Why would one want to destroy one of America’s natural wonders?
That’s what the National Park Service would like to find out.
In a Monday news release, the agency announced it was seeking the public’s help to find two men who were caught on camera deliberately destroying a protected rock formation in the Lake Mead Recreation Area.
The incident, the news release said, happened last week and was filmed from the Redstone Dunes Trail area in the Nevada portion of the park.
“In a video posted to social media that was reportedly recorded on the evening of Sunday, April 7, 2024, two adult males are seen toppling natural rock formations from the top of a cliff,” the news release said.
Nor were these just any rock formations.
“The sandstone formations on the Redstone Trail were shaped over time by geological forces from 140 million-year-old dunes, according to the National Park Service,” The New York Times noted.
In the video, the two men can be seen toppling the sandstone formations and a young girl can be heard yelling in the background, “Don’t fall … Daddy! Daddy!”
Another voice on the video asks a simple but salient question off-camera: “But why?”
A report from KVVU-TV in Las Vegas included some of the footage:
Lake Mead Recreation Area spokesman John Haynes said the act was “appalling,” according to CNN.
“Why on earth would you do this to this area that’s so beautiful?” he said.
“It’s one of my favorite places in the park and they’re up there just destroying it,” Haynes said. “I don’t understand that.”
Alas, he told KVVU, the sheer size of the recreation area — which spans over a million acres in two states, Arizona and Nevada — makes it impossible to police all the natural treasures there.
“It is 1.5 million acres. We have two big lakes, a chunk of the Colorado River. … It gets pretty difficult based on our staff levels to be everywhere all at once,” Haynes said.
“If you are out of cellphone range or you don’t know the number at least try to capture, if you can, if it is safe, some kind of photo or video of the activity taking place,” he added.
“You don’t have to engage people. Many people don’t feel safe engaging others out there … and that’s OK. It’s really important to let us know.”
Should these men face full punishment under the law?
In this case, these two men may be the two most famous vandals in the United States at the moment, which means it’s likely they’ll get caught. It also means they could be facing some hefty fines and even time behind bars — from federal charges, mind you, considering the crime was committed on federal land.
“It can range from six months in jail and a $5,000 fine … all the way up to a felony offense,” Haynes said.
Visitors to the park were also nonplussed. One woman at the Lake Mead visitor’s center was shown the video and expressed disappointment that natural selection didn’t take the vandals with the formations.
“I believe in Darwin,” she said. “They should have gone down with the rock.”
Of course, given that a child seems to be involved, that’s not necessarily the most charitable reaction — but it’s an understandable one. The formations can’t be repaired, and breathtaking beauty that took 140 million years to sculpt was gone in just seconds.
And for what? Because it was there? That’s why people hike rock formations — not destroy them. Or at least, that’s how it used to be. We now have so little respect for what God has bequeathed to us that we have become wanton destroyers of it for no reason other than, you know, what the heck?
May these men be found quickly — and punished severely.
