Bad Luck, Hot Rocks by Ryan Thompson and Phil Orr

In 2012, Ryan Thompson and Phil Orr began a project called “Bad Luck, Hot Rocks” cataloging the more than 1200 “conscience letters” and accompanying pieces of pilfered rock sent to Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. Many letter writers believe that stealing the rocks brought them bad luck, but the returned rocks cannot be placed back into the park, for fear of disturbing research sites, so they are stacked in a “conscience pile” alongside a gravel access road.

Thompson made a follow-up volume documenting more stolen rocks: AH AH AH: Conscience Letters and Photographs from the Haleakalā and Hawai'i Volcanoes National Parks.