Laserfiche WebLink
<br />4.16 <br /> <br /> <br />POST MINING LAND USE <br />ABANDONMENT OF THE BLUE FLAME COAL MINE <br />Specific details of the abandonment of the mine are discussed previously. <br />This is part of the reclamation plan. The purpose of the reclamation plan <br />itself is`to prepare the mined land permit area for a useful and needed post <br />mining land use. <br /> ORIGINAL LAND USE <br /> <br /> ' Old time residents and historical records (reviewed at the Durango Public <br /> <br /> Library) describe the original land of the Hay Gulch area which includes the <br /> Blue Flame Coal Mine site as open rangeland used exclusively for grazing cattle ; <br /> or livestock and as a habitat for animals and plants native to Southwet Colo- <br /> rado. During the late eighteen hundreds, the Hay Gulch area was discovered to ~ <br />I <br />• hold large quantities of bituminous coal. Numerous small family mine)r pm s- + <br />;;,'•'.I <br /> pered in this area until natural gas and oil began replacing coal as,the pri- M• <br /> >-d. <br /> many fuel during the late nineteen thirties. Nevertheless, coal conti~ued to i,;•1. <br /> be mined in Hay Gulch for local, domestic needs up to the present time. Only , <br /> ,~~ <br /> in recent years have some of the family-operated mines come under the control <br /> ,,.7 <br /> of independent coal companies. Blue Flame Coal Mine was first worked by Vernon <br /> Cason in the early 1940's. He mined the majority of the coal that has been <br /> extracted and in 1960 and 1961 leased the mine to the present owner, Fidel <br /> Lobato. Mr. Lobato bought the mine in ]962 and worked it in the winters until <br /> approximately eight years ago, when he began extracting only enough for his own <br /> use. <br /> <br />-^, <br />. ~y <br />