Several federal and state agencies have made it their mission to completely eliminate all historical mining sites across the western US in the name of public safety. Nowhere is this problem more exemplified than in the State of Utah. The Utah Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining’s (DOGM) Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program [AMRP] is an entity of The Department of Natuaral Resourses (DNR) and has been charged with closing dangerous coal mines in Utah, using collective funds from active coal mining entities. The DOGM feels that all the abandoned coal mines in Utah are now sufficiently mitigated (even though a dozen coal fires rage unabated in Utah) and has instead turned to closing hardrock mines.
Entire mine sites including mills, ore bins, trusses, cabins, and an uncountable amount of abandoned mines sites have been eliminated from history, never to be seen again.
Below are some examples of how Abandoned Mines Reclamation Programs (AMRP) have erased public and private lands of our history.
Reclaimed ruins of an Abandoned Mine site in Colorado
Abandoned Mine Lands represent what made the West what it is. If you agree, chose now to adopt a mine today.
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