Gold Butte, Nevada. Photo by Ron Hunter.
Some places just deserve to be saved, and protection can't come soon enough for Gold Butte. It doesn't take long to realize you're in a spectacular place when visiting the Gold Butte region of Nevada. If the dramatic sandstone formations and red rock cliffs don't do it for you, surely the thousands of Native American petroglyphs and prehistoric sites will.
The place commands the awe and respect of most travelers that meander through.
But in recent years, Native American rock art and other cultural sites have been shot up with bullet holes and painted with graffiti.
One congresswoman wants to see that changed with legislation that would offer the area greater federal protection.
In September, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., introduced legislation that would grant deserving protection to Gold Butte, which graces the southeast corner of the state, bumping up against the border of Arizona and Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument.
Berkley's bill would designate the area as the Gold Butte National Conservation Area. The designation would give protection to the important cultural resources of the area, while allowing responsible recreation activities such as hiking, camping and off-road vehicle use on designated routes. In addition, it would designate Wilderness areas within that larger area.
Unique cultural treasures need protection
Gold Butte is home to spectacular cultural resources including petroglyphs and agave roasting pits. When exploring the area, one may find prehistoric rock shelters dating back over 4,000 years along with evidence of the continued use of roasting pits dating back to 400 B.C.
In recent years, Gold Butte has become a destination for more and more travelers and recreationists. And with that, irresposible off-roading recreation has skyrocketed causing environmental damage. Vandalism of cultural sites has also increased.
Two small areas of Gold Butte are, in fact, designated Wilderness, but, the rest of the area remains unprotected. Berkley's bill would designate more than 220,000 acres more Wilderness within the area, thus protecting the best wildlife habitat and cultural resources from future motorized use.
A unique desert home
Gold Butte is home to many species of desert animals and plants, including the threatened Desert Tortoise, Desert Bighorn Sheep, Golden Eagles, and the only pocket of Arizona cypress in Nevada.
The unique landscape consists of Great Basin, Mojave, Sonoran, and Colorado Plateau desert life zones.
About Melissa Giacchino
Melissa Giacchino leads event planning for our professional development trainings including Wilderness Week and the Women and Wilderness Conference, writes the Center’s funding proposals and reports, provides organizing, outreach, and... More about Melissa Giacchino
Legacy Comments
I visit these sites in the SW
I visit these sites in the SW as often as I can. In some places they had to put them off limit due to deliberate damage. Petroglyphs are destroyed by just touching them due to whatever you have on your hands so this has stopped at many placed. This is like in the 60's when people would find pottery at Native sites and bust them all which robbed all of us of history. These areas need to be saved and protected and anyone caught doing any kind of damage should go to jail for a year. They are stealing from the Natives and Americans, a history that cannot be salvaged or replaced. I have seen areas that are just destroyed for no reason. Once upon a time the Sedona area of AZ was breathtaking. All the reasons that people loved the area are gone because the rich selfishly wanted to live there and had hills plowed down to put in a home. They rip out ancient trees to plant some new kind that is "prettier". Where does it all stop? Native Navajo and Hopi are being forceably moved so we can drill for oil and dig coal and not a word of protest from the white community. They were placed on this land and now we want it too. They will not be paid for our theft but the governement will be paid for all the minerals they can destroy the land for.