Leaving traces: Fairy houses, kindness stones, and constructed heritage

Abstract

The National Park Service and many other federal, state, and local land managers in the US enjoin visitors to “leave no trace” when visiting parks and wilderness areas. At the same time, practices that involve leaving traces—painted rocks, rock cairns, and fairy houses—have become well established on some public lands. Public discussions reveal deep divides in how people view these traces in a time of increased pressures on public lands. This article develops an anthropological analysis of the practice of leaving traces at Mesa Verde National Park, in Colorado, and Machimoodus State Park, in Connecticut. Taking an approach that aligns with recent work on archaeologies of the contemporary, we interrogate the meaning of these material traces and consider how these practices of constructing cultural heritage in spaces perceived as “natural” provide a quasi-archaeological experience and reenact colonialist processes.