Two Red Mountain District Mining Claims To Be Donated
to Trust for Land Restoration
TLR Seeks Donations to its New Project Development Fund
to Cover Transaction Costs

Telluride Foundation Pledges $5,000
TLR Needs $5,000 More to Complete Deal

View from US 550 of Chicken and New Deal mining claims.

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The owners of two patented mining claims near Red Mountain Pass in Ouray County have offered to donate the property to the Trust for Land Restoration. TLR seeks donations to its New Projects Development Fund to cover transaction costs and long-term ownership obligations we will incur to acquire these properties.

The Chicken and New Deal mining claims are located in Commodore Gulch, about ½ west of the Idarado Mine on US 550, in the heart of the historic Red Mountain Mining District. They are highly visible from the Ironton Townsite area along the highway. TLR’s goal is to eliminate any threat of home or cabin building from the site. TLR will own and manage these claims in a manner that permanently restricts any development, but allows them to remain accessible to the public for recreation, such as hiking, picnicking and skiing. TLR’s long-term goal for the property is to eventually transfer the sites to the United States Forest Service.

TLR is seeking to raise the necessary transaction and endowment costs to be able to accept the donation of the Chicken and New Deal mining claims. Even though the claims are being offered to TLR as a donation, we will incur short-term costs and fees, plus become responsible for long-term obligations to monitor and take care of the property, and to pay annual taxes and insurance. This means we need your help! 

Please consider a donation to TLR’s New Projects Development Fund to help us pay for accepting these claims. 

Or mail your tax-deductible donation check to:

The Trust for Land Restoration

POB 743

Ridgway CO 81432

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View from potential building site on Chicken Mining Claim.

“The names ‘Chicken’ and ‘New Deal’ hearken back to the Depression Era of the 1930’s, when these claims were originally staked,” said Pat Willits, TLR’s Executive Director. “I would think the names relate to Roosevelt’s New Deal program goal to put a ’chicken in every pot’ meaning the government was trying to help people survive the economic downturn. Names of mines and mining claims are always so interesting. The 1944 patent deed itself is also pretty interesting. It is signed by Roosevelt’s personal secretary.

The Chicken and New Deal mining claims total about 20 acres. The claims themselves are spectacular, nearly pristine, high alpine country. They together contain at least one trophy-quality homesite that is highly visible from US 550. “Road access through the property to the potential homesite would be costly to install, would cross winter avalanche paths, and would be highly impacting to the environment, but it’s not hard to imagine someone trying to put a road in some day, based on where we see other people trying to build in Ouray and San Juan Counties,” said Willits. “The views looking east toward Red Mountain #1 from the obvious homesite are killer. Fortunately, we can acquire the property and never allow such an access road and such a trophy home to be built.”

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Property Owners Donate Land as Memorial to Fallen Son

Ethan Solomon camping on the New Deal.

"We would like to dedicate the donation of the Chicken and New Deal patented mining claims to the memory of Ethan Solomon. We would like to think that his love of the outdoors came in part from trips with his parents to this land. The current owners purchased this property while graduate students at the University of Illinois about 40 years ago. On a trip to Colorado Arthur Solomon learned that that there were old mining claims for sale. Fran, the sales person and County Clerk, drove Arthur around in a 4-wheel drive jeep, showing him a number of claims. Nothing impressed him until he saw the Chicken and New Deal. What Arthur saw was breathtaking. These claims were right across the Commodore Gulch from the Barstow mine. The acreage was in the rough shape of a V, the vertex of which was at a relatively flat spot by a creek that marked the valley that contained the mines. Arthur was swept over with love for the land and convinced David Kupperman and Fred Kabat to join in the purchase.

 

The idea of owning this land served as a basis of many stories through the years. While we have all been there at least once Arthur spent the most time there. Ethan was four years old when he first camped on the land. We all cannot think of a more fitting tribute than to conserve this beautiful site in memory of Ethan Solomon."

 

Arthur Solomon, Dave Kupperman, and Fred Kabat
January 2008

 

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Where Does the Money Go?

Even though the claims are being offered to TLR as a donation, we will incur transaction costs and fees that will total about $13,000 (see budget below). Thanks to the pledge of a donation of $5,000 to TLR from the Telluride Foundation, and an in-kind donation valued at $3,000 of the Phase I Environmental Assessment by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Brownfields Program, TLR is left with $5,000 to fundraise. 

Chicken and New Deal Project Budget

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WHO IS TLR?

The Trust for Land Restoration (TLR) a non-profit land trust based in Ridgway, working statewide, is recognized as a leader in understanding and managing environmental liability so that lands degraded by mining and other human impacts can be restored and conserved. TLR primarily works in two ways:

1. as a local land trust, focusing on easement and fee acquisition projects in Ouray, San Miguel, and San Juan Counties that other land trusts lack the expertise or time to undertake; and
2. as a statewide partner to citizen groups, local governments, and state and federal agencies seeking to cleanup and conserve abandoned mine sites in their communities. 

Over $2.5M Leveraged for Projects Since 2000

Since its inception in 2000, TLR has been responsible for winning more than $1 Million in grants and contracts for itself and its partners to characterize and cleanup abandoned mine sites, principally in Ouray, San Miguel, and Summit Counties. TLR’s partners have brought an additional $1.5 M to these projects. As a land trust, TLR now holds 12 conservation easements totaling 3215 acres of protected land in Ouray and San Miguel. Among the easements TLR holds are San Miguel County Down Valley Park that facilitated funding of pond and river corridor restoration at the park using Idarado Resource Damage Fund money; four easements on Iron Springs Mesa northeast of Placerville that protect Gunnison sage grouse habitat; and an easement protecting the historic Yankee Girl Mine near Red Mountain Pass in Ouray County that allows for the restoration of one of the San Juan’s most iconic mine buildings, visible from US 550, which is the San Juan Skyway, Colorado’s only designated National Scenic and Historic Byway. 

TLR is an ideal recipient organization, in that these claims are in a TLR project area, plus TLR is one of the few land trusts in Colorado that understand and work with mining claims. Dispersed home and cabin development in the Rocky Mountains often impacts scenic open space and natural habitat values. Privately owned, patented mining claims are particularly problematic, because each claim, regardless of size, typically comes with the right to develop a homesite. Mining claims tend to be surrounded by public land, in many instances making them more desirable to develop, while at the same time making them more important to conserve. Complicating matters further for conservationists are a variety of well-meaning environmental laws that have the unintended consequence of scarring away would-be do-gooders because of fear of environmental liability.

Want information about donating your property to TLR and the possible tax benefits you may be qualified to take advantage of?

Send an email to The Trust for Land Restoration

Or call us at 970-626-3236.

Potential building site on Chicken Mining Claim to be withdrawn from development.

 
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