Historic OR trail site damage blamed on treasure hunters with MDs

[tamrock]

Historic OR trail site damage blamed on treasure hunters with MD's

A bit sad I would say. What could they have found ? old nuts, bolts, nails and maybe a worn oxen shoe.
Looters dig holes, take artifacts from Oregon Trail in Idaho | KTVB.COM Boise

 

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[EccentricInTexas]

I would assume this was done by someone who was very new to metal detecting. Had they refilled the holes I doubt any one would have known they were there. As to the spot that also speaks to their lack of experience. I doubt they found anything either, certainly not anything worth risking a felony for.

 

[Rawhide]

I didnt see any evidence a metal detector was used. The holes looked fresh, just a few hours or even minutes old. Looks like a farce to me. I spend many hours in the desert and can tell you, the odds of finding anything besides a modern bullet and modern trash is like wining the lottery. I hope the blm encourages folks to keep carting it out. In my family we have a rule, we always carry a few walmart bags and we fill them before we go. I would hope everyone felt like that. There is a many reasons I do not believe this was done by a metal detectorist, Id be checking the trunk of those two fellas pictured trunks of their cars.

 

[tamrock]

I didnt see any evidence a metal detector was used. The holes looked fresh, just a few hours or even minutes old. Looks like a farce to me. I spend many hours in the desert and can tell you, the odds of finding anything besides a modern bullet and modern trash is like wining the lottery. I hope the blm encourages folks to keep carting it out. In my family we have a rule, we always carry a few walmart bags and we fill them before we go. I would hope everyone felt like that. There is a many reasons I do not believe this was done by a metal detectorist, Id be checking the trunk of those two fellas pictured trunks of their cars.

Good point, so the unknown culprits if there were any at all, may have cleaned up the place. I also can't believe anything of historic value was found, but the BLM is making it out as the metal detecting users are a bad lot with no regard as they go raping the land of history. Sure a bunch of holes, but it all looks as wind blows dust over hard soil that could be fixed up with a wide shovel and in a week or so and with some rainfall it will look again as it did. These media folks do try and ruffle everyones feathers. This time its the bad Metal Detector folks we should blame. I will say though, who ever left it that way should know better. The culprits may have thought they were collecting small samples of the original Oregon trail itself in little jars and they'll then try and sell them on ebay. I've seen a few goofy things like that for sale on that site.

 

[TheHarleyMan2]

Yeah, kind of amazing they state, "Historical Artifacts"! But they certainly don't know what was taken!!!!! Kind of like me saying I WON the lottery but I lost the ticket but I KNOW darn well I WON the LOTTERY, SO I WANT MY MONEY!!!!

See how stupid that sounds?

 

[cudamark]

Pristine ruts? Really? Significant loss of historical artifacts? How could they possibly know that? If it was such an important area, why wasn't it an archie dig site? Sounds like archie propaganda to me.... Like tamrock mentioned, what could they have found? Wagon parts? maybe a coin or two? Even a cache of coins....so what? Is that historically significant to find that kind of stuff? Is it surprising that settlers would have had those types of items in their wagons and possibly lost them along the trail? Unless they can prove somebody with a detector did it and that something significant was lost, we should file a class action lawsuit claiming libel. We should probably file one anyway. After all it wasn't all of us that did it.....just a select few. Quit taring us all with the same brush!

 

[Sheldon J]

Pristine ruts? Really? Significant loss of historical artifacts? How could they possibly know that? If it was such an important area, why wasn't it an archie dig site? Sounds like archie propaganda to me.... Like tamrock mentioned, what could they have found? Wagon parts? maybe a coin or two? Even a cache of coins....so what? Is that historically significant to find that kind of stuff? Is it surprising that settlers would have had those types of items in their wagons and possibly lost them along the trail? Unless they can prove somebody with a detector did it and that something significant was lost, we should file a class action lawsuit claiming libel. We should probably file one anyway. After all it wasn't all of us that did it.....just a select few. Quit taring us all with the same brush!

+1 pristine wagon ruts really?? I can show you some nice deep ones in the Prescott AZ area that have been bulldozed and paved over in part for developments...
Bottom line if they are so important then why let the weather destroy them...

 

[cudamark]

I know, isn't it ridiculous? If you off-road now and leave "pristine ruts" YOU'RE the vandal tearing up habitat and endangering threatened species and all that nonsense.