Goofing around on a rainy morning, I came across a story about the U.S. Forest Service "Vandalizing a Native American Town Site," which turned out to be Trap Rock Gap, which turned out to be a condensed version of a September 2012 Examiner story by Richard Thornton. It's old news, but something I thought might be relevant here, in more ways than one.
In part, the story says;
"In July, a group of hikers in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest were shocked to discover that the USFS had cut down over 100 live trees to block a trail. The trail led to a dormant volcanic vent and large complex of stone ruins in Track Rock Gap, a 1,100 year-old Mayan site in Georgia's mountains. No alternative route was provided."
The Native Village Story provided the photo above here:
http://www.nativevillage.org/Archives/2012/Sept%202012%20News/US%20Forest%20Service%20Employees%20Vandalize%20Native%20town%20site.htm (and a link to the Examiner Story.)
And this photo above as well, although when I clicked on the photo (thinking, "That's one of Norman's! They should have credited him!"), I was brought back to http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2010/06/archaeological-and-ethnohistorical.html which I suppose could technically be considered "credit."
I had just happened on some other photos, also from Rock Piles, supposedly from Georgia and discovered by Carey Waldrip, on a now defunct website, but they turned out to be Peter's photos taken on Rocky Hill in MA!
So really there are a couple stories here: Is this a Ceremonial Site, a Town Site or a Maya Site? Was the Forest Service intent to discourage people from messing around with the stones because of all the publicity? Should everyone but me (since no one ever steals my photos) put a watermark or something on their photos so no one can claim them as "rock solid" proof of (enter your favorite fringe group theory here) as the party responsible for building the construction - especially if the photos are from a thousand miles away from where they claim they were found?
I may be easily confused but now I'm starting to think everything I see on the World Wide Internet might not be true...
3 comments :
Regarding Track Rock Gap, the trees were leveled to keep unwanted visitors from the site, and this was done at the behest of the local Indian tribes. It was the involvement of Scott Wolter and the program he hosted that prompted the Indians to "close" the site. Also, the site is sacred to the Indians, and has nothing to do with the Mayans, etc.
I do not agree with these policies.
(much later) ...nor do I agree with blanket statements about the long-term history of the local tribes.
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