There is a geocache at the Flight 93 memorial, and one must be careful when trading items. Others watching may be irked in seeing you "taking" items away from the improptu spontaneous shrine the place has become.
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Date: 12/21/2006 12:51
Subject: question on objects left at Vietnam Memorial
I’ve read your website, and I have this question:
What happens if a visitor picks up an item left at the Wall by another visitor, and pockets it ? is there a law that prohibits someone from taking an object left by someone else ?
Reason I ask is because there was a complaint recently at the Flight 93 memorial future site in Pennsylvania. Visitors at that location have left hats, stuffed bears, coins. Other visitors may have picked items left by others or “traded” with other items.
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Thanks for your email. Property left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (VVM) is considered abandoned property and is reclaimable for 30 days under our property laws. It is picked up nightly by the Park Rangers and after 30 days, it is entered into our museum property system. It is not illegal to pick things up at the Memorial, we just hope if people pick things up, that they put them back. We know of many things left at the Memorial that have never made it out here to our museum storage facility.
In the beginning, many people left things at the Memorial thinking they would be picked up by others or didn't really think about their final disposition. Throughout the years, visitors have heard about the collection and now leave mementos for that specific purpose. The NPS only accept things that are physically left at the Memorial which means we don't take things through the mail. Sometimes we are notified by the donor if the object is valuable and the rangers either pick it up or watch it.
I am very familiar with Flight 93 and began working with their curator shortly after 9/11. They began working on the collection using our VVM guidance and technical processes but have refined them to meet the needs of the Flight 93 collections. The same is true of Oklahoma City and Columbine, as well as many other similar memorials.
These types of memorials are very fluid. In the case of VVM, which is a memorial to promote healing, a person taking something left at the Memorial may assist in that persons healing process. Granted, their will be some people who that take objects for monetary or other reasons. The most important thing about Memorials like this is the communication and interaction between the Memorial and the visitors. Without that interaction, there would be no objects, no collection. The collection helps tell the story of the Memorial and the event that it commemorates, honors, is in tribute to, etc. It is not the main story itself.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
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Thank you for asking these questions and contacting VVM curator. She is the right person to ask! She has been a tremendous help to the Flight 93 National Memorial in guiding our decisions about taking care of the many tributes that have been left near the crash site from the very beginning...actually within hours of the crash.
We also consider anything left by visitors at the temporary memorial to be abandoned property. However, we made a decision within just a few weeks after September 11, 2001 to leave these items in the place they were left for as long as weather would allow, taking them in only when they were in danger of being destroyed. Therefore, some tributes have been left for weeks, months or in some cases, years. Part of the healing process for our many visitors is the chance to see what others have written, what they feel about this event or related events since 9-11, and how those thoughts and feelings are expressed in words or by the type of object that they leave.
Visitors spend a great deal of time looking at all the messages and incredible objects that have heartfelt meaning to the one who left it.
We have, upon occasion, noticed some items missing, but so far only patches that were tacked to a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood on the fence placed there for that particular reason. However, it is the within the practice of police, fire and emergency responders to trade patches as a sign of comradery and friendship, so we don't know if that is the reason why we sometimes see them missing. Other than those items, we have not really noticed anything else taken. People are very respectful of what has been left. I have noticed countless parents who gently pull their children back from the fence and explain that the items are not to be touched (although we would welcome that if people just wanted to see them better). We hope these tributes bring some comfort to those that are struggling to understand why September 11th happened. And it is precisely that reason why this collection is preserved for future generations to know how Americans and our many international visitors responded to this world changing event.
We appreciate your concern and if you have any other questions, please contact me.
Geocache
Interesting plaque found at the site:
United Flight #93
We will never forget when the call came.
For a trip that would return us never the same.
The journey though anzious, was filled with much dread.
For none of really knew what lay ahead.
In a remote part of a small little town.
In an old strip-mine a plane had gone down.
Oh, we knew the enemies, they thought they had scored.
But they hadn't planned for the heroes on board.
The refused to give in, and they gave it their best,
And there on that ground, the plane laid to rest.
So we made our way to this small patch of land,
And gathered our rakes and sifted through sand.
We walked miles and miles around ponds and lakes,
Searching for anything someone could take.
Something, anything, small we could find,
to give some sort of closure and provide peace of mind.
It became a mission by the end of the day,
to find a small token, a watch, or a chain,
That someone could look at and place with a name.
In the center of this, one thing stood true,
Old Glory kept waving her red, white, and blue.
We would look up at her often with tears in our eyes
and remember with reverence those who had died.
We all were connected to those on that plane,
we helf wallets, or purses bearing their name.
And our wish as we pray, some quietly, some loud,
was that we hope we did well and that we made you proud.
Sandra Greene
Knoxville FBI
Evidence Response Team
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