Falling Man Update

In a bit of unusual happenstance, Gordon and I were taking one of our last rides together on the butte this season (and still commiserating about the complete incompetence of the BLM over the "first rock" fecal "grafitti" that they have been completely ignoring for the past two years on some of the most old and rare petroglyphs in the whole area) when we saw something completely unexpected that I'll tell you about.

But first, as you may know, there are petroglyphs of several different ages at this particular site and it's some of the oldest that are being destroyed by the fecal matter being flung at them. We've posted about this before in this blog and reported it to the ranger as well as other BLM officials more than once. My guess is that either they are so misguided that they think large birds can't fly to another rock to nest; OR they are too lazy to do the minimal work necessary to "rearrange" the birds descretionary choices.

PEOPLE, birds can move (even poor little eagles) but petroglyphs can't! And, once they're gone, they're gone… FOREVER!

However, I digress. You must forgive me, for this kind of "official" incompetance stirs my soul. Back to the story.

What should we see while standing there but a full-sized canoe coming down the trail in a cloud of dust! The car that was supporting it braked right in front of us and Gordon and I looked at each other anticipating a rare opportunity to tease someone about "missing the trail to the lake." I know I had at least ten jokes to nag on him about and I'm sure Gordon had more than that.

Before either of us could say anything however, a guy jumped out of the car, saw the words imminently formed in our mouths and pre-emptively said: "yea, we know there's no water around here." Apparently we weren't the first who had commented.

In the pleasant conversation that ensued, he and his wife explained that they were traveling with their canoe and didn't have anywhere else to put it while they went out to see the petroglyphs that they had heard about in town: "Falling Man." Sometimes it's just easier to show than to tell so we offered to let them follow us down to the parking corral recently built and decorated.

Once there, the difficulties started when we tried to explain how they could hike to the site and actually find the glyph that they wanted. Many glyphs are easy to spot in the area but the Falling Man, not so much. It's smaller than most people expect and a bit difficult to spot. We gave them as best directions we could and hoped that they could find what they were looking for.

I had forgotten about it until a recent email:

My wife and I met you and a friend last March in the Gold Butte at a rock art site. You talked with us about that site and how it had some of the oldest petroglyphs. You then drove us to the Falling Man area and gave us directions to hike in and find it; asking that if we did, we were to send you a picture as proof.

Your directions were spot on and here is the proof in an attached photo. Thanks, Kel

Thanks Kel, neither of us can hike much so we've been pretty much excluded from these sites since the BLM decided to close them to most seniors a couple of years ago. It's great to know that they're still there intact.

Learn A Little More

Here's something that you can show your kids, or grand-kids. How to build a dinosaur from a chicken. A palentologist who grew up in Montana tells us how.

Jack Horner, Building a dinosaur from a chicken