MARQUETTE, MI— Four Illinois residents have been fined and banned from Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore for engaging in acts of vandalism.
Last July, U.S. Park Rangers discovered multiple vessels along the cliffs. The occupants of the boats were carving large letters into the cliff faces. They had collected over 100 pounds of rock to take home.
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, Timothy VerHey, says on December 9, the defendants appeared in Marquette federal court. Each subject was ordered to pay a $500 fine and received a one-year ban from Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. One of them was also ordered to pay an additional $250 fine for taking the rocks.
VerHey says the defendants were lucky they didn’t get six months in jail on vandalism charges.
