Authorities in Utah are searching for whoever banged climbing anchors into the site of an ancient outdoor engraving carved by Native Americans nearly a millennium ago.
The bolts — which climbers use to fasten the ropes that keep them from falling from the rock face — were discovered in early November at the Pregnant Sheep Petroglyph Panel in northeastern Utah, NBC News said.
In a Facebook post, the Uintah County Sheriff’s Office told the public it needs help identifying the vandals.
“On November 10th, 2024, it was discovered that climbing bolts had been installed on the petroglyph panel,” the post said, adding that the federal Bureau of Land Management’s law enforcement arm is “asking the public to report any information they may have identifying the person(s) responsible for this incident.”
The petroglyph panel sits near Highway 40’s Musket Shot Springs Overlook, about 11 miles from Dinosaur National Monument in nearby Colorado.
Although the exact age is unclear, similar engravings in other parts of Utah have been radiocarbon dated to 1100 A.D., according to the Natural History Museum of Utah.
It’s also not clear how damaged the site is — but the petroglyphs are protected by state and federal laws, including the Archeological Resource Protection Act, NBC affiliate KSL in Salt Lake City said.
“When you’re scratching the rock like that, you’re physically removing some of the pieces of rock,” Elizabeth Hora, state archaeologist for the Utah State Historic Preservation Office, told the network.
“A lot of the visual effect of that is actually from the dust that is released, so we can remove the dust — we can fix that — but you can’t put the rock back.”
Defacing the drawings with bolts is also disrespectful to the state’s indigenous population, who consider the works sacred, according to Autumn Gillard, cultural resource manager for the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah.
“For us, as tribal people, these are our churches,” she told KSL earlier this month.
“When folks go in and they vandalize panels, or they vandalize cultural sites, we correlate it to the same thing as if somebody was to go into a temple or a religious space and were to write graffiti all over it or to write their name all over it.”
Anyone with information should call BLM law enforcement at 800-722-3998 or 801-539-4099.
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