U.S. Orders Building Removed : Gold Miner Prospects for Way to Save Sierra Cabin

For years Edmond Key, a grizzled prospector, has quietly mined his gold claim in the Sierra taking out several thousand dollars in dust and a few small nuggets without bothering anyone.

“I just kind of minded my own business up there and got along pretty well with the other prospectors who were my neighbors,” Key said.

But when the government, specifically the Interior Department through its Bureau of Land Management, started giving Key a hassle, he fought back with vengeance and actually has won the first legal battle.

Now he wants to win the whole war.

Key’s mining claim is along the North Fork of the Merced River in mountains in Mariposa County.

Mined Claim 12 Years

He had mined the claim for 12 years, extracting enough gold dust and nuggets to make it worthwhile before the trouble began earlier this year.

It started when he found a government notice posted on the cabin he built on his claim, demanding the structure be removed by the end of the year. The government also wanted a quit claim deed to his cabin so they could raze it if he didn’t.

They also wanted Key to post a $1,000 bond to ensure the costs would be paid if the government had to demolish the structure.

The problem was that Key’s claim is on the boundary of the Merced River Wilderness Study Area and, under a rule enacted in late 1976, prospectors are not allowed to build residences on their mining claims in wilderness study areas.

When Key found the notice on his cabin, it was no more Mr. Nice Guy for him.

“I felt they were trying to get my claim away from me,” Key said in an interview while in Fresno visiting his daughter. “I think they were getting pressure from environmentalist groups to run all the small miners out of the mountains.”

Key hired a lawyer who filed an appeal to the posted notice, contending that, since his claim was filed in 1975 before the new regulation was enacted, it did not apply to him.

Earlier this month Key got back notification that the demand for the quit claim deed was being dropped.

Attorney Ralph Campbell, a Mariposa attorney who spent 28 years on the California Highway Patrol before going to law school, said he felt the government would back down.

“Having worked for a government agency for 28 years, I know that quite often the government will back down when their demands are resisted,” Campbell said.

With the notification that the demand for a quit claim deed to his cabin had been dropped came a notice that Key must still remove the cabin from the property, but not until June 1, 1989. He also still must post the $1,000 bond to assure that he complies with the order.

“I’ll go ahead and post the bond just to keep them off my back,” Key said this week. “But I don’t want them to think I’m going to lie down and let them have their way.”

He envisions filing a class-action suit on behalf of all miners in the Sierra in the same situation.

“We all want to keep on working our claims, and you can’t do that unless you have a place to live on or near your claim,” Key said.

Political Pressure Seen

“I still think the government just wants the miners out of the area, probably because of political pressure from the environmental groups,. But they have no right to stop us from mining on public land and I’m hoping to fight them until we get the courts to tell them to leave us alone or they give up the battle.”

He said government officials told him they do not want his claim, only removal of the cabin.

“But, if I had to do without my cabin, it would be impossible,” he said. “I’d have no place to live and no place to store my dredging equipment, so, if they make me remove the cabin, they force me out of the gold-mining business.

“I don’t intend to let them do that without a hell of a fight. I won the first battle when they dropped their demand for the quit claim deed and now I’m going to try to win the whole war with a lawsuit.”