Even in “wild and woolly” Catron County, N.M., you
still have to pay if you’re caught damaging archaeological
sites on public land.
In 1999, a private landowner hired a
construction company to clear a dirt road through a national forest
to a patch of private land. In the process, the bulldozer plowed
through three prehistoric sites containing stone tools and grinding
stones that are between 2,000 and 7,000 years old.
In
February, an administrative law judge ordered the landowner,
Charles Cooksey, and Spears Pipe and Welding, the company he hired
to widen and grade the road, to pay $80,000 — the approximate
cost of a scientific excavation of the site. The company must also
pay to restore the natural vegetation and contour of the
land.
Cooksey’s attorney, Linda Burson, calls it a
“David and Goliath story,” and suspects the government wants to
acquire the private land. She says the Forest Service’s
initial damage assessment of $300,000 roughly equaled the value of
Cooksey’s property. When the agency discovered that Cooksey
had sold the land, Burson says, the damage assessment dropped
significantly.
But Forest Service officials say they never
appraised the property, and that fines are based on the guidelines
of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979. The act,
which applies to federal and tribal lands, can bring stiff fines
and even prison time to people who destroy archaeological
sites.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Road-builders pay for archaeological damage.
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