Ranchers Donate Land
To Save Ancient Art

LEWISTON, Idaho — In their quest to control ever more private property and to eliminate productive enterprise on public land, government agencies and environmental activists have made a habit of portraying ranchers as despoilers of the earth. As much land as possible, they insist, must be "protected" from these greedy merchants of capitalist excess.

Little is heard of the other side of the story, such as the Idaho ranchers who have donated part of their land along the Snake River to the Nez Perce National Historical Park to protect ancient rock art — from the non-ranching public.

Petroglyphs at Buffalo Eddy and about a half-mile of shoreline along the Snake River are going to the National Park Service.

Frank Scheibe, son Ron Scheibe and Dallas Dodd decided to give a portion of their ranch on the Washington side. The site has been vandalized in the past.

"It's appalling what people do to sites like that," Frank Scheibe said. "With the road so close by it's been desecrated pretty badly in the last few years and we wanted to save what's left."

A few years ago vandals chipped away a large portion of the petroglyphs. Under federal ownership they will be protected under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act.

"It kind of gives us more leverage to protect it," said Otis Halfmoon, a Nez Perce park manager. "Any more vandalism out there will be a federal offense. We'd like to put a stop to that."

Some say the drawings could be as old as 12,000 years; more conservative estimates put them at 4500 years old.

The rock drawings will still be open to the public.

"We all grew up in this area and have been looking at those petroglyphs ever since I can remember," Dodd said. "They're specifically important to the Nez Perce Nation but everybody that has grown up around here looks at them as a little bit of our heritage, too."