{"id":22842,"date":"2025-04-03T20:31:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T02:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-duo-fined-for-disturbing-canyonlands-cultural-site\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:18:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:18:45","slug":"durango-duo-fined-for-disturbing-canyonlands-cultural-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-duo-fined-for-disturbing-canyonlands-cultural-site\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango duo fined for disturbing Canyonlands cultural site"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Two
Two individuals, identified by the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in the District of Utah as Roxanne McKnight, 39, and Dusty Spencer, 43, of Durango, are facing misdemeanor charges on suspicion of theft at the Cave Springs Cowboy Camp. (Courtesy of National Park Service)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Two Durango residents who illegally entered and disturbed a cultural site in Canyonlands National Park will pay a combined $1,550 in restitution and fines, and are barred from visiting federal public lands in Utah for one year.<\/p>\n

Roxanne McKnight, 39, and Dusty Spencer, 43, pleaded guilty in Utah District Court last month to possessing or distributing cultural or archaeological resources, and walking on or entering an archaeological or cultural resource. Both had faced a third, more serious charge \u2013 theft of government property valued at less than $1,000 \u2013 which was dismissed.<\/p>\n

All charges to which the two pleaded guilty are Class B misdemeanors.<\/p>\n

McKnight will pay $450 restitution to the National Park Service and a $400 fine, according to a March 11 sentence issued by a federal magistrate judge. Spencer will pay $450 in restitution to the NPS and a $250 fine. Neither may enter federal public lands in Utah for one year, with an exception carved out for \u201cnecessary travel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Footage caught by a trail camera on March 23, 2024, showed the pair entering an area with \u201cclosed\u201d signs at Cave Spring Cowboy Camp in the Needles District of Canyonlands in southeastern Utah. Federal prosecutors alleged McKnight and Spencer removed artifacts from a cabinet and handled historic harnesses \u201cin a manner that had potential to damage them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NPS in May requested help from the public in identifying McKnight and Spencer, and the two were charged Nov. 1.<\/p>\n

McKnight, in an interview with The Durango Herald<\/em> on Thursday, acknowledged that she and Spencer had entered an area they should not have, but said there were \u201cno clear signs\u201d indicating a closure.<\/p>\n

The video of the incident supported McKnight\u2019s recollection that no artifacts were removed from the site, she said, acknowledging that items were \u201cdisturbed\u201d but not \u201cdamaged or destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spencer could not be reached for comment, and McKnight declined to help the Herald <\/em>contact him, noting, \u201che\u2019s not going to say anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to keep learning,\u201d McKnight said of her own path forward. \u201cI think I\u2019m just going to slow down a little bit more and look at where I\u2019m entering and see if that\u2019s allowed or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

pay combined $1,550, barred from Utah federal lands for one year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[855,168,28,121],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-archaeology","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-utah"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77873,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22842\/revisions\/77873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22842"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}