GENERAL37090

• Permit No: M1977211
• IBM Index Class Name: General Documents
• Doc Name: RECLAMING THREE QUARRIES NEAR COLO SPRINGS COLO A COMMUNITY PROJECT
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

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RECLAIIvIING THREE QUARRIES NEAR COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO:
A COMMUNITY PROJECT
Fred R. Banta
Member of the Boazd of Directors
Colorado Mountain Reclamation Foundation
P.O. Box 6327
Colorado Springs, CO 80934-6327
Presented at the High Altitude Revegetation Workshop
Fort Collins, Colorado
March 8, 2000
Acknowledgement: This paper is based upon material gathered or produced by the Colorado
Mountain Reclamation Foundation and Castle Concrete Company. The author wants to thank
Wanda L. Reaves, Project Manager and member of the Board of Directors of the Colorado
Mountain Reclamation Foundatioq and writer Mary Jo Meade for their work and assistance in
preparing this case study. The author also wants to thank Chips Barry, a fellow board member,
for providing comments on the draft, and Castle Concrete Company and Mark Heffner, an
ecologist and consultant for Castle Concrete Company. Mr. Heffner has worked with the
company for many years and provided much of the technical and background information
presented in this paper.
ABSTRACT
For nearly fifty years the Queens Canyoq Pikeview and Snyder quames have been at the center
of public controversy in Colorado Springs, Colorado and El Paso County. Many citizens believe
that the highly visible quarries adversely affect the scenic quality of the Colorado Springs
foothills. Over the years the quarries have provided native stone to build the Air Force Academy,
the Colorado Springs airport and much of the residential and commercial development in and
around the city. As the community grew, so did the quames. In the early 1990's a remarkable
community effort was initiated to develop visual objectives for the reclamation of the quames
and to recapture the scenic quality of the disturbed Land. The effort involved city, county and
state governments, community groups, local businesses, private citizens and Castle Concrete
Company, the owner of the quames. Funds for the project were generated from both public and
private sources. The objective has been to blend the visual appearance of the quarries with the
less disturbed surrounding landscape. After nearly ten years, a significant amount of this work
has been completed by Castle Concrete and hundreds, if not thousands, of volunteers.
INTRODUCTION
The adverse visual affect of various types of development upon Colorado's Frout Range has been
an issue for many years. Quarries that have provided materials to support the development have
been singled out as adversely affecting the scenic backdrops of F;ont Range communities. The
Queens Canyoq Pikeview and Snyder quarries near Colorado Springs in El Paso County are one
such group of quarries. They have been the focus of considerable controversy since the 1950s.
After visiting Colorado Springs in 1966, Secretary of Ure Interior Stewart Udall noted that it was
"the city with the scar." And at drat point the controversy became known as "the mountain scars