How salty.
Last month, a selfish driver knocked down a 100-year-old salt tram tower in Death Valley. The video appears to show the suspected gunman sinking the historical relic into the mud and peeling it off.
The 113-year-old wooden tower, part of the Saline Valley Salt Tram, was pulled from its concrete foundation and thrown into the mud between April 1 and April 24. The National Park Service announced Monday..
The damage suggests the person used the tower as an anchor to pull the vehicle “out of the deep mud,” while tire tracks indicate the car veered far off the legal road before becoming stuck. Authorities said the results indicate the car was driven off the road.
Video taken by another car’s dash cam shows that any potentially irreparable damage to the salt tram was for nothing. When the photographer pulled up to the scene, he saw a car stuck in the mud and a collapsed tower nearby.
video – Obtained from Outside Magazine — A woman is shown approaching the driver and asking for help pulling a dirty pickup truck that is stuck in mud up to its axles.
“I need a winch…I’m a little too deep in the mud and I don’t have anything to winch on. Can you see the last tower?” the woman tells the camera driver, destroying the historic tower. He seems to have admitted that he did it.
“Honestly, you guys can easily go in maybe 20 feet deep. We just need something to hold on to and we don’t have anything.”
The driver stopped to help the woman and the man covered in mud, and was seen on video disconnecting the pickup truck’s winch cable from the damaged tower.
After several attempts, a stranger helps pull the two men’s truck out of the mud, and they presumably go their separate ways, but no one reports damage to the tower to the NPS. .
A spokesperson confirmed to the station that authorities have seen the video and are asking the public to report any information they have about the incident.
The damage was so extensive that officials expressed concern that plans to repair the tower had fallen through. Before this damage occurred, the nuclear power plant was planning a salt train stabilization project funded by the Inflation Control Act, but project managers have not decided whether it will go ahead. Funds can be used to re-secure the tower.
The first of the four towers was built in 1911 to transport salt from the remote Saline Valley in a straight line over the rugged Inyo Mountains to the Owens Valley, 21 miles away.
The Saline Valley Salt Tram is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The bridge is considered to be of national importance due to its age, length, steepness, state of preservation, and scenic setting.
“We hope that those responsible for this damage will contact us to discuss compensation,” Death Valley National Park Superintendent Mike Reynolds said in a statement.
