Glacier Peak Copper Mine finally put to bed
An issue that galvanized hikers and spurred the growth of WTA in the 1960s has been resolved once and for all.
In the 1960s, Kennecott Copper wanted to place an open pit mine deep in the Glacier Peak Wilderness. The mine would have been clearly visible from Image Lake, which boasts the iconic high country reflection of Glacier Peak that has been immortalized in countless photographs by hikers.
WTA was heavily engaged in the fight to stop the mine, rallying hikers to augment the traditional conservation opposition to the project. Kennecott Copper set the project aside when then Senator Henry M. Jackson intervened. Still, in the intervening years, the 372 acres in question have been technically open for mining as a patented claim, although the chances of that happening were remote. In 1986, the Chelan PUD purchased the site to monitor snowpack at nearby Lyman Lake.
With the passage of the Wild Sky Wilderness Act, this site has finally received a permanent reprieve. One of the provisions of the legislation allowed for a swap in which the Forest Service gained a conservation easement on the land in exchange for a 1.8 acre remote telemetry site. Chelan PUD employees will use the exchanged land to monitor snowpack, landing helicopters rather than hiking several miles in snowshoes.
While the chances that a mine could ultimately have been located on this site were small, copper is a very profitable metal. Economic pressures on the mining industry, over time, could have spurred a second look at this ecologically and culturally valuable landscape. The Glacier Peak Wilderness, and the hikers who love it, can let out a long-held breath of relief now that this landscape is permanently protected from the ravages of open-pit mining.
Comments
History of Cascade mining
Beneath the east face of Plummer Mt., in a charming empty meadow, sits a little chair where I reckon some of the miners liked to sit and smoke and watch the sunrise.
Fascination with the mountains leads one to fascination with everything about them -- wildlife, history, geology, spirituality. I would think anyone interested in the Cascades would find the history of mining quite interesting. You've seen the traces: old trails, scraps of machinery. The tales of those who've gone before are worth unearthing.
Monte Cristo, by Phillip Woodhouse (Mountaineers).
Discovering Washington's Historic Mines, Northwest Underground Explorations, authored by Woodhouse and others, (Oso Publishing), v.1, 2 & 3. Vol. 2 & 3 are hard to find, regrettably out-of-print, expensive but worth it on Amazon; King Co. Library system has them. v. 2 includes the Glacier Peak area. v. 1 is King Co/Darrington; v 3 is the north Cascades, Harts Pass, Pasayten area.
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/NWUNDERGROUND/
They have stunning underground photography.
Posted by:
Cascade Liberation Organization on May 24, 2010 09:19 PM