Mining claims

We live in the mountain west. In fact, our house is quite near some imposing mountains. If you need a reminder, here's a picture I took last fall looking east from our driveway.

Just to the right of that mountain is a canyon, which we shall call Stone Canyon. If I walk 15 minutes south and east from my house, I walk through residential neighborhoods and come to a large park built at the mouth of the canyon, surrounded by houses.

At about 9:45 this morning, there were hundreds of kids and their parents up at Stone Canyon Park. Spring soccer season has started, and there were three kiddie games going on at once, as well as children climbing like flies around the two large playgrounds and running up and down the hills. Parents kept half an eye on the little ones while chatting with their neighbors and enjoying a slightly warmer day after a wintery week.

If you keep walking east of the Stone Canyon Park, you will pass through a large parking lot, nearly full around 9:00 this morning, which leads to a well marked trail. The trail winds through the stones that the canyon was named for, back and forth over a nearly dry creek bed, and into the canyon. Five to ten minutes after leaving the parking lot, you find yourself surrounded by red and gold stone cliffs rising hundreds of feet, twisting into the sky. The trail continues on. I stopped, however, near this narrow point. Here the two cliffs were separated by only about 30 feet of space, including the creek bed. An abandoned mine left a hole in the rocky hill to the north like a knocked out tooth.

A group of rock climbers was packing up their gear in front of the rock face. Apparently this patch of cliff is one of the best areas for rock climbing in the state, and it's just a 30 minute walk from my house. Many avid climbers learned how to rock climb there in Stone Canyon.

But I wasn't there to climb rocks. At 9:00 in the morning, I was with a group of about 200 concerned neighbors and citizens. A man with a hat and a red coat, representing a Mr. Davis, was showing us where Mr. Davis' proposed quarry would lie.

In the 1800's, the West was set up for mining. For a few dollars, anyone could buy a mining claim. Although the land was owned by others, particularly the state or federal government, the one with the claim had a right to extract all the minerals from that property for his own benefit. These mining laws still stand today.

Sometime in the 1800's, someone made a mining claim for nearly 100 acres of land in Stone Canyon. In 1998, Mr. Davis purchased this claim. Today, Mr. Davis intends to mine this pristine canyon in this highly residential neighborhood. He has applied for a conditional use permit. He intends to bring 12-14 large dumptrucks up to the site every day, and to hammer the rock out with backhoes and jackhammers. He will build a fence and an eight foot tall wall to prevent rocks from falling on the hundreds of walkers who pass between these cliffs each day.

At 8:00 this morning, neighbors met at the Stone Canyon Park to become informed about this permit. As of right now, the permit has not been accepted. An environmental impact study must be completed, and certain issues must be addressed before the city can even consider it. But the fact that it might be considered is chilling -- more chilling than the weather at 8 am. Chilling enough that there were hundreds of neighbors gathered at the top of the park to find out about this crazy idea. Mining in a residential neighborhood? Can they honestly do that?

A representative from the neighborhood organized the meeting. A representative from the city explained the permit that had been filed. A representative from the owner explained the details. A man who owned 25% of the mining claim also showed up and vowed to fight against it.

I asked a woman I knew how serious this could be? Could someone really turn a residential park into a mine? What about the impact of the added trucks and traffic? What about safety concerns where the canyon was so narrow?

A man standing nearby said he had met the owner, and described him as an anarchist. The man certainly wasn't trying to mine for economic reasons -- the stones were common, widespread throughout the state, with no valuable mineral content. There would be no way he could sell them for decorative purposes and recoup the costs that would be involved. Especially as those costs would involve some serious litigation.

To me, it sounded like the owner just wants to thumb his nose at the neighborhood. He owns the claim. He therefore deserves the right to strip it bare.


Is there is something about mining and the Wild West that brings out the cowboy in people? Will all owners of such mines ignore all financial cost in order to have their ownership acknowledged? Acted upon?

Back in the 1950's, my great grandfather spent $1000 to purchase the rights to two mines further south in this same state. He and his wife died unexpectedly in a car accident, and my grandfather took over the claim. For many years he paid taxes on the mines, but when he spent a year in Asia in 1976 his brother forgot to pay. Immediately the county sold the mines to another buyer, and they were lost to my family. However, a small portion of one of the mines actually lay in another county. When the back taxes were paid, the rights to that small portion of the mine remained in my family, though in my deceased great grandfather's name.

A couple of years ago, after my grandfather's death, his six children became interested in the mine. They hired a lawyer and have been working to secure the rights to the mine for themselves. At my aunt's house a couple of weeks ago, she showed us some of the documents on that mine. According to her documents, the whole thing is valued at about $200.

So far, the family has spent several hours, at a cost of about $200 per hour, in attorney fees to secure the rights to the $200 property. My generation doesn't understand it. Why, again, do they want the mine? There are no roads, no sources of water. Just rock and scrub brush for miles. Clearly the family isn't trying to get the property for economic reasons. As far as I know, they have no plans to actually mine it. Sentimental reasons? The allure of the Wild West?

There really should be no comparison between my benign family and their desire to own a $200 chunk of rock far away from roads and electricity, and the Mr. Davis who wishes to destroy forever a pristine canyon in a residential neighborhood. However, I do find it interesting that both parties value ownership of their mine above any economic benefit to themselves. Additionally, this morning's meeting has changed how I look at these old mining claims. For a long time I have been silently laughing at my crazy relatives and their quest to own the mine. This morning, these ownership issues became a little more sinister.

Watch out, oh crazy relatives.