{"id":1445,"date":"2016-07-14T13:42:38","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T13:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=1445"},"modified":"2016-08-11T15:21:29","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T15:21:29","slug":"park-ranger-dont-take-gettysburg-rocks-theyre-cursed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/park-ranger-dont-take-gettysburg-rocks-theyre-cursed\/","title":{"rendered":"Park Ranger: Don&#8217;t Take Gettysburg Rocks: They&#8217;re Cursed"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"header\">\n<div id=\"masthead\">\n<div id=\"branding\"><a class=\"home-link\" title=\"The Blog of Gettysburg National Military Park\" href=\"https:\/\/npsgnmp.wordpress.com\/\" rel=\"home\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/npsgnmp.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/banner3-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"940\" height=\"198\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div id=\"access\">\n<div class=\"skip-link screen-reader-text\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><a title=\"Skip to content\" href=\"https:\/\/npsgnmp.wordpress.com\/#content\">Skip to content<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"menu\">\n<ul>\n<li class=\"current_page_item\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/npsgnmp.wordpress.com\/\">Home<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"page_item page-item-2\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/npsgnmp.wordpress.com\/about\/\">About<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"main\">\n<div id=\"container\">\n<div id=\"content\">\n<div id=\"post-4742\" class=\"post-4742 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-battlefield-legends-and-lore category-natural-history category-uncategorized tag-cursed-rocks tag-gettysburg-curse\">\n<h2 class=\"entry-title\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/npsgnmp.wordpress.com\/2016\/07\/07\/cursed-rocks\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Cursed Rocks<\/a><\/span><\/h2>\n<div class=\"entry-meta\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><span class=\"meta-prep meta-prep-author\">Posted on<\/span> <a title=\"8:14 pm\" href=\"https:\/\/npsgnmp.wordpress.com\/2016\/07\/07\/cursed-rocks\/\" rel=\"bookmark\"><span class=\"entry-date\">July 7, 2016<\/span><\/a><span class=\"by-author\"><span class=\"sep\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" title=\"View all posts by The Staff\" href=\"https:\/\/npsgnmp.wordpress.com\/author\/npsgnmp\/\" rel=\"author\">The Staff<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4765\" src=\"https:\/\/npsgnmp.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/07\/stones1.jpg?w=640\" alt=\"stones\" \/>The packages seem totally innocuous. Not very large. Slightly heavier than you might expect for their size. Addressed to Gettysburg National Military Park, but not to a specific department or person.\u00a0 Often without a return address. Not terribly unusual at all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Except for the curse.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The boxes in question hold rocks. Rocks that were previously removed from the park, and are now being returned. In almost every case, they also contain a letter, such as the one below,\u00a0 received\u00a0 in May of this year:<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4762\" src=\"https:\/\/npsgnmp.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/07\/letter-11.jpg?w=640\" alt=\"Letter #1\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Or this one, from June 2015:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4746\" src=\"https:\/\/npsgnmp.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/07\/letter-2.jpg?w=640\" alt=\"Letter #2\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">It is important to remember that removing rocks from the park is a violation of Chapter 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Section 2.1(a)(1)(iv) prohibits\u00a0 \u201cPossessing, destroying, injuring, defacing, removing, digging or disturbing from its natural state a mineral resource or cave formation or the parts thereof.\u201d\u00a0 If these individuals had been caught in the act, they would have been cited and fined $100, plus a $30 processing fee. All in all, they may have preferred that.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4747\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" data-shortcode=\"caption\">\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-medium wp-image-4747 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/npsgnmp.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/07\/rocks-at-the-eternal-peace-light.jpg?w=300&amp;h=225\" alt=\"Rocks at the Eternal Peace Light\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Rocks like these have arrived in the mail at Gettysburg National Military Park.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Now, I know what you\u2019re thinking (only because I\u2019ve had people say this to me): \u201cBut it\u2019s only one little rock!\u201d True. But while it may be \u201cone little rock\u201d to you, Gettysburg National Military Park receives over 1 million visitors every year. \u00a0What if every visitor took \u201cone little rock\u201d? How long before that starts to have an adverse impact on all of our resources, but in particular, our stone walls? How long before you, our dear readers, and other visitors, start to notice that impact?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Many of the stone walls here in the park are historic, and existed at the time of the battle. Some were erected by the farmers as boundaries for their fields, and some were thrown up in haste by soldiers looking for cover. Later stone walls were repaired and rebuilt along battle lines by the War Department, Gettysburg National Military Park Commission, who oversaw the park before its transfer to the NPS in 1933.\u00a0 These walls were completed in 1896, and are historic in their own right.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">National Parks were created in 1916 (it\u2019s our 100<sup>th<\/sup> birthday!) t<em>o conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations (Organic Act, 1916). <\/em><em>All we ask is that you enjoy your time here in Gettysburg without removing anything that would contribute to any kind of impairment.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">So no matter how pretty that rock is, or how small it might be, or how much you really want something to remind you of how much you love Gettysburg, please remember that it needs to remain right where it is.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Unless, of course, you want to be cursed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">By Maria Brady, Park Ranger, July 7, 2016<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><em><strong>[Return to Spirit Daily <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/spiritdaily.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">main website<\/a><\/span>]<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gsp_post_data\" \r\n\t            data-post_type=\"post\" \r\n\t            data-cat=\"spiritual-warfare\" \r\n\t            data-modified=\"120\"\r\n\t            data-created=\"1468503758\"\r\n\t            data-title=\"Park Ranger: Don&#8217;t Take Gettysburg Rocks: They&#8217;re Cursed\" \r\n\t            data-home=\"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Skip to content Home About Cursed Rocks Posted on July 7, 2016by The Staff The packages seem totally innocuous. Not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[249],"class_list":{"0":"post-1445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-spiritual-warfare","7":"tag-gettysburg-national-military-park","8":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}