I'm not sure that my 1st posting came out very well on the server so I am posting it again, with a few additions.

 

Ok.. so the mystery of who stole the cache from A Sign From The Past III has been solved. From the description of his article there is no doubt that Truman Peters is the one that took it. I take offense at the article and believe he is exaggerating about the theft of articles and damaging to trails. A very few veteran AZ geocachers have visited this site and I am confident that they did not damage anything. There is nothing to damage or steal at this site as he claims in his statement to the press. The site is merely a set of LARGE boulders (very hard to steal) that have petroglyphs on them. I saw no signs of pottery shards or any signs of nearby ruins or artifacts. There are no trails to the site and therefore it would have it is impossible for someone to have damaged something that does not exist. When we placed this cache we parked on a 4x4 road and walked to the site. While there we never saw ANY no trespassing signs, permits required, vehicle restrictions, or any other indications that the area was restricted. This site was so remote that when the cache was placed it was in a very obvious location with only a rock or two on top and really not much of a search was needed to find it. That was why Truman Peters found it so easily and I doubt that there would have been any impact at the site. When I find these sites in the future I will no longer leave an actual cache but will post them as a Virtual so that everyone can enjoy them.

 

As for Truman Peters saying he made a note I have never received a notification from him even though the cache contained the standard geocache letter explaining how to have the cache removed. How did he leave this note? At the site? there were several geocachers that visited it and never mentioned his "note". Did he nail the note to a tree? Etch it into the Rocks? Leave it in the container that he took? I believe the few geocachers that visited this site will verify that it was not trashed as he claims to the newspaper. This whole article seems to be a slam on our hobby and an attempt to make geocachers scapegoats for others lack of consideration or respect for the environment.

 

I take offense at his comment of "stay away from our archaeological sites". Since when did he take ownership of these sites? I found this site by looking at a topographical map and it was clearly marked on the map as containing petroglyphs! This site is public land and I believe that everyone has a right to visit these areas to view them. What good are they if they keep them secret and no one has an opportunity to enjoy their history and beauty? I have a great respect for these ancient sites and use our visits to teach my children to respect the land. While at these sites we only take photographs.

I also find it ironic that sites are destroyed frequently by the government though mismanagement, or building projects. If a new road or other project is build and an archeological site is discovered they  study it and they pave or build right over the top! A recent example is of a site that is located near the Deer Valley Airport. There is a site located on a hill that is just east of the airport that contains what some archeologists believe is a solar observatory. The land has been sold to a gravel company that is going to grid up the site to make concrete.

 

As the owner of one of the sites mentioned in the paper I apologize to the geocaching community for the bad press but believe it is an unfair article. The reason that we selected the site was to share a bit of the beauty and history of our state with our geocaching friends. Below is the evil WhereRWee? trashing the environment by picking up approximately #30 pounds of the stuff at " A grand undertaking" geocache. As a result of geocaching my son enjoys picking up trash as much as hunting for the cache. Just yesterday when we met the evil geocaching team AZSALUKI he picked up a paint can that was leaking all over the ground. My wife wanted to put it in the truck but I had to draw the line at a leaking can of paint :)

 

 

WhereRWee?