Coal Firm Gets Rid of Headache; Indiana Gets 12,500-Acre Prime Hunting Range

George Seketa said it was almost too good to be true.

AMAX Coal Co., worried about the liability problems that could result from hunters trespassing on its Sullivan County mining property, decided to lease 12,500 acres to the state for 20 years at $100 per year. For the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, it meant a prime hunting ground for deer, quail, dove, rabbit and other game in an area that sorely needed one.

The result was the Minnehaha State Fish and Wildlife Area. Just while completing its first full hunting year, the area already has been drawing hunters from across Indiana and other states such as nearby Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio.

‘Tickled to Death’

“It sounds so doggone good it scares you,” said Seketa, chief of properties for IDNR’s Division of Fish and Wildlife. “Everyone in the department is tickled to death with it.

“We couldn’t have had better cooperation with big industry. You couldn’t find a better example of industry, government and conservation working together.”

Minnehaha, located along Indiana 54 midway between Sullivan and Dugger, opened in November, 1985, just six months after the state and AMAX signed their agreement. The largest of 17 fish and wildlife areas managed by the state, it represents more than an eighth of the division’s 95,000 acres.

The Wabash River, which flows by just 15 miles west of Minnehaha, serves as a prime migratory route for waterfowl, and the park includes 23 separate bodies of water. The area already is loaded with deer and quail. The state has established a decent goose flock there, Seketa said, and good potential exists for turkey.

‘Has Greatest Potential’

“Minnehaha’s future lies ahead of it. Because of its size and location, it has the greatest potential. Nobody really knows what it’s going to be 10 years from now,” Seketa said.

The partnership was more than 30 years in the making. In 1954 the Division of Fish and Wildlife signed a 20-year wildlife management lease covering 7,000 acres of former surface mining land from three coal companies--AMAX, Old Ben and Peabody. Ten years later, AMAX donated 2,500 acres it was leasing out.

AMAX also donated 453 acres near Brazil in Clay County that became the Chinook Fishing Area.

Then three years ago, the division leased 1,800 of the Sullivan County acres to create the Busseron Bottoms deer-hunting grounds.

Trespassing Problem

“AMAX (had) started to have a problem with major trespassing of deer hunters,” Seketa said. “It worked out so well in 1984 that their staff said, ‘Hey, how would you like to lease the whole area--12,500 acres?’

“We needed an area in the west-central part of the state. AMAX needed some relief from trespassers. It was a good deal for everybody.”

Jeff Weber, an AMAX spokesman, said the coal company once had tried issuing fishing licenses on some of its mining lands, but with poor results. It soon realized that it didn’t have the staff, time or expertise to manage such an operation. That’s where the state came in.

“We look at it as a good opportunity to keep the land productive and let the public use it.”