Vandals permanently damaged sandstone walls and destroyed archeological artifacts in the process of inscribing their names in Mesa Verde National Park.
Names written on sandstone walls, prehistoric charcoal dug up and destroyed, rock cairns pointlessly strewn across the desert: Mesa Verde sees its fair share of vandalism.
On June 20th, 2017, Mesa Verde National Park experienced its latest vandalism. (We know the exact date because David and Edith let the world know on 6/20/17 that they clearly love each other.)
Located in southwest Colorado, Mesa Verde National Park contains wall paintings dating to 2500 BC and entire buildings from 1200 AD. It’s listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and sees 580,000 visitors per year.
The visitors jerks dug up prehistoric charcoal along the Petroglyph Point trail. They then used it to inscribe their names on the sandstone face nearby. This not only destroyed the archeological artifact, but also taints the experience for future visitors.
Mesa Verde National Park posted the extent of vandalism to Facebook, painted rocks and cairns included.