Page 12 - Spring 2014 magazine

In January, volunteers and staff from Friends of Red
Rock Canyon, the Nevada Site Stewardship Program
and BLM received hands-on graffiti removal training.

Dr. Jannie Loubser, an archaeologist who specializes in

removing graffiti from rock art, conducted the training at
Red Rock Canyon. You may remember that Jannie su-
pervised the removal of the painted graffiti at Lost Creek
in 2011.

During the three days of training we learned
how to remove scratches and deep

carvings made by rocks, and marks
made with charcoal, crayon and
permanent markers. We tried
many techniques with vari-
ous results.
Depending
on the rocks

involved,
some light
scratches can be re-

Dr. Loubser removing permanent moved with water and
marker graffiti. brushes but some
scratches seem impossible to remove. Charcoal can of-

ten be removed with a dry brush or towel. Crayon is
very difficult to remove because it just smears.

Permanent marker is the nastiest; it soaks into the rock
and after hours of brushing, spraying, rubbing and more
spraying, it is still there! After a while the volunteers

start mumbling extremely rude things about vandals.

Rayette Martin and Roger Kolar attacking charcoal
graffiti in the Lost Creek grotto.

Page 12 Background image — 2011 Lost Creek Graffiti Photo by P. Williams