Miners 



"Here are the factories," they say; "here are the mines; here is the water power, and there 

 stretch the bountiful farms. Is there anything lacking?" . . . The answer, unhappily, is 

 yes. There is one thing, at least, lacking and that is character. The system has collapsed 

 because man worked it greedily. By mortgaging the future he succeeded in getting more, 

 for a time, than the system could honestly provide . . . Herbert Agar, Land of the Free, 1935. 



UNFORESEEN CONFLICTS between mining and other uses of the 

 national forests have developed. They result partly from uneconomic opera- 

 tions, but more particularly from fake miners, miners in name only. Under 

 present mining laws a man may squat on and misuse a piece of land claim- 

 ing he is going to mine it, and it is often difficult to dislodge him. Then, 

 too, the land planner has no choice save to regard mining as a prior claim, 

 regardless of all the other values involved, unless the area is withdrawn by 

 a special law from mining. The resulting state of affairs is troublesome alike 

 to the public and to those in the legitimate mining industry who are trying 

 to do an honest and careful job. 



Because of the almost invariable priority accorded mining by law, 

 national forest lands have suffered unwise and inappropriate use, and 

 recreational use in many places has been severely thwarted. Very often 

 land has been claimed or actually obtained under the guise of mining and 

 so used as to restrict desirable public use. Claims taken up under mining 

 laws have been developed and used as summer homes on locations badly 

 needed for public campgrounds. Sometimes the occupancy of such claims 

 blocks the use of much larger areas of adjacent public land. Again, un- 

 sightly structures, huge advertising signs, and hot-dog stands have been 

 erected, changing the character of the environment almost completely. 



Mining is a basic industry of great importance. Our history, our western 

 settlement, is closely linked with the discovery of gold and other minerals. 



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