Climbing
A woman from Nebraska climbed over a railing, ignored warning signs and illegally climbed Mount Rushmore, getting to just 15 feet from the top of the iconic sculpture between Washington and Jefferson. Oh, and she didn’t have a rope or any equipment. She was barefoot. And she did this in front of her children.
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Alexandria Incontro was visiting Mount Rushmore from Omaha with her two children and more than a dozen other family members. She allegedly began climbing beyond the barrier and past the bright orange warning signs just after 7 pm, prompting a federal officer and park ranger to respond to the calls that came pouring in. When told to come down, Incontro responded by saying something like “do you want me to come down fast or slow?” according to a court report. But she did neither at first, continuing to climb even higher by starting to scramble up the massive pile of loose rocks at the base of the sculpture.
She eventually agreed to climb down, when she was promptly arrested and attended to by Keystone Ambulance medics for scapes to her limbs from falling on her way up the rock pile and minor wounds on her feet. She was taken to Pennington County Jail.
Alexandria Incontro pleaded guilty to the crime and was fined $1,000 and a $30 fee. Charges of trespassing on property not open to the public, violating closure of public use limit and failure to obey a lawful order were dropped by prosecutors.
