Suit wanted religious symbol off public land
April 24, 2012
BARSTOW
The state Veterans of Foreign Wars is preparing to take over a one-acre cross site in the Mojave National Preserve after the group reached a settlement in its long-running lawsuit with the American Civil Liberties Union Tuesday.
The settlement calls for the site at Sunrise Rock to be turned over to a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Barstow in exchange for five acres of donated land. That particular VFW chapter has since disbanded, so the state organization will assume control of the site.
James Rowoldt, the secretary-treasurer for the state Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the group was working to determine how best to secure the cross to prevent future vandalism or theft.
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Settlement clears way for cross in Mojave Desert
Published April 24, 2012
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES
A veterans group can restore a memorial cross in the Mojave Desert under a court settlement that ends a decade-old legal battle, the National Park Service said Tuesday.
A federal judge approved the lawsuit settlement on Monday, permitting the park service to turn over a remote hilltop area known as Sunrise Rock to a Veteran of Foreign Wars post in Barstow and the Veterans Home of California-Barstow.
The park will give up the acre of land in exchange for five acres of donated property elsewhere in the 1.6 million acre preserve in Southern California.
The swap, which could be completed by the end of the year, will permit veterans to restore a cross to the site and end a controversy that became tangled in the thorny issues of patriotism and religion and made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003.
The last cross was ordered removed by the park service in 2010 because of a court order.
The donated land is owned by Henry and Wanda Sandoz of Yucca Valley.
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