Forest Service Demolishing 1860s Mining Community ( What Sequester ? )

AP ^ | July 11, 2013

[george76]

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — The U.S. Forest Service is starting demolition work on one of the earliest mining communities on the west side of the Continental Divide.

The Lincoln Townsite is an abandoned mining community east of Breckenridge in White River National Forest. The 1860s community was never platted or incorporated, but it existed through four minor booms and busts over the course of 50 years.

[hal ogen]

Wasn’t that community built by mainly “white” people? It has to go.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I visited this little community back 1960s.

[Iron Munro]

If it had been a black town it would be bronzed and made into a national landmark.

[nuconvert]

The reason the Forest Service is doing this is...?

[PapaBear3625]

If it’s abandoned and not maintained, then eventually somebody is going to have an old building collapse on him and go looking for somebody to sue. It’s a fact of life of the current society.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The shafts and tunnels were sealed many decades ago, or so I was told.

[moovova]

Mining = bad
Re-mine-ders = must destroy

[ridesthemiles]

The ENTIRE western states are dotted with small mining towns & sites of various mining adventures.

California & Nevada have enough of them that there is actually a fairly thick book called Ghost Towns of.....

IF all of those historic sites are going to be razed-—they are actually rewriting history.

In Calif, historic sites are costly and revered. Are they going to destroy where Sutter discovered gold along the South Fork of the American River? How about all the old military forts? Fort Laramie in Wyoming is one of the most interesting I have ever seen. Calif has their share of such old military sites, also.

Who exactly is running the Forest Service, anyway? Who is making these decisions.

Doesn’t Congress or the individual state have any say in the matter???

For years the Forest Service has been running amuck. They are demanding outrageous fees from anyone trying to use any location within Forest boundaries for permits & other ‘fees’ & ‘reviews’.

One Forest Service green beanie tried to extort a fee of over $8000 just to ‘review’ an application for a permit to put on a horse ride which had been held for over 30 years on the same trails from the same base camp. The prior fees had been in the $150 range. Such ‘review’ didn’t guarantee approval of this permit.

How disgusting does this administration have to behave before they trip the start of CW II???

[Don Corleone]

If it furthers Agenda 21 it is exempt!

[george76]

The USFS must have too much money and too many UN Agenda 21 liberals.

Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)

[Mercat]

If you’re thinking of Nicodemus KS, I’ve been there. There are still people living there. Interesting place. Middle of nowhere.

[TArcher]

>>The reason the Forest Service is doing this is...?

“Those who control the past control the future. Those who control the present control the past”
—George Orwell

In the Obamunist NewSpeak guide to history, Colorado will have been settled by a lost tribe of Egyptian nomads, err wait, no that’s Mormonism... the other Islam.

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

The Forest Service is like the evil older brother of the National Park Service. The Park Service, while obviously not as pure as the driven snow, does some good work in preserving our sacred places such as Minuteman in Lexington and Concord, Gettysburg, etc. As far as I can tell, the Forest Service does nothing except grab vast swathes of privately-owned, potentially-productive land and forests and sits on it.

[kitchen]

Once the town is gone there will be no need for the access roads.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

In all fairness, parts of this is a very good idea, because abandoned mining sites are sometimes almost the definition of deadly hazardous.

In Arizona alone, there are an estimated 100,000 abandoned mines, according to the state mine inspector’s office. Most of these present little risk, but some are death traps, both obvious and concealed. There are maybe half a million abandoned mines in the western US.

Even on the surface, vertical shaft mines were often just boarded over. Then over time a thick layer of dust and even plants settles over the boards, which rot. It will look just like normal ground until you step on it, then maybe fall a hundred feet straight down.

Horizontal shaft mines are no better, because of the danger of rockfalls and rotten support beams, poisonous gases, unstable flooring, nitroglycerine crystals leaked from old dynamite, extremely toxic chemicals, animals and insects, unexpected water, and just bashing your head on overhead rocks.

Mines also obey the sandhog’s rule, that “Caves not built by nature, nature seeks to destroy”. Even professional miners will only enter an abandoned mine very slowly and carefully, like entering a minefield.

Finally, mines, either shaft or open pit, often have enormous amounts of toxic surface contamination.

http://www.denverpost.com/environment/ci_21499958/risk-suits-preventing-vital-cleanup-abandoned-mines-colorado

[B4Ranch]

These are the kind of places where some could go Galt. There’s already shelter, firewood and old buildings of trimmed lumber available.

[george76]

Do not believe the Denver Post and their AGW * War on Coal * agenda.

Man made .. “Global warming is one of the defining challenges of our time, and how we handle the issue will have profound implications for the planet we leave our children,” Udall said in a statement.

At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue Tuesday, a leader with an environmental group that Udall’s wife Maggie Fox runs received an award at a White House ceremony. Dr. Susan Pacheco, a member of the leadership corps of the Climate Reality Project, of which Fox is the chief executive officer, was feted as a “Champion of Change.”

http://thecoloradoobserver.com/2013/07/in-polarized-debate-over-coal-three-coloradans-are-key-players/

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

In this case, that of old mine pollution, they are not exaggerating. There are some parts of the US that are so contaminated that they are uninhabitable.

The Church Rock uranium mill spill (1976) was the worst nuclear accident in US history, when a tailings pond dam broke, pouring a huge amount of heavily contaminated water into a New Mexican river. They still have water warnings on the radio in Gallup at frequent intervals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Rock_uranium_mill_spill

Gilman, Colorado was ordered abandoned by the EPA, because of contaminated groundwater and 8 million tons of mine waste.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilman,_Colorado

Then there is the now ghost town of Picher, Oklahoma.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picher,_Oklahoma

[bgill]

So, where are they getting all this money to hire the bulldozers and crews?

[george76]

Exactly correct.

Canceling WH children tours and less money for the US Military to defend America.

[RobinOfKingston]

Upstream in today’s offerings here on FR was an article about the Jews of Vienna rediscovering gravestones that had been buried during WW2 to keep them from being destroyed by the Nazis.

Their history being brought to light.

Here we have a segment of our own history being obliterated by “Pinchot’s Marauders.” Here in my own community they have destroyed numerous historic lookout towers.

How does their conduct differ from that of the Taliban dynamiting the Hindu statues in Afghanistan?

[Red Boots]

AGenda 21. We have a family cabin in a mining town in the rockies- been in mr rb's family for many years. Starting about 15 years ago, the forest service began steadily closing road after road in our valley, many of which had been used for over 100 years. Sometimes they claimed habitat restoration (calling bare mountainsides meadows) , sometimes they claimed non-use ( even though locals stated that there was plenty of use, sometimes they erroneously claimed passes were blocked (but when you got there they weren't).They have closed every road but the one into town.

They have blocked all access to tailings piles (which used to be great fun for four wheeling); and pile down new and existing mining claims with endless red tape.

They went after our town water supply last year, claiming suddenly that our town water system, which had served summer residents without a problem since ww2, was suddenly a public water supply which had to meet testing requirements that would have shut us down completely. They backed off on that one, but should anyone decide to stay in their own home over three consecutive months, then they must be notified so that they can take it over !

Then the EPA suddenly decided that the town lots had to be tested for lead.

The handwriting is on the wall, that they don't want the town there, and that they will keep trying to close it down one way or another.

[dhs12345]

That is not an issue with the other ghost towns in Colorado.

Some of the roughest unmaintained roads lead up to ghost towns and people use their 4wD SUVs to get to them. It is a ton of fun.

Maybe some rich Liberal or local nut politician doesn't like the “scar” and wants to reclaim the area. Like the rest of the state, Breckenridge has become a tourist hot spot where many rich Liberals from Boulder have their Summer cabins.

[george76]

Like : the Taliban dynamiting the Hindu statues in Afghanistan

[george76]

Tombstone AZ has a similar issue.

Feds trying to steal water rights in order to destroy the town, families, and businesses

[dforest]

Liberals and islam have a lot in common. They both like to wipe out history.

[kitchen]

That is not an issue with the other ghost towns in Colorado.

Maybe, maybe not. But it is an issue with roads. I know a little bit about the White River National Forest. Get a few quads of the same area but different epochs. Every 10 years they erase random road sections. Initially it looks helter-skelter, but after 30 years you just can't get there from here - at least if you use a recent map.

It may come as a surprise to some but you will not fall off the edge of the world when the road ends on the map. Case in point - Aldrich Lake (where, as an aside, the DOW killed a huge long established lake trout population... because they were not native trout) to Fawn Creek via Sleepy Cat Peak.

[MWestMom]

Liberals and islam have a lot in common. They both like to wipe out history.

---

Perhaps it’s because they are not very proud of theirs.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Demolishing ghost towns in California was a way to create "make-work" jobs during the Depression. At the New Almaden Quicksilver Mine (ie, mercury) (12 miles from downtown San Jose), Mexican and Chileno miners inhabited "Spanishtown," New Almaden’s largest settlement starting in the 1850s. English miners from Cornwall began arriving in the 1860s and lived in Englishtown, about a mile from Spanishtown. Both Spanishtown and Englishtown had a mine office, school, company store, church, and doctor’s office. In the early 1870s to 1880s Chinese immigrants worked as miners, in the laundry, and as cooks.

After the turn of the 20th century, the mines and surrounding property changed hands many times as the population dwindled. During the Depression, a Works Progress Administration project created Civilian Conservation Corps jobs that, in part, removed the abandoned buildings. The majority of these buildings were abandoned miner residences in Englishtown.

The Spanishtown and Englishtown areas are almost completely barren today.

Spanishtown, 1876

Spanishtown, 1890

Englishtown, 1885

Thank you, Fedzilla, for destroying our historic heritage.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

That happens even in suburbia. Our neighbors across the street were very surprised one day to find an old rock-wall lined water well on their property. The wooden boards covering it were a foot below the surface and had been landscaped over. When they rotted out — instant hole in the ground. They are very thankful their little kids were never swallowed up by it.

The largest mercury mines in the world were established in California in the 1850s. The New Almaden Mine is 12 miles from San Jose and the New Idria Mine is about 80 miles from San Jose. New Almaden has been largely remediated, but the New Idria area is a huge toxic mess of mercury, asbestos, aluminum, arsenic, copper, iron, and zinc which create a large volume of acid mine drainage from the tailings piles (160 years after the mine was founded and 40 years after operations ended).

[george76]

The Grand Junction Field Office (GJFO) of the BLM located in Grand Junction, CO has released a proposed Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the office that slaughters motorized access .. The Plan is exceptionally long but fails to explain the high levels of closures or why particular routes are being closed.

The RMP proposes to:
Reduce cross-country travel from 445,400 acres to 0 acres;
Close between 60-70% of existing routes in areas where motorized use is permitted (translates to over 2,000 miles of lost routes); and
Increase areas where motorized use is prohibited from 35,300 acres to 187,500 acres in the preferred alternative and possibly 379,500 acres.

http://www.colorado4x4.org/vbb/showthread.php?206401-COHVCO-Needs-your-help-in-fighting-massive-closures-proposed-in-the-Grand-Junction

[dhs12345]

Ya. It has been a few years since we have been off roading. So things have probably changed. But back when we were doing it fairly often, a rougher road was simply more fun and more of a challenge. Some of our favorites were the Holy Cross trail, Red Cone pass, Yankee Boy Basin. Yankee Boy Basin is especially pretty when the flowers are blooming.

Wow. Trout. That is stupid. But maybe the reason is to discourage people from traveling to that lake. No trout no reason to drive up to that area.

People can be stupid, though and can damage the trail and surrounding area. So maybe previous people have been irresponsible and so everyone gets punished.

[dhs12345]

Damn. Wow. That is really too bad.

I am wondering of some idiots were irresponsible. I completely respect the fact that the forestry service and the Sate have the right to preserve these areas.

4WDs can damage a trail. However, ATVs might do more damage since they are small and more mobile.

[Rodamala]

These are the kind of places where some could go Galt. There’s already shelter, firewood and old buildings of trimmed lumber available.

Sounds like a unreported drone strike about to happen in 3...2...1...

[Carry_Okie]

The USFS must have too much money and too many UN Agenda 21 liberals.

40% of the budget is for litigation. That's why an agency that spends so much money operates as if it's broke.

[The_Media_never_lie]

At this point, what does it matter?

[kitchen]

The roads I brought up were used several times each year by pickups pulling stock trailers loaded with cows or sheep. Every week or two just a pickup to resupply the herders with beans and tortillas.

What we've seen in NW Colorado is that BLM, USFS, etc., have a long range plan that disappears roads piecemeal over time. Then there's an announcement in the Federal Register about a comment period on a new road-less area, the last step before wilderness designation.

I hear you about people ripping up the roads. We always went with CJ-2s, 3s, 5s, old Scout 80s and such. Skinny tires too. The big mud tires don't work in red clay; they hook up so tight that if you add power they'll just snap an axle. BG units 22-25 were always littered with out of state hunter vehicles.

You know about the ponds around Trapper that DoW poisoned c. '82? The ones with 20 inch, 6 pound brookies?

[TEXOKIE]

If anyone wants to be on or off the Agenda 21 ping list, please notify me by Freepmail. It is a relatively low volume list in which we have been exploring the UN Agenda21 and related topics. We have collected our studies with threads, links, and discussions on the Agenda 21 thread which can be found here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2738418/posts

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