Two men could go to jail because they are accused of damaging rock formations that are thought to be millions of years old.
Nevada’s Justice Department said in a press statement on Friday that Wyatt Clifford Fain, 37, and Payden David Guy Cosper, 31, are accused of pushing “large chunks of ancient rock formations over the edge of a cliff” near the Redstone Dunes Trail in the Lake Mead Recreation Area.
The incident occurred on April 7. On April 15, the National Park Service shared an image from a social media post purportedly showing the two men pushing a large red boulder off a cliff.
The entire video, published by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, shows the men pushing the stones from the formation, as well as clouds of dust emanating from where the boulders presumably landed.
Law enforcement park rangers at Lake Mead National Recreation Area are asking for help from the public to find the people who damaged property at the Redstone Dunes Trail area, the NPS said at the time.
The video was shared on social media and was allegedly taken on Sunday night, April 7, 2024. It shows two adult men removing natural rock formations from the edge of a cliff.
John Haynes, who works as a public information officer for Lake Mead, told the Review-Journal at the time that the event made him “sick to his stomach.”
He told the newspaper in April, “I don’t understand why anyone would do this.” “It takes millions of years for these sandstone formations to form, and then some jerks show up and destroy them in minutes.”
The act went against the park’s rules, which say that people can’t “toss, throw, or roll rocks or other objects into caves or caverns, into valleys, canyons, or caverns, down hillsides or mountainsides, or into thermal features.” It also went against “leave no trace principles,” which are meant to keep park lands as natural as possible.
Two men were charged with a federal crime because they were found to have “assisted and abetted each other in injuring and depredating property of the United States and of the Department of the Interior, National Parks Service, to wit: rock formations on or near the Redstone Dunes Trail.”
Two counts have been brought against Fain and Cosper: one count of damage and theft from government property and one count of helping and supporting the crime.
The accused thieves broke things worth more than $1,000, according to the Justice Department. They could spend up to 10 years in jail if found guilty.
On Friday, they told a federal judge that they were not guilty. The trial with a jury is set for Oct. 8.
According to the federal docket, authorities did not ask for either defendant to be jailed. Fain and Cosper are both still free on their own recognizance.
The Lake Mead Recreational Area is close to Las Vegas and has “Joshua trees, slot canyons, and night skies lit by the Milky Way,” according to the park’s website. “The rocks in the park are as red as fire, and the mountains are beautiful purple.”
It also says that Lake Mead is the “first and largest national recreation area and one of the most visited national parks in the United States” on its website.