An attempt to vandalize the C Hill flag was broken up seven months to the day after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon it commemorates.
A hiker came across teenagers cutting into one of the red stripes on Thursday night and chased them off, according to the flag's caretaker, Gil Ayarbe.
"They tore into another panel, but they were interrupted," he said. "It is another piece just below the star."
Ayarbe and Josh Buscay marched a little over a quarter of a mile to get to the C Hill flag on Friday afternoon to replace the damaged pieces.
Buscay said it appears the vandals used a sharp rock, of which there were plenty lying around, to cut an anarchy sign into the flag.
"It looks like they were doing the same thing with the star, but the bottom damage was definitely an anarchy symbol," he said.
Friday's was the first expedition to repair the flag, though Ayarbe has made several trips up the mountain to check on the big flag.
"This flag has been through some big storms," Ayarbe said. "But Mother Nature cannot do the damage those kids did."
In addition to the two holes, Ayarbe said, there were small holes elsewhere in the flags where people threw rocks onto it.
The flag consists of several strips of vinyl bolted to a large metal frame. To repair it, Buscay's mother sewed a piece of vinyl, which the Carson City graphic designer then bolted over the old piece.
He glued a red piece over the cuts in the stripe.
Buscay said that with material and labor, the damage cost about $800 to repair.
A $250 reward is being offered by Secret Witness for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the vandals.
Anyone with information about the vandalism is encouraged to call Secret Witness at 322-4900 or Carson City Sheriff's Department detectives at 887-2020, ext. 1405.
The 120-foot by 67-foot flag was completed Oct. 19, 2001, with the help of volunteers and inmates from the Nevada Division of Forestry.
A foundation has been established to maintain the flag.
You can help
Anyone with information about the vandalism is encouraged to call Secret Witness at 322-4900 or Carson City Sheriff's Department detectives at 887-2020, ext. 1405.
