E-mail this article to a friend | Printer friendly format | Submit A Comment

By June Woods - the madera tribune

Courtesy U.S. Bureau of Land Managment Mine shafts and tunnels in the Quartz Mountain area were outfitted with bat gates last week to keep people out but allow bats and other wildlife continued use.

Photo by: For The Madera Tribune

The State of California Office of Mine Reclamation, in partnership with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, completed the closure of seven hazardous mine tunnels and shafts in the Quartz Mountain area on Thursday.

Quartz Mountain, which is about 22 miles northeast of Madera, was one of several foothill gold mines first developed in the 1870s. In this century, the site became a popular place for novices and mineral enthusiasts to collect quartz crystals.

Gregg Wilkerson, geologist in BLM's Bakersfield Field Office, said BLM found that some of the workings were being used by bats, so in order to protect the habitat for them, they put bat gates up that allow the bats to go in and out but keep the people outside.

The area has been under lease by the Yosemite school district for the past seven years, and it was the potential development of the land by the school district that put the mine shafts and tunnels on BLM's most urgent list. Currently there are not development plans, however.

A fence had been placed around the site to try to restrict public access Wilkerson said, but it is public land. "People go up there all the time to ride their motorcycles and dump their trash," he said. "Some folks still go up there to prospect for gold and quartz crystals.

"They can go on the land," he said, "but our preference is that they don't until we get the school situation finalized."

The Quartz Mountain area hasn't had any large mining operations since before World War II. "The metal clubs used to go up there a couple times a year and go into those old tunnels and hunt for quartz crystals," said Wilkerson. And it's not impossible for them to do so in the future.

"They can still go to a lot of places up there. I suppose if the metal club really wanted to, they could ask for the key and get permission to go in the back gates."

He said they could even make a proposal to reopen the shaft. "They're closed permanently in a sense, but they can always be reopened if they (petitioners) go through the proper channels. They can't stake any claims, though, because there is that lease there."

Wilkerson said that untrained and unqualified persons could be injured or killed by falling into the mine shafts, being hit by debris dropping from the ceilings of the old tunnels, or asphyxiated due to oxygen-deficient atmospheres. People die every year in mine accidents.

Wilkerson said BLM has no plans to close off any of the other mines. "We've pretty much done all the dangerous ones (in Madera County) that people could get to," he said.

June Woods Copy Editor The Madera Tribune online subscription To subscribe or log on, CLICK HERE. For more information first, CLICK HERE.