A 113-year-old tram tower inside Death Valley National Park in California included on the National Register of Historic Places was toppled, park officials said Monday.
Sometime between April 1 and April 24, a visitor to Death Valley National Park went off the road and their vehicle became mired in mud. Park officials believe that person used the tower as an anchor to provide leverage to pull their car out of the muck.
The force was so much that the concrete footings of the tower were lifted out of the ground.
“I have hiked along sections of this tramway, and am amazed by the tenacity it took to build. I hope the person responsible for this damage will contact us so we can discuss restitution,” Death Valley National Park Superintendent Mike Reynolds said in a statement.
The tower was used as part of an aerial tram system used by the Saline Valley Salt Company to transport salt starting in 1911.
The system ran for 13 miles and climbed 7,000 feet high at grades of up to 40 degrees, making it the steepest aerial tramway in America, per the National Park Service. The Saline Valley salt plant stopped operation in 1930.
Most of the tram system lies on Bureau of Land Management property, with four towers within the confines of Death Valley National Park.
Before the tower was toppled, a project had been in the works to stabilize the towers, funded by disbursements in the Inflation Reduction Act. The project manager, unnamed by Death Valley officials, said they are unsure if the funding is eligible to re-anchor the structure.