Arizonan, Nevadan accused of damaging ruins, desert

Thursday, March 2, 2000 | 10:39 a.m.

Charges against Timothy R. Blowers, 48, of Tucson and Lane H. Holmes, 38, of Las Vegas allege they caused $1 million in damage by illegally blading eight miles of dirt roads near Green Valley and Sahuarita between March 1997 and June 1998.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said Wednesday they were arrested last week and were released on their own recognizance.

The ruins are in the Indian Kitchen area, where the Hohokam Indians once grew crops and processed food, the indictment said.

Blowers, who calls himself an "environmentally friendly wildcat subdivider," pleaded innocent, contending an 1866 law allowed for the creation of such roads on federal land. He said he was only grading and maintaining existing roads.

Holmes couldn't be reached.

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