[pct-l] Old PCT marker on Ebay!

[kbrandt at cats.ucsc.edu (Karl Brandt)]

On Thu, 3 Jun 2004 CharlieJones@aol.com wrote:

>
> In a message dated 6/3/2004 4:15:47 PM Pacific Standard Time,
> hikerrobbie@yahoo.com writes:
>
> As far  as i know the P.C.T.A. dos`nt own the old markers.Like old trail
> signs and  other artifacts, they are goverment property. Taking them is stealing,
> and  against federal law. For some of the older ones the antquites act  could
> apply. Id contact e-bay and report the sellers for selling  stolen  property.
>
> I think the USDA/USFS should look into that.

I did query the Ebay seller (BDG7764@aol.com). He assured me that it was
not stolen and that he'd bought it several ebay previously from someone
who had bought it at auction many years earlier. Baring evidence to the
contrary, I'm inclined to believe him.

Still, I'm concerned that selling these on Ebay creates an incentive for
less scrupulous folks to start yanking them off trees. That would be
unfortunate because I rather enjoyed coming across them. It was a nice
reminder that the inspiration for the trail has been around a lot longer
than most of us have. I saw less than a couple dozen of these on my
thru-hike.

I doubt these qualify as antiquities as far as the USFS is concerned. They
were used up until 1971, which is still less than 50 years. You'd have to
somehow prove that a particular one was used prior to that.

Did someone say they were looking into making reproductions? That would be
a nice way to dilute the market and take away people's incentive to steal
these.

-Karl

*********************************************************************
Karl "Birdman" Brandt PCT97 LT98
http://people.ucsc.edu/~kbrandt/

"There's nothing a good day on the trail can't fix"