Historic rock monument mysteriously dismantled in Arizona national park, photos show

A historic rock cairn monument that stood for more than 100 years has been destroyed, according to Saguaro National Park.

The Arizona park posted photos of the monument on Facebook Tuesday showing the Historic Rock Cairn on Rincon Peak dismantled. Cairns are man-made piles of stones that have historical or directional significance.

“This rock cairn was a monument erected by an early surveyor back in 1903,” the park said. “It was crucial in the development of detailed maps of the southern portion of the Arizona Territory prior to statehood.”

Park officials are investigating who could have dismantled the monument built in 1903, and are looking for information from anyone who hiked there in the past year.

Some people on Facebook said the cairn was dismantled in October.

“It was already dismantled when I climbed the mountain in mid-October 2019,” one Facebook commenter said. “I was disappointed that it was.”

Other people questioned if the person who dismantled it thought they were doing the right thing because building rock cairns in many national park sites is considered wrong or illegal. Some wondered if a storm or weather conditions could have dismantled the cairn.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if someone thought it was illegal/graffiti,” a commenter said. “Many parks heavily inform their visitors that building rock cairns, particularly large ones, is wrong. I have never been to this site -- is there signage anywhere about this cairn’s historical significance?”

The park explained that cairns are often used to mark points of historical significance where digging into the ground is impractical.

“All across the Sonoran Desert we can find cairns marking the corners of old mining claims, historic homesteads, research transects, hiking trails, or in this case geological survey points,” park officials said. “We struggle when people build their own rock piles which distract from the landscape or confuse hikers who are following official cairns as part of their hike across rocky terrain. However, we always recommend reporting cairns to park officials instead of dismantling them.”

Park officials said they don’t know if they will rebuild the structure.

“Figuring out what happened to it might be the first step in figuring out what comes next,” the park said.

This story was originally published June 12, 2020 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Historic rock monument mysteriously dismantled in Arizona national park, photos show."