Mount Rushmore, Badlands, Wind Cave
Page 7
“We’d like to report something to you,” Dad replied.
“Or really, someone,” Mom added. “I mean two people.”
“What is it?” the man asked with growing concern.
Then all four Parkers began blurting out information.
Dad started. “We think we’ve spotted two bone thieves.”
“They’re just ahead on the trail,” Mom added.
“They poached ancient mammal bones in the Badlands,” James said.
“A bunch of buckets full!” Morgan added.
The Parkers kept overlapping each other while blurting out the details. Then, after a moment, the woman said, “Wait. Hold on a second. Slow down.” She took a deep breath. “Are you saying, you spotted, right here on this trail, two men who took fossils illegally, last week in the Badlands?”
“That’s what we’re saying,” Dad stated.
Then the other ranger interjected. “But in order for us to take action, we need to be certain your statements are correct. So far this is just hearsay.”
Mom stepped up with more information. “When we were in the Badlands, we witnessed them putting equipment away in their car and reported it to the park rangers there.”
“And I saw some of the bones,” James added.
The rangers listened earnestly. “Still, that could have been a permitted dig,” the woman said.
“When we reported the incident . . .” Mom started to explain further. “Wait,” she interrupted herself. “I think we can prove all this.” Mom fumbled through her purse until she found the scrap of paper with the car’s make and the license plate of the two suspects. “I know we appear like amateur sleuths, but this is what they drove,” Mom handed the paper to the rangers.
The woman looked the paper over. “A Mazda hatchback,” she said, “with a South Dakota license plate.”
“And you’ve reported this?” the man asked.
“Yep!” all four Parkers exclaimed.
“To the law enforcement personnel at Badlands,” Mom added. Then Dad asked. “Can you check to see if the car is in the parking lot?”
The woman replied, “We can. But before we get involved we have to make sure your story checks out. Also, it’s an awful big parking area we have, and some of our visitors on the Fourth of July holiday park down the road and walk because of the crowds. But checking for their car is one thing we could possibly do. But first,” the woman held up her cell phone.
First, she connected with dispatch on the phone and explained the situation. Then she said, “Can you verify the incident report at the Badlands from one week ago?” she glanced at the Parkers to make sure the date was correct and they nodded.
Next the woman transferred to the security personnel manning the parking garage. She spoke to them. “Do you mind sweeping the garage to look for a Mazda hatchback with a South Dakota license plate of 445 ALX. If you see that car, can you call me back right away?”
The woman put the phone down, then looked at the Parkers. “Do you mind hanging around for a little bit?”
“Not at all,” Mom replied.
The two rangers and Morgan, James, Mom, and Dad stayed put at the Teddy Roosevelt memorial area. Once in a while one of them interjected some small talk into the awkward, impatient silence.
“Quite a crowd you have today,” Mom said.
“Fourth of July here,” the man replied. “It’s our busiest of all holidays.”
Morgan changed the subject. “We love it here. There’s so much to learn about.”
The woman looked at the Parkers and noticed they didn’t have headsets. “Have you considered taking the audio tour? You can listen to a ton of information along each of the many stops on the trail.”
Then the phone rang. The ranger picked it up and listened. “Go ahead. I’m here.”
Morgan, James, Mom, and Dad also heard the reply. “Yes. A family of four—the Parkers—reported a bone theft incident last week. The car checks out, too. And security called us back saying there is a car that fits that description in the garage.”
The two rangers looked at each other for a second. Then the woman took a step away and spoke into the phone. “We need some backup personnel to meet us along the Presidential Trail. Have them come from the end of the trail up. Right now were at the Roosevelt area. Also, please have security detain two men trying to leave in that car. And in case backup sees the suspects out here, it is two men, one tall and wearing a red ball cap.”
The ranger explained a bit more of the situation to dispatch and listened to their response. Then she put down the phone and turned to the Parkers. “I think we’ve got to skedaddle. Please, for your own safety, let us take over from here. Thank you. You’ve done a good thing.”
“Also,” the woman added, “once this settles down, the chief ranger would like to meet with you in his office to get a few more details. Can you stop by there in an hour at the ranger station at the park entrance?”
Dad glanced at his watch. It was 6 p.m. now. “We’ll be there,” he replied.
And with that the two rangers took off, leaving the Parkers behind to finish the trail.
14 And in the End
Morgan, James, Mom, and dad were on their own again. Each, now that things were out of their hands, seemed to take a deep breath and relax a bit.
“I’m really relieved we had a chance to report that,” Mom said after several quiet moments among themselves.
“I guess we can take in the rest of the trail now until our meeting,” Dad added.
The family walked on, stopping at the Sculptor’s Studio a short distance later. Once there, Morgan, James, Mom, and Dad stepped inside. The room was crowded with people looking over the information. At the front a large replica of the four presidents’ heads stood out among everything else on display.
“This is what they all looked at when carving the mountain, a cast replica,” Dad said.
“We saw those cast replica fossils in the Badlands,” Morgan recalled.
“True,” Mom said. “But doesn’t that seem so long ago?”
Up front several interpreters were giving demonstrations of the work and equipment used when the sculpting took place between 1927 and 1941. The Parkers stepped closer to watch.
A woman was explaining a pneumatic-powered jackhammer. “This piece of equipment,” she pointed, “weighed thirty-five pounds and it was used to chip away at the rock face. Later,” she added, “they used one of these.” The guide gestured to another piece of machinery. “This dalette hand facer is what is called a bumping tool. It smoothed the rock surface to give the presidents more of the whitish facial complexion that we see today.”
BORGLUM THE SCULPTOR
Gutzon Borglum was the American sculptor and artist who was the chief sculptor at Mount Rushmore. Trained in Paris, Borglum in his early years carved, among other things, statues for churches. But his fascination with large sculptures led him to carve an image of President Lincoln out of marble that was displayed at the Theodore Roosevelt White House. Borglum’s most famous work was Mount Rushmore, which he helped originate, supervise, carve, train workers, and raise funds for the sculpture from 1927 to 1941. Unfortunately he died before the monument was completed in 1941, leaving his son Lincoln to be in charge for the finishing touches.
Borglum said of the mountain, “The purpose of the memorial is to communicate of the founding of the United States with Washington, the expansion and the Louisiana Purchase with Jefferson, the preservation of the union of the country during the Civil War with Lincoln, and development of the nation into the twentieth century with Theodore Roosevelt.”
As the family watched, Morgan glanced around, and the two men were back in sight. Morgan held her breath and inched closer to her parents.
Mom caught the drift and whispered, “They’re here, aren’t they?”
“Yes,” Morgan nodded.
Dad tried to glance discreetly about the crowded room. He glimpsed the two men across the studio. Then Dad saw th
e two rangers from earlier. And several other patrol personnel were nearby, appearing to be closing in.
Dad turned back to his family and reported quietly. “We’re definitely not alone in here.”
THIS IS THE MOUNTAIN
Harney Peak and Mount Rushmore are both located in the Black Hills and are formed of granite in a process that began 1.6 billion years ago. Later erosion exposed the granite, but it was buried again by sandstone and sediments. Then, around seventy million years ago, uplifting began thrusting up the Black Hills, which once reached twenty thousand feet above sea level. Erosion continually wore the mountains down to the four-thousand-foot or so elevation range they are today. This natural erosional process re-exposed the granite where Gutzon Borglum did his carving.
Borglum chose this mountain for several reasons: 1) It is made of a smooth, fine-grained granite. 2) The granite was durable and erosion-resistant. 3) It is the tallest mountain in the region. 4) The mountain faces the southeast so workers got maximum sunlight exposure when carving the mountain and the sculpture.
The Parkers tried to focus on the interpreter’s presentation as she continued talking about the smoothing process. But that proved to be difficult as their minds were elsewhere. Then, some commotion in the back interrupted everything.
“Let’s get out of here,” the man in the red cap called to his buddy. The two took off jogging. And, quickly, all uniformed patrol were in full pursuit.
Morgan saw the chase just as they left the area. “We were right in the middle of the action!” she exclaimed.
“Now we can be certain those are the guys,” Mom said. “Or else why would they be running?”
After the law enforcement officers took off after the criminals, the Parkers also left the studio. They climbed some stairs to a viewing terrace. “I wonder what’s going to happen,” James said.
“Well, I just hope they catch them and the fossils are returned,” Dad added.
At the terrace the family saw a group of people with headsets, using the audio tour. One person there said to her companions, “Did you hear what they just said on this?”
And she quoted Borglum from the device. “Do you see those faces? They’re in there. All I have to do is bring them out from under all that rock.”
Those words grabbed the Parkers’ attention.
“The faces were already in the rock,” Dad echoed. “All the sculptor had to do was bring them out.”
“Hmm,” Dad pondered further. “Seems like this was the perfect place for this monument. The granite was all set and ready to be carved and chiseled.”
Finally, the Parkers left the Presidential Trail altogether. With some time still remaining before their meeting, they went to get a quick bite to eat at the cafeteria. While they were paying for their food, a man in uniform walked up to them.
“Excuse me,” he said “are you the Parkers?”
“Yes,” Dad replied.
“I’m Navnit Singh, the chief ranger here at Mount Rushmore. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”
“You were the person we were going to meet?” Mom asked.
“Yep.”
“How did you find us?” Dad asked.
“You match your description perfectly.”
With that Morgan, James, Mom, and Dad took their food to a table, accompanied by Ranger Singh.
Mom introduced everyone in her family. From there the chief ranger wanted to hear the whole story about the poached bones from the beginning. The Parkers filled him in on all the details they could remember from almost a week ago on the Castle Trail, until the events of today. Finally when they appeared to be done, Mr. Singh asked, “Have you left anything out?”
“I don’t think so,” Dad replied. He glanced at his family but they all shrugged their shoulders indicating that was all they knew.
“Well,” Mr. Singh replied. “I’ve got some news for all of you.”
The Parkers sat forward in anticipation.
“First of all,” the chief ranger began, “we did apprehend those two men. It was quite a ruckus when we managed to corner them in the parking lot. But, thankfully, it ended peacefully and no one was hurt. We were also able to search their car. Would you believe the fossils, buckets, tools, and all were still in there?”
“Anyway,” the chief ranger went on, “we have since made a few calls to the folks at the Badlands, including their chief paleontologist, Rachel Benton. Incidentally, she spoke quite highly of all of you.” Mr. Singh smiled at the Parkers. “We described what we recovered and she was extremely relieved and thankful. And,” he added, “Ms. Benton has a personal message for you folks.”
Mr. Singh took out an official-looking piece of paper, put on some reading glasses, and looked at Morgan, James, Mom, and Dad. “She just e-mailed this to me. Are you all ready?”
The Parkers nodded enthusiastically.
“Dear Morgan, James, Robert, and Kristen Parker,” the ranger began, “Thank you so much for helping us recover the stolen fossils from the Badlands. You don’t know how important that is to us. The park and the scientific world are certainly a much better place for this.”
“Furthermore,” the Chief Ranger read while glancing up at four beaming faces, “that fossil bed you discovered along the Castle Trail is proving to be quite a find. We’ve now done a preliminary survey of the site and that afternoon we were able to identify a saber-toothed cat skull that appears articulated, which is extremely rare. And it looks like the whole area is full of many, many more bones. So far we’ve seen some teeth, parts of a jaw, vertebra pieces, a leg bone, and more of a skull that we’ll need to dig out. Some of the bones of different animals were very close to each other, specifically that of a Mesohippus and the saber-toothed cat. We may have ourselves another Pig Dig. Many of the fossils are so intermingled, we think they may have died at the same time, and that could also help explain the scar on the Mesohippus jaw you saw.
“Welcome to paleontology. It is such a fascinating field! And what you found for us is a display of a unique preservation of animals from more than thirty million years ago. It will help us learn about their whole ecosystem and the predator-prey relationships they had going on. My best guess is the area was one of the very last watering holes around during an extended drought.
“It also looks like we’re going to be there for quite some time. If we get funding grants, the dig may last several years or perhaps longer. We are just getting initial plans together for that now.
“So, if ever you are in the area again, please stop by and say hello, and then come join us out at the dig that you all started.” Mr. Singh showed the family that Rachel had highlighted those words. “If you can’t find it, this time we’ll show you the way! With much gratitude, Rachel Benton, Chief Paleontologist, Badlands National Park.”
Chief Ranger Singh folded the e-mail and handed it to Mom. “It looks like you are making quite a name for yourselves out in this neck of the woods,” he said. Then the director stood up and shook each of the Parkers’ hands.
“Oh, one more thing,” he said, pulling out another piece of paper. “This document entitles each of you to a free audio tour, whenever you want to use it.”
Morgan smiled. “Thanks! That was actually our plan for tomorrow.”
“Perfect,” Mr. Singh replied. Then he said good-bye to the family.
Meanwhile, Morgan, James, Mom, and Dad skedaddled over to the amphitheatre. They sat there with much anticipation watching people gather for the traditional evening lighting ceremony. As the time drew nearer, Morgan and James concurred on a top ten list for their trip in James’s journal:
1. Severe storms and storm chasers in the Badlands
2. Notch Trail and ladder and bighorn sheep at Badlands
3. Prairie Dog Town in the Badlands
4. The Castle Trail at the Badlands (and going up Saddle Pass)
5. Bison herd at Wind Cave
6. Wind Cave Candlelight Tour
7. Natural Entrance Tour—Wind
Cave
8. Mount Rushmore Presidential Trail
9. Finding a bunch of fossil mammals and helping catch the bone thieves at Mount Rushmore
10. The lighting of the presidents’ heads! (Which is just about to start.)
Good-bye until next time,
Morgan and James Parker