Alaska Beat

Rafter fined $100,000 for stealing tusk; Jettmar case up next

An avid Alaska hiker and rafter was fined $100,000 by a federal judge Monday for stealing a 10,000-year-old mammoth ivory tusk from the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA), according to court documents and an article in philly.com.

The separate but related trial of well-known Alaska guide Karen Jettmar, charged with conspiracy and removing a paleontological resource from federal land, is set for May 14 in Fairbanks.

Robert Franz, a retired millionaire chemist who has visited remote corners of Alaska since 1988, pled guilty to stealing the tusk in 2007 from along the Kokolik River in the NPRA, according to sentencing documents filed on his behalf in U.S. District Court in eastern Pennsylvania.

He's seen more than 1,000 miles of backcountry Alaska, often in areas threatened by development that'd he'd like to see protected. He'd left thousands of potential artifacts on the ground where they lay, but the tusk was "too good to pass up." He set it up for display in his Pennsylvania home, according to the documents.

Franz, 65, also received a three-year probation and 300 hours of community service in the decision issued Monday by federal judge Berle M. Schiller. Franz helped the federal government in its investigation of Jettmar. He was not named in the case against Jettmar, and is presumably the "co-conspirator A" named in the case.

Jettmar owns Equinox Wilderness Expeditions and penned the popular guide, "Alaska River Guide: Canoeing, Kayaking, and Rafting in the Last Frontier."

Under federal law, collecting the fossils of dinosaurs, mammals, sharks, fish or any other creatures with skeletons on federal land is illegal unless the collector is a qualified researcher with a permit. Fossils are broadly defined as any preserved material from, or evidence of, life forms from previous geologic ages.

Read more about the case against Jettmar here.

Alex DeMarban

Alex DeMarban is a longtime Alaska journalist who covers business, the oil and gas industries and general assignments. Reach him at 907-257-4317 or alex@adn.com.

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