a rockfall that occurred last October.

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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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