By Russ and Tiña De Maris
Was it a manifestation of a guilty conscience? Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials don’t know for sure, but they do have a letter from someone who needed help. Some folks have a penchant for taking a little souvenir from pretty places. Park rangers often remind visitors that if every visitor just took away a single pebble, soon there’d be none left to appreciate.
So imagine the official on whose desk this letter landed.
“Someone brought this home to me three years ago,” wrote the concerned recipient. Included in the letter was a small rock. And this follow-up: “Bad things been happening every [sic] since.” Just what the “bad things” were wasn’t specified, but it certainly got somebody’s attention. “Sure one of you can find which park it belongs in.”
We don’t know just how park officials would make the determination – unless, perhaps, they are familiar with the use of a Ouija board. But that just might bring problems of its own. The Department produced a photo of the letter – and the rock. The rock was more than a paperweight – it cleverly covered up the signature of the sender.
The old park ranger’s sage advice still applies: Take only photographs. Leave only footprints.
##RVT959b
Taking rocks is theft.
Leaving painted rocks is littering.