A pile of rocks may never have generated this much drama before.
Some massive cairns, rocks stacked into at least five conical towers somewhere in the Bighorn National Forest, were tagged as "Wyoming's Stonehenge" by Tina Dawn More-Gustafston, a photographer who contributes to the Facebook page Wyoming Through the Lens.
The post has received more than 150 comments ranging from folks who don't mind them, saying they're better than the gum wrappers and beer cans they see along trails, to people advocating knocking them over.
Cairns have historically been used to mark trails. Sheepherders have built cairns all over the Intermountain region as a way to mark important landmarks and to simply pass the time.
In some national parks, like Acadia in Maine, cairns are still used to mark trails. In others, like Capital Reef in Utah, rangers say cairns can confuse hikers and cause them to get lost. According to media reports, hikers in California's Yosemite National Park are encouraged to knock cairns over and spread the stones.
Carin Etiquette
Lisa Balch, acting public information officer for the Bighorn National Forest, told Cowboy State Daily that the U.S. Forest Service has a rule against building cairns.
"The reason is safety," Balch said. "People are using them to mark trails, but that can cause others to get lost. What you might mark for yourself might cause me to get lost."
She added that Forest Service employees will, and do, knock down cairns they find in places where they shouldn't be.
"We don't advise people to take them down, but we will take them down if we come across them in a place where they shouldn't be," she said.
For anyone whose heart is set on building a cairn on the Bighorn National Forest, there is a path forward. Balch said prospective cairn constructors can ask for and receive permission to build, but they need to follow some basic rules.
The rules for cairn construction include specific height and width of base requirements, she said.
This regulation outlines what’s prohibited in national forests: Constructing, placing or maintaining any kind of road, trail, structure, fence, enclosure, communication equipment, significant surface disturbance or other improvement on National Forest System lands or facilities without a special-use authorization, contract or approved operation plan when such authorization is required.
Balch said officials haven’t noticed an uptick in cairn construction in the Bighorn National Forest recently.
Another problem with the practice of somewhat orderly stacking of stones on National Forest lands is that it does not follow the "leave no trace" edict, Balch said. Leave no trace advocates that people shouldn't build any structures such as fire pits or rock cairns and shouldn't add anything or take anything away, including flowers, rocks and arrowheads.
Sandy Pokorney, a top contributor to Wyoming Through the Lens, asked what harm cairns are causing.
Kelly Minor, another top contributor, said they're nothing more than graffiti in the open and serve no purpose.
