Crowdog
08-01-2005, 08:11 AM
BLM to remove all monuments from Sand Mountain Oct. 1
By BURKE WASSON
LVN Staff Writer
While some see them as tributes to lost friends at Sand Mountain, the Bureau of Land Management views them as something else - illegal.
BLM officials recently announced that all monuments on top of Sand Mountain will be removed Oct. 1. Anyone who owns any items sitting at the site has until that date to recover them.
The decision to strip the items from the popular recreational area was made due to two reasons - the illegal placement of monuments on public land and the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe's recognition of that area of Sand Mountain as a sacred place.
While the monuments will no longer be allowed on top of Sand Mountain, BLM Associate Field Manager Elayn Briggs said the bureau is exploring the idea of working with the public to pick a spot where monuments can be legally placed. This would probably in the area's campground near the kiosks at Sand Mountain.
Briggs said about eight to 10 memorials like bronze markers, cement monuments and wood boxes are sitting on top of Sand Mountain.
Up until a few years ago, BLM officials and rangers never even knew they were there. But once the bureau acquired vehicles that could reach the top of the mountain, rangers discovered them.
At that point, Briggs said the BLM considered its options and decided what its officials believe is the best choice - get rid of them.
"It's illegal," Briggs said. "I've worked in other sand dune areas where as soon as they find those sort of things, they remove them.
"They're all in one spot on the top, kind of on a little peak area of sand there. Over the years, people have just started a collection of monuments for, I guess, riders who died. Not necessarily at the mountain, but it was a place they enjoyed, so they put monuments to them up there."
The Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe also enjoys Sand Mountain - but for different reasons than off-highway-vehicle riding.
Briggs said through written and oral consulting with the tribe, BLM officials have learned the Great Basin Native American tribes consider the main dune at Sand Mountain to be a holy site and oppose any monuments being placed there.
While BLM rangers will be disposing of any left-behind monuments Oct. 1, Briggs said she is not sure what they would do with the items at that point.
"Everything will be removed," Briggs said. "I don't know how we'll dispose of it. But I doubt we'll just drag it down to the bottom of the hill and dump them. Some folks went to a lot of trouble, obviously, to put them up there. If they want them back, we would suggest they go get them or at least work with us to get them down."
Anyone who has any questions about monuments currently sitting atop Sand Mountain is encouraged to contact the Bureau of Land Management's Carson City office.
Burke Wasson can be contacted at bwasson@lahontanvalleynews.com
http://www.lahontanvalleynews.com/article/20050730/News/107300006/-1/NEWS
By BURKE WASSON
LVN Staff Writer
While some see them as tributes to lost friends at Sand Mountain, the Bureau of Land Management views them as something else - illegal.
BLM officials recently announced that all monuments on top of Sand Mountain will be removed Oct. 1. Anyone who owns any items sitting at the site has until that date to recover them.
The decision to strip the items from the popular recreational area was made due to two reasons - the illegal placement of monuments on public land and the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe's recognition of that area of Sand Mountain as a sacred place.
While the monuments will no longer be allowed on top of Sand Mountain, BLM Associate Field Manager Elayn Briggs said the bureau is exploring the idea of working with the public to pick a spot where monuments can be legally placed. This would probably in the area's campground near the kiosks at Sand Mountain.
Briggs said about eight to 10 memorials like bronze markers, cement monuments and wood boxes are sitting on top of Sand Mountain.
Up until a few years ago, BLM officials and rangers never even knew they were there. But once the bureau acquired vehicles that could reach the top of the mountain, rangers discovered them.
At that point, Briggs said the BLM considered its options and decided what its officials believe is the best choice - get rid of them.
"It's illegal," Briggs said. "I've worked in other sand dune areas where as soon as they find those sort of things, they remove them.
"They're all in one spot on the top, kind of on a little peak area of sand there. Over the years, people have just started a collection of monuments for, I guess, riders who died. Not necessarily at the mountain, but it was a place they enjoyed, so they put monuments to them up there."
The Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe also enjoys Sand Mountain - but for different reasons than off-highway-vehicle riding.
Briggs said through written and oral consulting with the tribe, BLM officials have learned the Great Basin Native American tribes consider the main dune at Sand Mountain to be a holy site and oppose any monuments being placed there.
While BLM rangers will be disposing of any left-behind monuments Oct. 1, Briggs said she is not sure what they would do with the items at that point.
"Everything will be removed," Briggs said. "I don't know how we'll dispose of it. But I doubt we'll just drag it down to the bottom of the hill and dump them. Some folks went to a lot of trouble, obviously, to put them up there. If they want them back, we would suggest they go get them or at least work with us to get them down."
Anyone who has any questions about monuments currently sitting atop Sand Mountain is encouraged to contact the Bureau of Land Management's Carson City office.
Burke Wasson can be contacted at bwasson@lahontanvalleynews.com
http://www.lahontanvalleynews.com/article/20050730/News/107300006/-1/NEWS