When will historic Death Valley salt tower toppled by visitor be fixed?

The National Park Service has started a project to stabilize a group of 113-year-old wooden towers inside Death Valley National Park.

Two leaning towers have been straightened, the agency announced on Monday, but repairs have yet to begin on a tower that was knocked down in April by a park visitor who was trying to free a vehicle that was stuck in the mud.

Crews from the park service’s Historic Preservation Training Center, with funds from the Inflation Reduction Act, used ropes to reposition two of the towers, fashioning them with wooden braces. They disassembled a third one that will be repaired further and returned in the spring.

Work has not started on a fourth tower — the one the visitor pulled over, according to the park service.

The male visitor responsible for the damage — who was seen on video after the act — turned himself in and was charged a $1,300 fine, a park spokesperson said. The park service did not provide his identity or clarification about what charges he faces at a Jan. 7 court appearance.

In the early 1900s, the towers supported the Saline Valley Salt Tram, a system that transported mined salt across the Inyo Mountains in California. Much of the tramway crosses land that is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, according to the park service.

The towers had been leaning because of the effects of age and the region’s extreme heat.

Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X and @alanhalaly.bsky.social on Bluesky.