In January 2006, rangers received a report of possible artifact digging in the Lower Wilderness area of the park. Rangers and the park archeologist investigated the digging. They discovered 45 excavations in a known archeological area, and that over 2,000 cubic feet of dirt had been excavated from the six acre site. Evidence was also recovered from the site that helped rangers identify a suspect. In addition, three rangers recorded observations in their patrol logs putting the suspect in the area of the archeological site between October 2005 and January 2006. Rangers interviewed Carl Ray Henderson in February 2006. When confronted with the evidence, Henderson confessed to digging at the site. Over the next six months, Henderson recovered and returned some of the artifacts from the site, as well as artifacts and human bones from other sites he had excavated. In March 2007, Henderson was indicted by a federal grand jury for a felony violation of the Archeological Resource Protection Act (16 USC § 470ee(a)). Henderson pled guilty to this offense in July 2007. He failed to appear for his sentencing, though, so the judge issued an arrest warrant. Henderson was arrested by U.S. marshals last month and held in Fort Smith until sentencing on February 27th. Henderson was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison and a year’s supervised probation and ordered to pay $2,720.00 in restitution for a felony conviction of the Archeological Resource Protection Act.
