Norman Sparks & arrowheads he collected

The Indians that made this stuff didn’t think it was anything special. They used it and tossed it aside. It was just used junk to them.

Here’s another story of a man whose family roots in a place predate today’s rules and who scoffs at “outsiders” who come to enforce the new rules:

http://www.latimes.com/local/great-reads/la-me-c1-relic-hunter-20140724-story.html#page=1

Mr. Sparks reminds me of a lot of men I knew in the Owens Valley and Death Valley areas. When I moved to Tecopa in 1974, I wrote about the impact a then proposed Wilderness designation would have on the mining tradition that, in part, led to designation of Death Valley as a National Monument:

“Death Valley Prospect: No Miners Allowed,” Coast, Aug. 1974.

I don’t think it’s just my Libra nature that sees these as more complex issues than they first appear. I’d be interested in your thoughts.

Another instance of a similar phenomenon occurred when thousands of Mormon pioneers persecuted in the East headed for what was Mexico when they left and became part of the US frontier shortly after the first of them arrived. They set down deep roots in Deseret and built a virtual empire around a religious principle, only to have new rules enforced upon them by a larger, outside power.