CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : YREKA : Miners Fight Ouster From Forest Lands

Miners are attempting to use a little-known federal law to fight eviction from the Klamath National Forest near Yreka. The controversy began in 1987, when the U.S. Forest Service notified 233 miners that they were unauthorized occupants of federal land. Sixty miners filed appeals, and they now say they will press their case with the aid of the 1958 Townsite Act, which allows the federal government to sell land at fair market prices to communities whose expansion is blocked by ajacent national forest land. Approval of the sales could expand the mining communities of Cecilville, Forks of Salmon and Sawyers Bar.