{"id":24945,"date":"2024-11-06T18:01:40","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T01:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-residents-charged-on-suspicion-of-theft-at-canyonlands-historic-site\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:04:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:04:54","slug":"durango-residents-charged-on-suspicion-of-theft-at-canyonlands-historic-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-residents-charged-on-suspicion-of-theft-at-canyonlands-historic-site\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango residents charged on suspicion of theft at Canyonlands historic 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 allegedly caught on a game camera at a historic cowboy campsite in Canyonlands National Park are facing three misdemeanor charges in federal court.<\/p>\n

Roxanne McKnight, 39, and Dusty Spencer, 43, have been charged with theft of government property, worth less than $1,000; possessing or distributing cultural or archaeological resources; and walking on or entering archaeological or cultural resource, according to charging documents filed by a federal prosecutor in the U.S. District Court of Utah.<\/p>\n

In May the National Park Service requested help from the public <\/a>in identifying two individuals caught in a March 23 video at Cave Spring Cowboy Camp entering an area with \u201cclosed\u201d signs, removing artifacts from a cabinet and handling historic harnesses \u201cin a manner that had potential to damage them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The charges also allege that the pair stole antique nails.<\/p>\n

The NPS did not disclose how the duo was identified.<\/p>\n

When reached by phone Wednesday, McKnight said the charges were a surprise to her when she learned of them Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can say with 100% certainty that I did not destroy or do anything to harm any sort of artifact or piece of history or land,\u201d McKnight said. \u201cThat\u2019s not who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also talked up her bona fides as a respectful recreator.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am an avid nature lover and a die-hard protector and preserver of artifacts and antiques,\u201d she said. \u201cI always, always, always, when out hiking, tell friends not to touch shards of pottery.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKnight said that Cave Spring Cowboy Camp was \u201cvery near and dear\u201d to her and acknowledged that she was \u201cin the desert\u201d that weekend.<\/p>\n

However, she said she has not seen images circulating on the internet allegedly showing her at the site, and she declined to look them up to verify their authenticity. McKnight also declined to comment on whether she knows Spencer, and if so how, other than to say, \u201cI have my journey, and he has his journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

A news release <\/a>from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in the District of Utah said the pair is scheduled for an initial appearance in federal court in Moab on Friday, however a spokesperson for the agency said the hearing had been delayed to an undetermined date.<\/p>\n

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

Roxanne McKnight, 39, and Dusty Spencer, 43, were allegedly caught on camera in March<\/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":[2779,28,700,121],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-artifact-theft","tag-headlines","tag-moab","tag-utah"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24945","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=24945"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78738,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24945\/revisions\/78738"}],"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=24945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24945"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}