Indian Tower in Upper Nazareth Township again sprayed with graffiti

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/nazareth/index.ssf/2012/04/indian_tower_in_upper_nazareth.html FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES One of Upper Nazareth Township's oldest occupants just can't seem to catch a break. Police on patrol over the weekend discovered that the 96-year-old Indian Tower, off West High Street in the township, had been coated with spray-painted graffiti referencing "420," code for marijuana use, according to township police Chief Alan Siegfried. No suspects have been identified in the vandalism, which is the latest in a long line of graffiti-based attacks targeting the historic two-story stone structure. "This is something that's unfortunately gone on over the years," Siegfried said. Police officers check up on the Indian Tower and nearby Holy Family Cemetery on a regular basis, but the tower's isolated location makes preventing all instances of vandalism difficult, Siegfried said. However, police in 2007 caught four teenage girls who were spray-painting inside the tower. The Rev. Jeffrey Gehris, of the Nazareth Moravian Church, which owns the tower, said the ongoing vandalism is frustrating. "If people would just respect the fact it's a burial ground and keep graffiti off there, this problem wouldn't exist," Gehris said. Gehris declined comment on any plans to re-paint the Indian Tower but noted the tower had to be re-painted on three separate occasions last year due to graffiti. "It's not cheap," he said. "Aside from closing that site down, I don't know how much else can be done." Police ask anyone with information on the Indian Tower vandalism to call investigators at 610-759-7448. *** WHY 420? The number 420 has been associated with marijuana use for decades, though the reasons are murky. Its use as code for marijuana spread among California pot users in the 1960s and spread nationwide among followers of the Grateful Dead. Theories abound on its origin. Some say it was once police code in Southern California to denote marijuana use, probably an urban legend. It was a title number for a 2003 California bill about medical marijuana, an irony fully intended. The code stuck because authorities and nosy parents didn’t know what it meant, at least for a while.