Ghost Towns
By Nancy Olson
The view from the Kilgore Gold Exploration site in Idaho’s Centennial Mountains. Photo Greater Yellowstone Coalition/Julia Barton
What’s a ghost town? It’s what’s left of a town when the ore runs out in the local mine. The ore always runs out at some point. Foreign mining companies come into communities with promises of wealth but the vast majority of that wealth goes into the mining company’s pockets and not into the local community. I lived in a mining community when the local gold mine was reopened. In the end, the ore became too expensive to extract and the mine shut down again, taking the money and the unfulfilled promises with it. That community was lucky; it had tourism, a sustainable and historic economic basis, to fall back on.
When the Canadian company first moved in, they promised jobs and money to the community. But the skilled workers were imported and only a few local residents got the menial and lowest paying jobs. Many of the nonresident workers lived on site and those that rented in town packed as many workers as they could into the rooms. A couple of them with children purchased homes in town but at such inflated rates that it drove property rates and taxes up. When those workers left, they generally sold at a loss causing housing prices to crash (but taxes remained high).
In addition, there was increased pressure on local volunteer ambulance and fire services because of an increased number of accidents. The mining company did everything it could to get out of paying local taxes and only agreed to donate to the fire and ambulance services after extensive arm-twisting. There was an increase in traffic on the dirt roads leading to the mine, costing the county more in road maintenance. Excessive alcohol and drug use became a problem for law enforcement, as did prostitution. The mine was in the middle of prime elk habitat so conflicts over hunting (an important source of income in the community) and access arose. There were constant concerns about safety in the tunnels. In one instance, there was a forest fire above an active tunnel, but the mine supervisors didn’t tell the miners. The miners only found out about it when smoke started pouring down the ventilation ducts. The miners were ok but at least one person quit, saying that the company did not take the workers’ health and safety seriously. Much of the “cooperation” of the mining company came after threats, both implied and actual, of lawsuits if they didn’t put a little money into addressing the stresses the mine was putting on the local infrastructure.
A road bisecting pristine public lands at the Kilgore Gold Exploration site. Photo Greater Yellowstone Coalition/Julia Barton
Mining regulations have come a long way from the days when mining companies could get away with raping the land for minerals and leaving Superfund sites in their wake. But following all these rules and regulations eats away at the company’s profits and gives them motive to circumvent the laws if they think they can get away with it. Environmental concerns were always present. While hunting near the mine, we found a pipe with foul smelling grey sludge oozing out of it. We reported it; the sludge was investigated by the Environmental Protection Agency and found to be non-toxic despite the smell (it was basically mud from deep in the earth) but the company was fined for improperly disposing of it. If they had been allowed to get away with that, who knows what would have been next.
Today, the mining company is gone. After the Forest Service refused the land, the company placed the uncontaminated land under a conservation easement with recreational access, then sold it and the contaminated land cheap. Because of the nasty chemicals used to separate gold from rock, the huge tailings piles remain in containment vaults to prevent contamination of creeks and rivers (a Blue-Ribbon trout fishery) and will need to be inspected for cracks and tested for toxicity for at least another 25 years by the new owners. No one knows how earthquake-proof these vaults really are. As one local resident described it - “short-term gains with long-term consequences”.
I don’t know much about the proposed mine near Kilgore or the Canadian company that’s proposing it, but having a local “watchdog” group that has the long-term best interests of the community and the environment at heart, one that’s not motivated by profits, and is willing to “put their money where their mouth is” and sue, if necessary, to make sure things are done properly, that’s a really, really good thing. Because one thing’s for sure: a foreign mining company isn’t going to give a d--- about the local community.