Five Years Ago A Ranger was Murdered In Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument—What’s Happened Since?
Bert Gildart: The inscription on the rock just outside the Kris Eggle Visitor Center in Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument tells part of the story.
On August 9, 2002, while protecting visitors from harm, United States Park Ranger Kris Eggle was slain in the line of duty.
His service and sacrifice to the National Park Service and the people of this country will never be forgotten.
KRIS EGGLE: Kris Eggle was born in 1973, and died from bullet wounds of an AK-47 fired at him in the monument by a drug runner. Ranger Eggle had been chasing the man, and with the help of his radio and an overhead helicopter was closing the gap. Everyone says Kris was a fast runner and in excellent shape, and if all things had been even, his killer would not have had a chance.
Agents in the helicopter radioed the young ranger that one of the drug runners was near him, and so Kris stopped running, and that’s when the man with illegal drugs stepped from behind the massive clump of organ pipe and fired his lethal blast. Kris was shrouded in Kevlar but the bullet ricocheted off his radio and struck his femoral artery. Tragically, the 28-year-old man died shortly thereafter.
The assailant then fled into Mexico where he was gunned down by Mexican Federales in a barrage of fire that some say numbered 32 shots.
Two men had been involved in the drug run, and Federales also caught the other man, but here’s the part of the story that is just incomprehensible. He was sentenced to 15 years, and was placed in an American jail. That means the man has 11 more years to serve before he will be out and free to again run drugs again.
Sadly, that’s just a part of the injustice, for Kris Eggle was attempting to protect the resource so that visitors to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument could immerse themselves in the Sonora desert, the most diverse and splendid of all American deserts. Because of America’s inability to control the flow of illegals from Mexico, huge sections of this monument are now closed—and, once again, it is because rangers have encountered illegal drug runners.
The drug runners who killed Ranger Eggle had rammed through the wire fencing just east of the Lukeville border crossing and had progressed about a mile when Eggle mixed with his killer.
Though there have been changes, they’re not substantial. However, there is a wire fence and now a stout railroad tie fence intended to stop drug runners from plowing through. Nevertheless that has not stopped the flow of pushers, so backcountry roads in the monument remain closed. They’re closed because people have still managed to overcome the barriers and cross into the U.S.
One section that is closed is a section Janie and I drove about 10 years ago, but according to one ranger, “it may never be opened again. “There’s much too much of a financial incentive and we don’t have the resources to stop it.”
The road the ranger was talking about is the 53 mile long Puerto Blanco Road, which departs from the Kris Eggle Visitor Center, heads north and then sweeps south toward the Mexican border. When it nears the border it swings back east, and from here it courses about 15 miles along the border.
Though you can drive the first 5 miles of this road, after that your passage is blocked by a gate. Beyond that lie verdant tanajas, or water pools, but all are closed to protect visitors from encountering undesirables.
BORDER CROSSING: The government has, however, begun extending the railroad tie fence both east and west of Lukeville, Arizona, hoping that it will one day create a boundary along the monument’s southern boundary, which is contiguous here with Mexico.
One day, drug runners may not be able to plow through a wire fence in their cars, but it won’t stop desperate men with wire cutters. This past year some 10,000 illegals (that’s one of several numbers tossed out) are thought to have crossed the border here at Organ Pipe. And so, because of inadequate funding, over one third of the park remains closed, in part because of illegal immigrants, but more because of current drug activity.
It’s not what visitors want; it’s not what most in the National Park Service wants; and I doubt it is what a man trying to protect the resources so visitor could enjoy the majesty of the Sonora Desert would have wanted.
It’s a sad state of affairs, and we find ourselves asking what can be done to protect American visitors and the park’s law enforcement people? It seems the situation is steadily worsening…
Note: Hi, Joe, Think your dad might approve of our sentiments. Glad you’re logged on!
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