Dear HCN,
I was very pleased to see
the article about the efforts of Skip Edwards in the Westwater
Wilderness area (HCN, 10/16/95). Our ranch, the Mountain Island
Ranch, is the only BLM grazing permittee on the east shore of the
Colorado River through the Westwater Canyon. Skip and I have had
our differences of opinion on grazing, but on the Pene mining scam
he is right on the mark. I have watched the Pene “mining” claims
and roads evolve for the last 15 years. Ron Pene made those roads
himself; there has never been a county road
there.
Mr. Pene has claimed that the mouth of the
Westwater Canyon contains a “mother lode” of hard rock ore with 48
ounces to the ton of high-grade mixed gold and other minerals. At
that rate, every major international mining concern would be
beating down his door for the rights to the mine, and he would be a
very rich miner indeed. It is a bogus
claim.
There is no question in my mind that Mr.
Pene has no intention of becoming a “rich miner.” He plans on
patenting the land and selling it off to the hordes of
river-oriented tourists. With the land values soaring in Moab, he
would become a millionaire overnight. There are already recreation
cabins being built just across the river at Westwater, some perched
on the rim viewing the mouth of the canyon.
Pene
has an outlaw attitude. For years he has flaunted the authority of
the people charged with the management of the lands here. Every
time I meet him on the road in, he has a .38 caliber revolver handy
on the seat beside him and a hard look in his eye. Federal land
agency employees are required by local politics and common sense to
be non-confrontational, essentially giving Pene carte blanche from
the local law enforcement. To allow this man a bogus mineral claim
is to submit to the worst sort of robbery and intimidation. The
good news is that Skip has documented the abuse and attempted
theft, and with luck we won’t be looking at a subdivision in this
wilderness canyon.
Hawk
Greenway
Glade Park,
Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A bogus claim.
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