Sick at Heart

by Shawn Hamilton

As a teenager I spent summers on property abutting the historical Sugarloaf Mine at Cherokee, which an out-of-state company proposes to reopen in order to mine silica. My happy memories of that location include swimming and swinging from rope swings every summer in a lovely pond overlooking tbe site. After swimming, we kids would often walk into the mine and sun ourselves among the manzanita on the eroded, quartz-rich mounds. Sometimes we would venture through the mine to the aqueduct, where we explored a solid rock mining tunnel that goes deep into Table Mountain.

We fished in the pond--caught big bass. There is a period each summer evening when a warm hush falls over everything. Dragonflies appear, occasional bats, and cattails rustle in the breeze. Occasionally coyotes sing, and fish flop on the water.

It is magical.

I am heartsick because I've learned that a company called Advanced Mineral Technology (AMT) plans to transform the paradise of my youth into a sandbox! I am saddened, outraged, and, frankly, puzzled. They plan to mine sand?

I had no idea sand's value had increased enough to make such a mining effort profitable. Previous efforts failed because they couldn't find enough gold. Even if the company's sole intention is to mine sand, the operation will. adversely affect the local taxpayers living there and damage indigenous flora and fauna. I hope those of you in power are wise enough to care.

A magnificent ecosystem exists here! It has evolved since the former hydraulic mining operation closed decades ago due to the environmental damage it inflicted. I've seen paw prints of cougars in mud near the stream, bear scat, raccoons, opossums, bobcats, deer, hawks, eagles, and a thriving collection of trees, including pine, oak, madrone.

Besides destroying this natural wilderness preserve, this company's operation threatens the physical and psychological well-being of those living near it. Silicosis, a horrible disease, is one of the more obvious maladies we can expect. It results from inhaling the kind of fine dust particles that such a mining operation would produce. Spring Valley Elementary School is less than a mile away, and many local residents live right next to the proposed site. A sand mine would also subject residents to Waco-inspired psychological torture, including bright strobe lights every night and incessant scraping, beeping, banging, clanging, crashing, and crushing noises. That is cruelty! Are you in power considering the effect this operation will have on these people who elected you?

The United States purports to be a nation that values individual liberty, but if a corporation can waltz into residents' backyards and disrupt their lives for crass economic gain, then I suggest it's time to abandon our lofty notions of "freedom" as empty rhetoric and adopt a more realistic paradigm. If corporations rule, and it's increasingly. apparent that they do, we should quit this charade of pretending that we're "free" and learn to better coexist with tyranny. This mining proposal has helped me, a Caucasian, to realize the truth about crimes my race has perpetrated on indigenous populations and itself. Now I can sense what it's like to have the land you grew with desecrated and defiled because of unknown others' selfish love for money.

I see now that we can't relegate white culture's tradition of conquest and exploitation to the pages of past history. Our unfortunate "tradition" continues through present policies. This mine proposal serves as an enlightening example of how economic concerns can overshadow spiritual values.

I urge all parties involved in the Sugarloaf Mine issue, especially those of you in power, to contemplate these larger values when making crucial decisions. Consider the parties that would suffer because of this mine, the residents, the plants and animals, and the indigenous people whose ancestors' bones rest in these hills.

You should not take these considerations lightly.

This column originally appeared in May 31, 2001 in the Chico Examiner.