MU Day Trip to DOGM Closure Meeting - San Rafael

[Mike]

THIS EVENT HAS CONCLUDED

DOGM PUBLIC OPEN HOUSE
Utah Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program

This is your chance to make a difference!

The Utah DOGM is hosting an Open House on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 from 4-7pm, to collect public interest on the closures of 173 abandoned mines in the San Rafael Swell. Mojave Underground Inc. would like to invite every member of Mojave Underground, its associates, and friends, to attend this meeting.

This is a chance for the public (YOU!) to voice their concerns for the eradication of mining history. The more people we are able to get involved in this, the more successful we will be. We are looking into renting a bus for the day. The event is going to be a load of fun, and we will be seeing some interesting pieces of mining history.

Free rides - Free Lunch - Free Dinner

Information concerning the meeting can be found in the following documents:

http://www.mojaveunderground.com/med...cMtngFlyer.pdf
http://www.mojaveunderground.com/med...email_mike.pdf

Meeting point is at the 1260 S 400 W Orem LDS Church parking lot, just off University Parkway and I-15. Map
We are leaving the meeting point at 12pm sharp. Plan to return appx 9pm that night.

We need your RSVP!

RSVP on Meetup (Recommended): http://www.meetup.com/Mojave-Undergr...endar/9866176/

RSVP via email: [email protected]

Donations to make this trip possible are greatly appreciated.

[one_bad_rover]

Sounds like a great idea, we will pitch this out to GRE members as well if you dont mind!! Keep in mind on this that some of these may just be rat holes... nothing big, give them a little bit to save a lot, ie, okay, you have MU consent to close X, Y, and Z if you leave a-d open. San Rafael does have some neat ruins, the mines have always been fair to middle.. nothing huge as they are concentrating on Uranium.. definately worth showing in force for though.

[Stuart]

Invite everyone you want Corey, the big point basically is to get a busload of people down there to get involved and see how these things go down. We were personally invited after all If you want to make this a full on GRE-MU co-op event we can do that too, just so we pack the meeting to capacity.

[ExpUt]

I'll do my best to be there!

[rhartill]

I will try to be there too...

I will try to clear my calendar to attend this. Corey is right, these meetings are ofttimes a big yawn, but I did notice I got a personalized
invite signed by Lucia Malin herself... Talk about an engraved invitation You will be able to peruse several notebooks of data and perhaps even determine what type of closure they are proposing for each mine opening. For anyone interested, the original survey report from 2006 can be found here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3887089/SAN-RAFAEL-Mining-Cultural-Survey-Report-Emery-County-Utah

About half of the sites ARE considered natural register eligible, even though uranium mining isn't quite 50 years old in this area, some sites ARE over 50 years old. I propose to review this document, and do as Corey suggests--offer an opinion as to which to save and which to let be filled. The above-cited report will give you LOTS of info on each site, although they lack GPS coordinates The history of uranium mining in UTAH is important to save--while the Lisbon Valley has the MiVida mine, some of these U mines in the San Rafael Swell may deserve our attention..

[ExpUt]

Re: I will try to be there too...

I will try to clear my calendar to attend this. Corey is right, these meetings are ofttimes a big yawn, but I did notice I got a personalized
invite signed by Lucia Malin herself... Talk about an engraved invitation You will be able to peruse several notebooks of data and perhaps even determine what type of closure they are proposing for each mine opening. For anyone interested, the original survey report from 2006 can be found here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3887089/SA...ry-County-Utah...

That is a great document, in fact its what lead me to figure out how they number their mines. While they don't give an exact GPS coordinate, they do provide most of the needed information to locate the mine. I posted the "decoder" here: http://mojaveunderground.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=270


PS. I still need to hook up with you on those Professional Paper plate scans and the Henry Mtns. Recon, I still can't get Scribd to let me download it all the way.

PSS. You've been adding some really neat stuff on your Scribd account, thanks for sharing!!!

[rhartill]

SRS Strategy and documents useful to plan our recon mission

San Rafael Swell Strategy

In addition to the previously mentioned DOGM report:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3887089/SAN-RAFAEL-Mining-Cultural-Survey-Report-Emery-County-Utah

There are two more reports of interest to those helping document and inventory these mines:


This is a USGS wilderness study report on the San Rafael Swell area

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12984800/USGS-Bulletin-1752

This is a UGS report on the San Rafael Mining District, some of which is outside the DOGM target area

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12966714/UGS-Bulletin-113

After reviewing all these documents, I have learned that the DOGM area of interest covers 11 different USGS 7.5 min quads.

Of these eleven quads, the highest priority quads are:

Tomsich Butte
Bottleneck Peak
San Rafael Knob
Copper Globe
Hunt Draw


The quads can be downloaded here:





Temple Mtn

http://www.archive.org/details/usgs_drg_ut_38110_f6

Horse Valley

http://www.archive.org/details/usgs_drg_ut_38110_f7

Little Wild Horse Mesa

http://www.archive.org/details/usgs_drg_ut_38110_e7

Hunt Draw

http://www.archive.org/details/usgs_drg_ut_38110_e8

Bob Hill Knoll (MK tunnels)

http://www.archive.org/details/usgs_drg_ut_39110_b6

Tomsich Butte

http://www.archive.org/details/usgs_drg_ut_38110_f8

Bottleneck Peak

http://www.archive.org/details/usgs_drg_ut_39110_a6

Spotted Wolf Canyon

http://www.archive.org/details/usgs_drg_ut_38110_h4

The Wickiup

http://www.archive.org/details/usgs_drg_ut_38110_h6

Copper Globe

http://www.archive.org/details/usgs_drg_ut_38110_g8

San Rafael Knob

http://www.archive.org/details/usgs_drg_ut_38110_g7

Ireland Mesa

http://www.archive.org/details/usgs_drg_ut_38111_f1

Good luck and happy hunting for all who want to inventory and perhaps adopt a mine or two!

[rhartill]

I thought some MUers might be interested in my methodology for analyzing the historic value of a mining district:

1. Google the district name and search under the "books" subsection and select full view only
2. Download everything that looks promising.
3. Repeat 1 and 2 for the UGS DNR Library website and the USGS websites:

http://dnrlibrary.utah.gov/

http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/index.jsp?view=adv

Check scribd.com as well for my growing mining history collection

Read and highlight/print selected pages esp. maps and lists of mines...

How did I determine which quads would be most productive?

This was calculated by reading the entire reports, noting which mines in which quads were either small operations, medium-moderate operations, or large operations.
Then the report was reread listing each occurance by quad and totalling the raw number of mines of any size per quad.

Results:

The top three quads for NR eligible mines are 1. San Rafael Knob 2. Copper Gulch 3. Hunter Draw

The top three for the MOST mine features in a given quad are 1. Tomsich Butte 2. Hunter Draw 3. Bottleneck Peak

The quads with smaller mines and not many per quad are:

Horse Valley
Ireland Mesa
Spotted Wolf Cyn
The Wickiup
Temple Mtn
Little Wild Horse Mesa

These last six I will review one last time to see if the DOGM has mis-classified anything as non-significant that really IS (They would NEVER do that, would they??)
The BYU/DOGM conclusions that some mines were not eligible for NRHP status should NOT be taken at face value without double-checking the historical records we have access to.

For example, mines listed as small may in fact be highly representative the the period involved, or may potentially yield valuable information on how a small mining operation conducted itself. Small isn't necessarily BAD and/or insignificant.

Havng done this analysis of historical significance for the BLM in a prior life as co-author of DF, I have gotten pretty fast at this...but still trying to get ahead of the curve and beat DOGM to the punches they are planning.

[trentaiken]

I wish I could make this one but I will be at a conference in Florida. Unfortunate, I grew up in Ferron Utah, about 15 miles from Castle Dale. My folks still have a small farm down there.

One note, you may want to post something in the Emery County Progress. The local culture there is that they do not care for government interfering with the heritage and access to areas of interest. A side note, they also don't have a great use for "city folk" that do not respect the land and come in and trash the place. No worries from this group of course but it is always wise to be mindful of the culture.

[ExpUt]

Great info as usual rhartill

I've spent a decent amount of time at many of the mines in the Swell, Tomsich Butte, Temple Mountain, Calf Mesa, etc and beyond that have spent a ton of time down there on the trails just out exploring. If anyone is planning a "inventory" trip in the next couple of weeks I would gladly help you plan a route to get to some of the hot spots, etc. I've got piles of the latest travel maps here in Sandy and can sit down anytime of the next week if your not familiar with the area. LMK

[bergdh]

Hey!

I have been absent from the forum for a bit but noticed this meeting going on. I may be able to make it, but I would also be willing to host dinner after the meeting. I live near helper, if that's the route you are taking from the north?

[Crystal]

We will be taking the route from the north. We passed Helper the other day on our way to the San Rafael Swells. That would be awesome if you hosted dinner for us. Let us know if you can make it.

[bergdh]

I can definitely do that. I live in Kenilworth about 6 miles at the bottom of the cliffs to the east of helper. If someone can let me know how many to expect, I will provide dinner for you all. We just have a little 4 room "mining cabin" but its cozy!

If the weather is good we can light up the fire ring!

[Mikezauner]

I can't attend. Just got a promotion, but that now means I work those hours now.

[Mike]

Great Bergdh! Thanks so much for the offer. Looking forward to it. Crystal will be getting some more information from you via Private Message, within the next couple days.