In 1997, in Arizona, there was a resurgance in what became known as the Desert Dirts which at that time were working strongly on extraction via bench tests, assays and mine building attempts. Some have failed complely, some are striving to still maintain and ship to refiners. There are many TOPICS at S.I. that have the words DESERT DIRT in the title. Many more posts, several continuing threads. My favorites have always been where our group of investors had met at first on this Silicon Investor and claimed next to some of the left over lands. One is GPGI near Wickenburg, ring a bell, so see:
globalplatinum.com
and
Maxam Gold-
maxamgold.com
take a look at this 1997 chart after it hit a HIGH POINT and retrenched from 2 $ something from a year run from 5 cents up and NOW it is back at .125 a mere eight of a buck:
homepages.infoseek.com
Yes, it is the sands and dirts that they attempt to continue to proove. The rest of us wait. The NEWTECH (whether Habers's or others) will, in my opinion; pull the metals out as metal IN HAND. If supported by the current regularity bodies and a new way of testing and RECOVERY of metals in hand, in bulk volume and in its own due time. Not the markets time, unfortunately. Economics is defined by me and others as scarcity. Not supply and DEMAND. Recognition also comes into play. Then, again, real economics of scale. Then, stock prices.( Or Claim Group VALUATIONS for the benifit of the members! LOL.)
Disclosure on joint and contractural work with corporations mentioned and or individuals employed by them as the Managing General Partner, Lead Person of a couple of Arizona/Nevada Placer Associations and that of chief locator of the ore bodies that we have claimed on Annual Leases for the last 3 renewal years expiring 31 August totalling over some couple hundred claims of an average size of 160 acres each. Also, I sent information to talk further with Haber Corp Reps some months ago and we mutually decided to end any talks. About that time a non disclosure agreement was E Mailed to OREX Gold after a phone talk to the president. No reply was ever made. Then the news came out with his mining affiliate. It looks to me that I have been open and forthright rather than being otherwise. As I said long ago at many places, if one suceeds with the NEW TECHNOLOGIES- we all SUCCEED!
Chucka( a few years ago - it was always, Chucaupt NEWTECH; a word maker effort rather than a deeds effort as in Real Estate DEEDs and Quitclaims which BTW are nothing more or less than a Mineral Right Annual Lease!)< I am a real estate guy and always, talk/think/and do real estate- to anyone, even Warren ! That is my job...>
P.S.- So, we all study and we all learn. I am STOCK MARKET invested in a basket of PGMs model companies, as well; I have a vested interest in all the sucesses or otherwise.
OUR WEBSITE:
auctionbuy.com
SEC Disclosures:
sec.gov
sec.gov
Chuca
aka
Chucka
< Charles H. Marshall >
P.S.- My S.I. PP show that I do more than just ONE SUBJECT posting...MINING TECHS to NUKE TECHS:
varied and open:
SI View PeopleMarks Bookmark this Profile Send a Private Message
Name Chuca Marsh (chucalo@aol.com)
Member Since Oct 25, 1996
Company Linn R.E./ Pru- Local Affiliate Real Estate=I do Land Right & Mineral Rights.
Occupation\Title Marketing -Properties Personal & Commerical(NEW: Pres -WesternMiningAssociation)
Age Middle(dark-ages w/ gray hair)Have several Pixs on URLs e mail IF U wantasee some of my AZ. claims
Location North-East- call me Chuca-"Thousands O'Acres Guy" Pie is Not In The SKY!
College University of Akron,Boston University(public speaking /parish preaching course)
Degree B.A., A.R.M.(Stakin and Talkin; Locating and pondering to a degree!)
Favorite Stocks NUKE-NRT:VSE,MXAM,USPS,GPGI,INTC,RMBS,JNNE,BMD,,CYTO,GZTC,IRR,MGAU,
,JBA,BMY,RYR,PFG,AQX,ACA,BMD,
Investment
Style FUTURE GROWTH-forward thinking type-These risks envolve forward looking STYLE!
Experience 12 years-Necessity is the mother of invention!(Biz is asgoodas we make it, Lemons=Lemonade)
Interests and
Hobbies techstocks.com TALKING&SOLVING PROBLEMS-Making em 2
Quote Our own flame is lit by the light of another/An Acheivement is Simply a DREAM UPON WHICH WE HAVE LABOURED!
Other Info Wishing &Hoping is like PRAYING&our need to be pace makers handing the living torch,bright and unflickering lies all our skills.
Favorite Links GO
freeyellow.com
Revized11MAR-Look at Nevada-The Stuff cut thru AZ
SEC DISCLOSURE NUKE IR Assistance-6-21-99
-all mail welcolmed...so- e mail
MXAM-Onward to production! 1998-how many acres??? ?
P.S.- My Great Great Grand Father was Named John Nichols who resided in San Bernadino CA up til 1945 when the family last was contacted there:
He may OF discovered Blackhawk Mountain- PINCOCK and HOLT ring a bell?
lucernevalley.org
The price of gold and silver soared during the Civil War. Gold rose from $20.67 per ounce to over $60.00 per ounce in San Bernardino. In 1863, John G. Nichols, former police, judge and mayor of Los Angeles, formed the Moronga Mining Company to mine the Henderson ledge near Rose Mine. He built the first wagon road up Cushenbury Canyon to the Moronga Mine in Lone Valley. Highway 18 follows his route up to Johnson Grade where the highway follows the general route Lucky Baldwin pioneered to his Gold Mountain Mines in 1874. The present highway is basically the improved version of these mining roads made by the builders of Big Bear Dam in 1880 to handle freight wagons hauling cement and supplies for building the dam.
The excitement turned to gold and silver strikes in southeast Lucerne Valley during the 1880's. The Silver-Reef-Blackhawk Landslide Complex was found to contain enormous amounts of low-grade silver ore with just enough high-grade lenses to excite the miners. No one knew that they were digging in a massive landslide! Many of the mining shafts were sunk on high-grade outcrops only to find the ore non-existent once the landslide was penetrated to the desert sand or granite schist below! It wasn't until 1928 that geologist, Woodford and Harris of Pomona College, discovered that it was a massive landslide and unlocked the mystery of the dead end silver lodes! These silver ores probably led to Bill McHaney's famous 1890's story of Lucerne Valley's Lost Ruby Silver Ledge and the murder of two prospectors at Rabbit Springs.
While Lucerne Valley gained its first permanent residents, the biggest local gold strike was being developed on Blackhawk Mountain. Algernon P. Del Mar, later an internationally known British mining engineer, was overseeing the development of the gold discovery of prospectors Cook and Leach. Del Mar supervised three different phases of mining on Blackhawk Mountain between 1880 and 1940. A series of mining operations produced more than 10,000 ounces of gold from workings high on the mountain where the Blackhawk Landslide exposed the bedrock years ago. The mines on Blackhawk Mountain were prohibited from operating during World War II by President Roosevelt's Executive Order 208-L which closed all gold mining operations in the nation.
mdia.org
Blackhawk & The Mountain–A Twentieth Century History
by Beverly Lane
in conjunction with Save Mount Diablo
Mount Diablo Review - Fall 1998
Today the name Blackhawk conjures up a vision of luxury homes a few miles east of Old Town Danville. It began as a ranch with that name some 80 years ago, at the southern base of Mount Diablo. But Blackhawk is a development of fairly recent vintage and in the 1970s it was so controversial that the debates were called the "The Blackhawk Wars." For most of the twentieth century it was a quiet ranch.
Blackhawk Ranch Established
The Blackhawk Ranch was established in 1917 when Ansel Mills Easton and his son-in-law William Q. Ward purchased 1200 acres of a small valley, east of the San Ramon and Sycamore Valleys. The name was derived from a famous Irish race horse, called Blackhawk, which Easton's family had owned decades earlier. Architect Louis Muffgardt designed a large family house for the Easton and Ward families. The ranch became well known for its prizewinning horses and shorthorn cattle.
The Danville Grange Herald on February 24, 1923, wrote:
"16 head of fashionably bred Shorthorn cattle, imported by Easton and Ward, of Diablo, Ca. from the most famous herds of Scotland, arrived here last week. The Blackhawk Ranch has a large number of imported cattle, and their herd of Shorthorns is one of the best in this country."
Ranch Changes Hands
In 1934 the ranch was sold to Raymond Force, owner of the Caterpillar Tractor Company. He and his wife lived in Piedmont at first, using the Ranch as a summer home. One hundred acres of walnuts were planted, Arabian horses were raised and a large Hereford cattle herd were operated on the ranch, all served by well and spring water. He increased the acreage by purchasing the adjacent Wilson, Frietas, Sousa, Frick and Goold properties. The Forces moved to the Ranch in 1941 and Mrs. Force, an ardent gardener, planted and maintained a beautiful garden and grounds.
Force also used the land to test new versions of farm equipment and tractors, transporting the experimental vehicles under wraps so they could be tried out in secret. Beginning around 1930 an extraordinary array of fossils were found at the Blackhawk Ranch quarry site and digs have taken place ever since under the auspices of the University of California Museum of Paleontology. Force donated 97 acres north of the Ranch and near Curry Point for use by the Boy Scouts. In 1988 the "Boy Scout Camp", as it was known, was acquired by the State for addition to Mt. Diablo State Park.
After Force died, a firm called Castle and Cook Ltd. owned the Ranch from 1956 to 1964. Enter Howard Peterson (owner of Peterson Tractor). Peterson had known and admired Force and the Blackhawk Ranch for many years. According to conversations with Mr. Peterson in 1987, Force had offered to sell him the Wilson Ranch section of the property at one time. Instead Peterson purchased the Two-County Ranch on the boundary of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, renaming it the JJJ Ranch for his daughters. His office was in San Leandro and he could drive easily to work over the old Highway 50 (today's I-580 route).
Howard Peterson Buys Ranch
One Saturday in the sixties Peterson learned the Blackhawk Ranch was available. He was in the habit of going north from his ranch to get his hair cut in Danville. He recalled that one day Bill Flett, of Geldermann Realtors, saw him in the barber shop. Flett said to him "Howard, how'd you like to buy the Blackhawk Ranch? It's up for sale." Peterson said he could hardly wait to get out of the barber chair. He bought all 6500 acres of the Ranch in 1964. As described in a Valley Pioneer Centennial Edition in 1958, the ranch had 140 acres of walnuts, 500 acres of hay, 1000 head of beef cattle and seven acres of well landscaped gardens.
Peterson said he and his wife loved the ranch. They rebuilt the Easton-Ward house to create a beautiful ranch house with large picture windows looking in all directions. When EBMUD was expanding to the Valley and came to Diablo Country Club, Peterson said the water company policy was "to bring water to people's yards near the main pipeline." He said he convinced EBMUD that he simply "had a big yard" and the entire ranch went into the water district's service boundary.
Mount Diablo State Park gains 2100 acres
He recalled that, at the time of his purchase in 1964, Castle and Cook had been transferring 2100 acres to Mount Diablo State Park. Peterson accepted this transaction as a completed fact, since he understood it was "sell or be condemned." He would have liked to keep that acreage as well, he said. These acquisitions included part of BBQ Terrace near Wall Point, much of Curry Canyon and the Knobcone Point area, including Balancing Rock.
The Petersons grew walnuts, grazed cattle and raised quarterhorses. Like other large ranchers, he had a walnut processing plant at the ranch. One year he sold 103 tons of walnuts to Diamond.
According to Mr. Peterson, he sold Blackhawk because the county re-assessed the Ranch as a potential subdivision, raising the taxes to $100,000 a year. He decided not to go into the land development business himself and chose to sell it to one buyer, keeping 300 acres of the core home and headquarters.
Immense Controversy Surrounded Blackhawk's Development In The Seventies
Discussions began with representatives of Florida developer Ken Behring in 1973 and finally concluded in 1975, according to Peterson's records. Behring's Blackhawk Development Company envisioned a housing development of 4800 dwelling units on 4200 acres. The I-680 freeway had been completed in 1966 and the new Planned Unit Development zoning designation permitted developments with shared open space and other amenities. The Baldwin Ranch (now Danville Station) and the Meese Ranch (now Greenbrook Homes had been transformed in a short time from orchards to homes.
But the Blackhawk Ranch Development proposal of 4800 homes was much larger than the others; it was the largest ever proposed in Contra Costa County and was miles away from the freeway where other new developments were just appearing. Opposition came from environmentalists and Diablo residents who organized as "Amigos de Diablo." Charges rang out, citing "leapfrog zoning," environmental damage, urban sprawl, serious violations of the County General Plan and destruction of the Mt. Diablo foothills. Save Mount Diablo, just a few years old, led some of the first hikes on the Ranch to educate the public about what was being proposed.
Anthony Dehaesus, the County Planning Director during this period, said:
"The issue of Blackhawk was not just the development of the land. The project brought up the questions of how was the land being served, what are the future impacts? For the first time the matter of public costs versus private costs was raised."
Overriding county staff recommendations, the Board of Supervisors approved the development of 4800 homes in 1974. The Amigos collected signatures for a referendum and a law suit was filed. Petition signature-gatherers recalled being harassed as they collected signatures. But attorney Dan Van Voorhis defended these opposition activities and said that Blackhawk was "attempting to clarify the situation by putting truth squads on the street," paid for by the company.
Referendum to halt development fails
The referendum did not make it to the ballot; it was dismissed by a judge as not on point. Blackhawk Development Corporation sued Amigos members for libel, an early SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) suit. The Company ultimately reduced the number of homes to 2400 and dedicated more than 2000 acres of open space, at no cost to the public, to Mount Diablo State Park.
The first homes opened in 1979. More than 40 builders participated in the development which was essentially complete by the early 1990s. Two 18-hole golf courses, two clubhouses and several sport complexes are part of the gated community we know as Blackhawk. Modest access to the State Park is available to trail users who have access through the Blackhawk gates.
2000 acres dedicated to State Park
The more than 2000 acres dedicated to open space were added to the State Park as development phases proceeded. The entire dedication process was watched over and prodded along by Save Mount Diablo. 1131 acres–areas as wide ranging as Wall Point, Jackass Canyon, part of Dan Cook Canyon and part of both sides of Southgate Road
below the State Park entrance–were added in 1980. Another 410 acres along Blackhawk Ridge were dedicated in 1987.
Final parcel of more than 500 acres to be dedicated soon
Save Mount Diablo has continued to watchdog the final dedication and it is very likely that this year the final parcel of more than 500 acres, spectacular land below Oyster Point, will be added to the Park.
DOLOMITES % LIMESTONES:
fws.gov
RIN 1018-AB73
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Five Plants From the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California Determined to be Threatened or Endangered
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
SUMMARY: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) determines Erigeron parishii (Parish's daisy) to be threatened and Eriogonum ovalifolium var. vineum (Cushenbury buckwheat), Astragalus albens (Cushenbury milk-vetch), Lesquerella kingii ssp. bernardina (San Bernardino Mountains bladderpod), and Oxytheca parishii var. goodmaniana (Cushenbury oxytheca) to be endangered pursuant to the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). These five plant species are endemic to the carbonate deposits (limestone and dolomite) of the San Bernardino Mountains, San Bernardino County, California. Most of the carbonate deposits in this mountain range are within actively used mining claims or mining claims that are being maintained for their mineral resources. Limestone, ranging from cement grade to pharmaceutical grade, is currently mined in the area; dolomite is not currently mined. The open or terraced mining techniques that are used, as well as associated overburden dumping and road construction, result in destruction of the plants' habitat. Other threats to the plants include off-highway vehicle use, urban development near the community of Big Bear, expansion of a ski area, and energy development projects. Several of the plants are also threatened with stochastic extinction due to the small numbers of populations or total number of individuals. This rule implements the Federal protection and recovery provisions afforded by the Act for these five plants.
EFFECTIVE DATE: September 23, 1994.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The San Bernardino Mountains in southern California have been recognized for supporting a wide diversity of natural habitats that have resulted from their geographic position between desert and coastal environments, elevational zonation, and uncommon substrates such as limestone outcrops. The San Bernardino National Forest (Forest), which encompasses most of the San Bernardino Mountains, constitutes less than 1 percent of the land area of the State, yet contains populations of over 25 percent of all plant species that occur naturally in California.
Outcrops of carbonate substrates, primarily limestone and dolomite, occur in several bands running on an east-west axis along the desert-facing slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains, with disjunct patches occurring just to the south of Sugarlump Ridge and to the east as far as the Sawtooth Hills. These outcrops are a remnant of an ancient formation of sandstone, shale, and limestone, through which the granitic core of the Transverse Ranges has emerged (Fife 1988).
The five taxa under discussion, Erigeron parishii (Parish's daisy), Eriogonum ovalifolium var. vineum (Cushenbury buckwheat), Astragalus albens (Cushenbury milk-vetch), Lesquerella kingii ssp. bernardina (San Bernardino Mountains bladderpod), and Oxytheca parishii var. goodmaniana (Cushenbury oxytheca), are restricted primarily to carbonate deposits or soils derived from them. These taxa, and other plants that occur on carbonate deposits, have commonly been referred to as "limestone endemics" by botanists, whether they occur on limestone or dolomite (Krantz 1990, Schoenherr 1992). Collectively, these five taxa span a range approximately 56 kilometers (km) (35 miles) long, ranging in elevation from 1,220 meters (4,000 feet (ft)) at the base of the mountains to approximately 2,440 meters (8,000 ft), and occur as components in the understory of a variety of plant communities, including Jeffrey pine-western juniper woodland, pinyon-juniper woodland, pinyon woodland, Joshua tree woodland, blackbrush scrub, and desert wash.
Pinyon-juniper woodland communities dominate the desert-facing slopes above 1,220 meters (4,000 ft) in elevation, and grade into a Joshua tree woodland at lower elevations (Vasek and Thorne 1988). Pinyon-juniper woodlands extend up to almost 2,100 meters (7,000 ft) in elevation, where they intergrade with a Jeffrey pine woodland on drier sites or mixed conifer forest on wetter sites. Open forests of lodgepole pine and limber pine are found at the highest elevations. A wide variation in the species composition exists within the pinyon-juniper woodland. Pinus monophylla (pinyon pine) or Juniperus osteosperma (Utah juniper), and more rarely Juniperus occidentalis (western juniper) or Juniperus californica (California juniper), are the structurally dominant species, occasionally occurring together. Holland (1986) has referred to separate Mojavean pinyon woodland and Mojavean juniper woodland and scrub communities. The understory varies with slope and elevation, but typically includes species such as Cercocarpus ledifolius (mountain mahogany), Ephedra viridis (Mormon tea), Yucca schidigera (Mohave yucca), Yucca brevifolia (Joshua tree), and Encelia virginensis (encelia). Patches of local dominance by Coleogyne ramosissima (blackbrush) on lower elevation desert facing slopes, or Arctostaphylos sp. (manzanita) on more interior canyons, are common.
Erigeron parishii is a small perennial herb of the aster family (Asteraceae) that reaches 1 to 3 decimeters (dm) (4 to 12 inches (in)) in height. The linear leaves are covered with soft, silvery hairs. Up to 10 solitary flower heads are borne on cauline stalks; ray flowers are deep rose to lavender, and heads have greyish green and glandular phyllaries. E. parishii was first described by Asa Gray in 1884 based on specimens collected by Samuel B. Parish in Cushenbury Canyon in 1881. E. parishii has sometimes been confused with E. utahensis, a plant found on carbonate substrates in the mountains of the Mojave Desert and in Utah, Colorado, and Arizona, but differs from the latter in the structure of the pappus and its silvery-white rather than grey-green stem.
Erigeron parishii is the most widely ranging
Peterson's remaining 300 acres of the Ranch, accessible only through the Blackhawk gates, passed through several more hands before being proposed for development in 1989. Eventually developers and Save Mount Diablo negotiated a compromise whereby 24 acres were developed and 252 additional acres, below Devil's Slide and including the lower reaches of Sycamore Canyon, were dedicated to the State Park last year.
There is no doubt, Blackhawk left its mark on the greater San Ramon Valley and Contra Costa County. Under several owners the ranch was prominent and unusual, and from 1973 to 1976 no development received more public meeting attention and newspaper headlines.
Mount Diablo State Park has grown as former Blackhawk Ranch lands have been added to the Park, beginning with sales to the State by Peterson and later with dedications from the Blackhawk Development Company as a Condition of Development of the remainder of the Ranch. Development of Blackhawk has had a tremendous effect on Contra Costa County. It has also set a precedent making common dedications of open space as a condition of development and has greatly benefited Mount Diablo State Park.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography andSources
Danville Grange Herald, Feb. 24, 1923"Historical People and Places ... in San Ramon Valley" by Virgie V Jones
Oral histories: Anthony Dehaesus, Linda Moody, Howard Peterson, Sue Watson, Andrew Young
Valley Pioneer Centennial, 1958.
Valley Pioneer: Sept. 11, 1974, July 2, 1975, Jan. 7, 1976, March 3, 1976, Sept. 8, 1976, April 22, 1979
Editor's Note: Beverly Lane is a member of the Board of Directors of the East Bay Regional Park District, a former mayor of Danville, and curator and organizer of the Museum of San Ramon Valley's exhibit last year, "City Close, Country Quiet", 1945-1985, which examined the development history of the San Ramon Valley. The exhibit included research and materials related to the history of Blackhawk.
Save Mount Diablo is planning a public dedication of the final Blackhawk acreage to be added to Mt. Diablo State Park later this year. For more information, call (925) 947-3535
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