Daily Herald

On Tuesday, January 31st, 2006. The Daily Herald ran a very one sided and biased article about abandoned mines. The worst part of this is that the mis-information is being propagated to kids who depend on these teachers for accurate and unbiased information. When this type of information is propagated, we all lose. GRE drafted a letter of rebuttal to the Herald and the school officials involved in the article. We carbon copied OGM representative Anthony Gallegos and Jim Springer in addition to Mark Mesch, manager of the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining program to reclaim abandoned mines. Also included numerous other Utah State agencies including our Utah State Congress representatives as listed below:

RASHAE OPHUS JOHNSON - Daily Herald
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Schools revisit hazards of abandoned mines
Fourth-graders across Utah Valley are learning in no uncertain terms about the hazards of abandoned mines.

The "Stay Out and Stay Alive!" abandoned mine safety program is mandatory learning melded into fourth-grade geology and state history curriculum. The Utah Division of Oil, Gas & Mining distributed to schools this week a teaching packet including a workbook, DVD and other instructional materials.

"We have 20,000 abandoned mines in Utah and no way to really close all of them," said Jim Springer, spokesman for the state Division of Oil, Gas and Mining. "The best way we can improve safety is to educate, starting with children."

Lane Rienwand, fourth-grade teacher at Provost School in Provo, is priming students with lessons on the mining rush that helped settle Utah. Anne Larson, the school's other fourth-grade teacher, is gearing up with a geology unit on rocks and minerals.

"They love to get involved in rock hunting after our rock and mineral unit, and that brings them up into the canyon," Larson said.

Provost students live around Provo's east bench, and by fourth grade, Larson said many have begun independent exploration of nearby Rock Canyon. When she taught the abandoned mine safety lessons in previous years, several children already had noticed but not necessarily recognized abandoned mines.

"They say, 'We saw this hole and it had a big piece of wood over it,' " she said. "It looks like an innocent little hole to them, but it's not."

She believes the abandoned mine safety segment bears particular relevance this year, given several highly publicized recent mining tragedies plus the deaths last summer of four local spelunkers in a natural cave in the Provo foothills. Students learn the myriad of risks -- including collapsing walls and ceilings, toxic fumes, falls and undetonated explosives -- still looming in mines deserted decades ago. Larson also tells classes about a Boy Scout who was lost for days in an abandoned Utah mine several years ago.

Students are awed by a state map peppered with thousands of dots representing abandoned mines.

"It's impressive to see, 'Whoa, we're talking about a lot more than a dozen mines here,' " she said.

Since the 1800s, miners have sought gold, silver, lead, zinc, phosphate, copper, uranium and several other minerals in Utah. After stripping one location, miners simply departed for another site, leaving behind piles of toxic waste and gaping shafts.

Public safety was a primary motivation for the federally funded reclamation program, which operates on a $1.5 million annual budget derived from coal taxes. Since the Utah Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program commenced in 1983, state authorities have sealed roughly 7,000 abandoned mines statewide, including 105 in the Uinta National Forest.

Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service experts currently are collaborating with oil, gas and mining officials on a mine reclamation project in the Sheeprock Mountains west of Provo.

The follow letter was written and distributed in response.

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Corey Shuman, I am the CEO of gold rush expeditions inc., a not-for profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Utah’s Ghost towns and mines. We also offer educational services to the public to rebuke the myths about Utah’s abandoned mines.

I was recently made aware of an article that the Daily Herald ran, written by Rashae Ophus Johnson regarding abandoned mines in Utah. (http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/163096/3/)

I was very disturbed at the lack of research into the subject matter of this article. Also, it was a very one sided article which did not portray both views of the issue of abandoned mines. I have not seen this type of bias in your paper previously, so I assume that this articles inaccuracy was due to oversight, of which I am sure, will be remedied in the future.

With that in mind, I would like to disclose some facts that are not presented by OGM or the Forest Service.

On June 28th, 2005, Mark Mesch (Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program) was credited with the following quote by the Utah Mining Association: “Since 1985 there have been five deaths and numerous injuries in abandoned mines in Utah”.

5 deaths in 20 years… I can not think of any other outdoor activity that has a fatality rate this low, with the exception of maybe fly fishing. This figure is even lower than what has been quoted before. To put this in perspective, more people were killed in avalanches in 2004 alone, than in 20 years of exploring abandoned mines. Since 1985, over 50 people have been killed in avalanches, yet we do not seek to close all avalanche areas, instead we preach caution.

To further illustrate this point, Rock climbing fatalities in 2003 were higher than the 20 year total of abandoned mine related deaths. To date we have yet to destroy any mountains due to the hazard they pose.

Mines and ghost towns are an integral part of the history of the west and of Utah in particular. Without the mines, an estimated 90% of the backcountry trails and roads would not exist. Also, without the mines and the back breaking efforts put into them, most of Utah’s population would not be where it is now. Additionally, the mines and ghost towns that dot Utah’s landscape are an integral part of Utah’s tourist tax base.

Gold Rush Expeditions fields thousands of emails each year from people planning vacations to Utah who want to visit old mines and ghost towns. They seek directions, information and history of the sites they intend to visit. I don’t think anyone can deny the rush of excitement that they feel when they find an old mine or ghost town in the back country. It’s a sense of excitement and discovery that cannot be duplicated. Yet each year, Oil, Gas and Mining seek to close more of these attractions. Each mine that is “reclaimed” is taking tourist revenue from Utah. If the current trend continues, the lure of the Ghost Towns and Mines in Utah will be gone and with it, a significant chunk of tourist revenue. Also of note is the massive funding that goes to the destruction of these mines, administration and execution of the destruction of these mines is a useless expenditure that could better be spent of preservation of an irreplaceable resource.

The plain fact is that mines are no more dangerous than any other outdoor attraction, and as numbers show, actually it would appear that mining is the least dangerous of ANY outdoor activity. As with any hobby or sport, common sense is key. Knowledge of the area, combined with basic safety precautions will virtually assure no injuries when exploring these mines.

I personally have been exploring Utah’s mines, ghost towns and ancient history for over 16 years now. In an effort to share my information and document Utah’s rapidly vanishing ghost towns and mines, I formed Gold Rush Expeditions Inc. Initially to take tourists to these sites, the focus has turned to preservation. Gold Rush Expeditions takes multiple trips each month to historic sites. We photo-document the areas and share our findings with the public. Our website, www.goldrushexpeditions.com , receives over 12,000 unique hits per month, testament to the interest in this field.

I would appreciate it if your publication retract the erroneous information presented in your previous article, or at least print both sides of the issue so that people can make an informed decision about what happens to their historic sites and the focus of their tax dollars.

If you need additional information, or I can assist you in any other way, please feel free to contact me as indicated below.

Sincerely, 

Corey T. Shuman

Member Name DC Phone DC FAX Email
Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R- UT) 202-224-5251 202-224-6331 http://hatch.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Offices.Contact
Senator Robert F. Bennett (R- UT) 202-224-5444 202-228-1168 http://bennett.senate.gov/contact/email_opinion.cfm
Representative Rob Bishop (R - 01) 202-225-0453 202-225-5857 http://www.house.gov/robbishop/contact/
Representative James D. Matheson (D - 02) 202-225-3011 202-225-5638 http://www.house.gov/matheson/contact.phpl
Representative Christopher Cannon (R - 03) 202-225-7751 202-225-5629 cannon.ut03@mail.house.gov

Additional contact information:

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