By Brian Rokos, Staff Writer
Press-Enterprise
Three members of the Big Bear Valley Historical Society who were convicted of stealing a historical artifact from the San Bernardino National Forest were simply trying to preserve Big Bear-area history and didn’t mean to commit a crime, one of the members said.
One big problem — they took the artifact without permission.
David North, 66, Jean Karwelis, 50, and Donald Schaub, 77, all of Big Bear Lake, pleaded guilty Dec. 4 to removing a prehistoric, historic or archaeological resource, structure, site, artifact or property from National Forest Service lands, according to the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The item was an arrastre, which was used during the Gold Rush period around 1860 to grind ore that contained gold. An arrastre consists of a circular, stone-lined pit and a drag stone that was pulled in a circle by a horse or mule.
Scores of arrastres survived the period, but most have been destroyed or vandalized, according to a news release on the case issued Friday, Dec. 14.
This arrastre was part of an exhibit on the Gold Fever Trail at the Metzger Mine in Holcomb Valley, north of the Big Bear valley.
Schaub said in a phone interview Friday that the arrastre had been vandalized and that he, North and Karwelis wanted to take it back to the Big Bear Valley Historical Museum, which the historical society runs, to repair it.
“I had no idea that this was a historical arrastre. I thought it was just a bunch of messed-up rocks,” Schaub said. “I’m not a thief. I wanted to help the museum.”
But Schaub also said that there were no plans to return the arrastre to its original site.
“We were going to leave it at the museum for the future people to see,” he said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerry C. Yang said in a phone interview that the historical society members did not have permission to take the arrastre.
“This is a big deal,” Yang said. “These are things we need to protect and people need to respect.”
The three defendants each were fined $1,000. Also, they must replace the arrastre in its original location under the guidance of a Forest Service archaeologist. The charge was a misdemeanor.
“This sends a clear message that it is not OK to loot archaeological sites,” Bill Sapp, a Forest Service archaeologist, wrote in the news release.
Forest Service spokesman John Miller said in a phone interview that theft of artifacts from national forests is a problem, but that prosecutions are rare because the thefts are seldom witnessed. The artifacts “wind up in someone’s backyard,” he said.
