’I’m sorry, dude!’ Teen caught trying to climb Mount Rushmore gets to George Washington
He’s sorry.
A Michigan teen was arrested Sunday for climbing Mount Rushmore, which is a big, fat no-no, and he’s apologized.
But apparently when the spirit moves you, the spirit moves you.
Zachary Schossau, 19, of South Rockwood, Michigan is the lead singer for a Christian rock band called Alive City.
The band performed over the weekend at the 33rd annual Hills Alive Christian music festival in Memorial Park in Rapid City, according to the Capital Journal in Pierre, South Dakota.
Schossau told the Detroit Free Press he was at Mount Rushmore on Sunday with his family when he decided to take a hike up the mountain to take a picture.
“I wasn’t going to do any free climbing,” he told the Free Press. “I honestly just wanted to get closer to it because I had seen it before from farther away and I didn’t know that there would be a situation that would like result from it or be the case.”
He said he ended up under George Washington.
That’s where park ranger Les Hanson stopped him in his tracks, according to the probable cause statement reviewed by the Capital Journal.
Authorities say he didn’t get near the faces.
“Geez, what an idiot,” the music festival’s promoter, John Derrek, told the Capital Journal of the teen’s climb.
Hanson had gotten a call from a dispatcher, the Capital Journal reported, of a “climber on the talus slope under Washington near the ‘Children’s Exploration’ area.” The “talus” is giant granite rubble underneath the faces, the newspaper explained.
The area, according to the Rapid City Journal, is just off the Presidential Trail hiking loop. Fluorescent orange posts and metal reflective signs warn that the area is closed to the public, the Journal reports, which notes that Hanson found Schossau about 30 to 40 yards up the rocky slope.
“I’m sorry, dude! I was just doing it for the fun,” Schossau told Hanson, according to the ranger’s report.
Schossau was escorted back to the trail, handcuffed, and taken to the administration building, Hanson reported.
He was taken to the Pennington County Jail where he stayed until his court appearance on Monday, the Journal reported.
“Now, looking back, I wouldn’t have done that,” Schossau told the Free Press. “It was disrespectful to the park rangers. I didn’t have any ill intentions. There was no thought of vandalism. I was just going up there for a picture.”
Don Hart, chief ranger at Mount Rushmore, is a member of the special “ropes team,” the only people legally allowed to climb the national monument.
He knows of no one who has ever climbed all the way up to the faces. “They are just being drawn up there, I guess you could say,” he told the Capital Journal.
The US. Attorney’s office and the National Park Service reminded the public of the no-climbing rules and that legal punishment that awaits those who break them.
It’s for your own good, said U.S. Attorney Ron Parsons in a press release.
“The terrain is hazardous, and it ends in federal court,” he said.
This story was originally published July 27, 2018 at 1:25 PM.