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Show -,pet""v x "'--"'"'w''' --.-...,,., s f ., r , 4 , V ' .-. - ' . . ,.'....i . . H - . V . ! ....... , V. .. , .v - ' -1' ...... ' - . f ' - - .;-'.. .". ,: s.3 ' ' . , V ; .... r .,. , - i . "S s . .V , - : . ..f - J. ' v - ' ;- v I : -erintendent Bates Wilson Monday in--;ted the views from the Moab Slick-i Slick-i Bike Trail. Below the cliffs and Proposed Mining Venture Near Moab Kirs Land Use Controversy ! scenic two-mile section ie newly added portion - Arches National Monu-; Monu-; along the Colorado Ri- U north of Moab is the ' :i for a massive strip-jg strip-jg operation, it was - -d late last week. 'e Silver Eagle Mining s. :pany, which has its prin-J prin-J offices in Salt Lake .. started canstructipn on. :.a4 in the national mon-4 mon-4 Oct. 23. Five days late la-te work was brought to attention of Park Service ::als, who requested the company to cease on the road. 'e company constructed Jt two-tenths of a mile ew road along the north : of the river east from Moab boat dock. ot much damage has : done up to now," stat-loscph stat-loscph F. Carithers, as-' as-' -it superintendent of the ; inlands Park comjlex, 1 of the work has been ' Mind tamerisk trees &e road is not easily :e from the river or i Highway 128, across cording to subsequent "rainications with the Service headquarters loab, the company hss '; to construct an access : W- the north bank of Colorado River. Beyond ?'esent construction, the would have to shave J good deal of cliff and ! t gain access to the el bars which they plan " a short distance up- f , Processing Plant ; company plans to con-a con-a processing plant on near a large gravel has been placer-min-J several occasions dur-he dur-he Past fifty years. The ;cl would be processed across the Colorado River are the deposits which the Silver Eagle Mining Company plans to process. ' for iron and black ' sands to be used in the recovery of copper at the company's mine located near Fry Canyon Can-yon 75 miles west of Bland-ing Bland-ing on Utah Highway 95. Carithers said- the company com-pany plans to remove about 100 tons of processed concentrate con-centrate per day and would be operating for about ten years. This would amount to a total removal of about four million cubic yards, a company spokesman said. It is planned to be an eight or ten million dollar operation. opera-tion. Officials of the National Park Service are concerned about the amount of easily-visible easily-visible damage the mining company would cause to that portion of Arches National Nat-ional Monument. The property prop-erty in question consists of an apparently-valid mining claim which was already in existence when the National Monument boundaries were expanded last January to include in-clude that scenic stretch of river canyon. Much Used Scenic Area "This is the most used scenic area of the national monument," stated Park Naturalist Na-turalist William Taylor. The highways paralleling the Colorado River near Moab Mo-ab consist of Utah's only Colorado River routes. Utah 128 is a link in Ihe proposed national parkway which is proposed to extend from Colorado Co-lorado National Monument on through this area to Arizona. Ari-zona. It is the only scenic highway paralleling the Colorado Co-lorado River from the Colorado Colo-rado border southwest to the mouth of the river in the Gulf of California, 1,000 m'l-. es away. "The blasting of the cliff face will leave a scar that will never go away," stated Mr. Carithers. Miner's Viewpoint "These are old valid miri-in" miri-in" claims which we own," stated John Adams, vice president of the Silver Eagle Mining Company. "Looking at this from a miner's viewpoint," he continued, con-tinued, "this gravel bar up-river up-river from Moab represents a significant amount of money mo-ney We feel that under the laws we are entitled to mine According to Mr. Adams, the company plans to move in s'uiciiTg equipment i crushers to tap the expected wealth that lies within the gravel. . "Fieurimg conservatively-said conservatively-said Mr. Adams, "we will He akimg four million cubic yards of material. This, f.fi; ured at $2 a yard will amount to $8 to $10 million. Mr Adams said they hate estimated the amount of gravel available there by measuring In several locations. loca-tions. "In some areas we haven't even hit bedrock," . stated Vice President Adams. "We estimate we will be taking out 200 tons of processed material per day, perhaps more," he added. Regarding the access road which the company plans to -finish constructing on he north bank of the Colorado River Mr. Adams had this to say: "Little Shooting" "We have very little shooting shoot-ing to do. There is one area at the base of the cliff which we will have to undercut under-cut but this will be done with controlled blasting and no damage will occur to the rock face above." Adams said the company plans to use local people for employment on this operation opera-tion and will thus result in a benefit to the community. Not only is the scenery along al-ong Utah 128 popular with visitors and photographers, that stretch of Colorado River Ri-ver is popular also during the tourist season with boating boat-ing and float trip enthusiasts. Several boat cruise organizations organi-zations use the stretch of river, ri-ver, one of which is the Can-yonlands Can-yonlands by Night show owned own-ed and operated by Winnco, Inc. of Floydada, Texas. "The ' mining venture on the gravel deposit and the building of the access road would completely disorganize disorgan-ize our show," stated originator origin-ator Wellon B. Winn in a telephone interview Sunday. Destroy Coordination "The mining would destroy des-troy the coordination we have between light and shadow sha-dow effects on the cliffs cf the 'Monument," he added. The specific shadow effects of the mounds of gravel which the company plans to strip help the Canyonlands by Night organization tell the story of the ancient Ana-sazi Ana-sazi Indians. The cliff face used in the sequence about the pioneers marching across ac-ross the wilderness would ae scarred. Winn feels. The Texas concern his mastered the art of throwing throw-ing Iaree beams cf light on till cliffs above the river. The- program is Iv-gmnin to draw hundreds of visitors to the area. Thr- National Park Service, cpcr.lv opposed to the development, devel-opment, is checking what )o. cra-l ac'icn can be followed to control the use of the land and the. con?: ruction cf the access road. They expee. to have a preliminary decision de-cision from their counsel later la-ter this week. LITERARY CLUB MEET The Woman's Literary Club held their regular business meeting Monday evening at the Executive Room of Moab National Bank, with President Presi-dent Verlie Meaders in charge char-ge of the meeting. The next meeting will be Saturday, Nov. 22 with Mrs.' Sylvia Levering, Le-vering, chairman of the Fine Arts Committee, in charge of the program. A number of Moab women in the Junior Jun-ior Section of the Club will attend a meeting to be held in Provo the 14th and 15th when the State Federation of Junior League clubs will hold their fall convention. |