13 replies to this topic

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

W Sagebrush is wise. 👍

[Smokecreek1]

I spent several years early in my BLM career working in the Mother Lode areas of the Sierra Nevada foothills-mining country.  Yep-one of the first things you learn in doing field work on Public Lands (or any lands for that matter) is to pay attention to all signs and learn to say yes and agree and don't argue with any miners or people working on the property.  People who hold claims tend to overtime forget that they are only using the land and that it is not theirs (yet) and it is not worth a bullet to prove your point because folks are very protective  and always on the lookout for any claim jumpers  or any others including unarmed government types wandering around. We had one rec planner that told a placer miner the area he was mining on was a  protected area and could not be mined or claimed---so the miner threw him in the Merced River ---- he  was later  indited for  assaulting a government employee. 

 

Danger signs on abandoned mines that may have reverted to federal ownership again poise another problem because of some hitch in federal law that  makes the government liable if you fall in a mine pit if they sign it, but not  if they don't sign it-never could understand the reasoning behind that rule ! So my best advise is pay attention to all signs you see out there-even if you know they are wrong-there are enough other things out there  to worry about anyway than some irate miner or land owner with a gun who believes he is right!

 

Smoke

[Taku]

Private land is private land, if public then illegally posted which is very common.

[geologyjohn]

I’d counsel being very careful around mining operations in the western U.S.

My first work related encounter with a armed crazy dude was in the Coso Mtns just east of Little Lake along Highway 395. It was 1977 and I was a young U.S. Geological Survey employee doing some seismic research in the area. I was working alone (required at that time) and driving my U.S. Gov marked Jeep well off the grid (rough grade dirt road) towards a remote entrance to the north end of China Lake Naval Weapons Center. Dropping down into some low ground near the base of a cinder cone, I encounters a weather beaten dude with an old lever action Winchester 94. He was standing in the road. He walked up to the Jeep and told me to “get”. And he was pissed off. I tried to tell him that I was a geologist going to work over the next Mtn and this was my route. He told me “not this way”. I turned the Jeep around and left. But during that brief encounter I was able to see that he had a front end loader and a dump truck. What he was doing was illegally mining the cinders from the old volcano to sell as road base, or similar use. He was on BLM land.
Over the years I had a number of other off the grid firearms related experiences, most commonly during the 1980’s while working in remote parts of Humboldt and Mendocino Counties, California. These were either small time pot growers or on occasion bigger grows, and the dudes who thought our government 4WD vehicles (and our helicopter) were part of Operation “Camp”. Campaign Against Marajuana Planting.
Bottom line, if I encounter a “No Trespassing” sign in those remote places, I pretty much pull out my map and find another route. The further off the grid you are, the less tolerant the individual on the other side of that sign seems to be.
Two other personal lessons. These might earn me some negative feedback, but here it is.
When traveling off grid in the western U.S. (especially Alaska, and the SW), I travel with firearms. Always have-always will. Secondly, I don’t go to these places with just one vehicle. “S- happens”, and having a second person and a spare vehicle might save your life.
Sorry for the long post. John