August 8, 2008
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By MARK GLOVER Marathon News Leader MARATHON
– After seven months, Buddy Cavness finally got his commercial
water-operating permit approved by the Brewster County Groundwater District
during a regular meeting at the Courthouse Monday. The
Cavness well at his residence on Airport Road South will be limited to about
nine million gallons of water pumped per year. Rule
5.1 in the Water Districts regulations limits water production to non-exempt
wells – wells not pumping for home or agricultural use – based on acreage
owned by the operator. The
Cavness well on Airport Road South is on approximately 20 acres. “I’ll
pump what’s allowed, until I lease other water rights,” Cavness said at the
meeting. Another
well, located across the road from Connie Brooks on Highway 385 near the
county line, was brought to the attention of the board members by several
attending members of the public. The
operators of the well have evidently been pumping and exporting water without
permit. The
water is apparently being sold commercially and used at the Piñon Gas Field
in Pecos County. “It
wouldn’t bother me so much if I didn’t have to drive by it every day,” Cavness
said.” Mike
Davidson, acting water board President since the resignation of Tom Beard, suggested
that a letter be written to the operators of the well informing them of their
requirement to register the water export activity with the water district. Provisions
in the water district regulations allow the board to fine the well operators
up to $10,000 a day for each day they operate without permit. Permitted
pumping rates were also discussed during the meeting. ALPINE
– “Make Tacos, Not War” is the theme of the keynote speaker at the Way out
West Texas Book Festival here tomorrow, Aug. 9. Denise
Chavez of Las Cruces, NM, will speak after opening remarks by Festival
Co-Chair Arlene Griffis at 9 a.m. in Rooms A and B of the Espino Conference
Center on the Sul Ross State University campus. The
event begins at 7 p.m. today, Aug. 8, with a Chuckwagon Barbecue and Songfest
at Kokernot Lodge and Grounds on Loop Road. Author,
singer and songwriter Mike Blakely will perform. A silent auction will start the activities
tomorrow in Room C of the conference center. Elmer
Kelton, Blakely, David Carlton and Bob Kinford will be on a panel of western
fiction writers and Joe Nick Patoski will speak on his book, “Willie Nelson:
An Epic Life” to round out the morning events. The
afternoon session includes humorist Sarah Bird, a panel on poetry with Bobby
Bird, Benjamin Saenz and Larry Thomas and a discussion of Texas Rangers by
Joaquin Jackson, Sharon Spinks and Mike Cox. A
discussion on Big Bend will feature William MacLeon, Roy Morey and James
Evans. Lee
Merrill Byrd and Bobby Byrd will discuss border publishing and the day ends
with Tim McKenzie discussing children’s literature. Gubernatorial
candidate and entertainer Kinky Friedman will be the speaker at the Grand
Finale Dinner in which all featured authors will be recognized. Proceeds
will benefit the Alpine Public Library and its Marathon branch. Public
Christmas Mountain access seen STUDY
BUTTE – A draft agreement between Terlingua Ranch near here and the Texas
General Land Office could give the public access to the Christ-mas Mountains. Terlingua
Ranch General Manager Alida Loria told the News Leader this week that
the agreement is just a draft but, if approved, the mountain range north of
Big Bend National Park would be accessible to the public through her development. Access
would not be limited to Terlingua Ranch property owners. “Commissioner
[Jerry] Patterson [of the Land Office] wants to open it to the public,” she
said. The
GLO acquired an easement from Big Bend National Park in April, allowing
public access to the property. But
it involved a rugged, four-mile hike from the nearest park road to get to the
property. Patterson
said in April he was working to provide public access to the mountain property. The
draft agreement, if approved, would not allow vehicular traffic of any kind
to the range, including four-wheel-drive vehicles, but hiking and horseback
access could include a scenic outlook that provides vistas as far as northern
Mexico. “There
is a wonderful old road that goes up into the Christmas Mountains into section
91 that leads to an over- look,” she said. “It
is actually at the top of cliffs that provides a view of Big Bend National
Park, Santa Elena Canyon, the canyons of Mexico, Mules Ears, the Window and
west to Lajitas,” Loria said. “It’s an incredible view.” The
draft agreement has a provision that preclude “hunting” in its proposed uses. But
it also limits what hunting is allowed to bows and arrows, black powder
muzzle loaders and shotguns. Loria
said hunting is completely under the control of the state. Hunters
would be requested to register at Terlingua Ranch but only so the state can
keep up with the activity. The
resort facility at Terlingua Ranch, “despite its temporary closing, gives a
perfect public access” to the mountains, Loria said. The
ranch lodge will be closed from Sept. 2 to “early 2009,” partly because of
“budget issues,” she said. “We
are going to take this as an opportunity to do some very necessary
maintenance on property itself,” she said. Having
access to the Christmas Mountain property through the ranch can be a win-win
for all parties, Loria said. “The
potential good for the POA (property owners association) would be increased
occupancy, increased revenues and, you would think, land values,” she said. A
Land Office spokesman said they could not comment on the draft agreement
until it is approved. “It is just a
draft,” public affairs officer Jim Suydam said. But he did provide a copy of
the draft agreement. Archaeologist publishes
article ALPINE – John D. Seebach, project archaeologist at Sul Ross
State University’s Center for Big Bend Studies, recently published a paper in
American Antiquity, the leading journal for archaeological scholarship
in the US. Seebach and two colleagues co-authored “Spatial Variability in
the Folson Archaeological Record: A Multi-Scalar Approach.” Brian N. Andrews of Rogers State University and Jason M. LaBelle
of Colorado State University collaborated with Seebach. The paper questions leading models of landscape use and mobility
among Folsom foragers from 10,850 to 10,200 BP by looking at site size, the
number of artifacts found per site and the evidence for site reoccupation. The “BP” is for “before present,” a system of dating used by
some disciplines. Current conceptions of Folsom adaptation hold that these
hunter-gatherers were highly mobile, moving great distances at a near
constant pace, in pursuit of bison. The authors’ findings, however, suggest that Folsom peoples were
not as mobile and that they occupied certain areas for much longer periods of
time than expected. More fundamentally, they question the role of bison in shaping
movement across the landscape. Instead, they believe more stable resources such as water, wood
and stone for tool production were paramount, or at the very least, equally
important as bison herds in shaping the Folsom way of life. MARFA
-- Dr. Justin Badgerow, Sul Ross State University assistant professor of
music, will perform a benefit piano concert here Saturday, Aug. 16. Badgerow will play the music of Mozart, Chopin, Glass and
Radiohead at 7 p.m. in the Goode Crowley Theatre. Admission is $7 per person and all proceeds benefit Marfa Public
Radio KTRS. Sul
Ross commencement tomorrow ALPINE – Sul Ross State University’s summer commencement
exercises will be at 10 a.m. tomorrow, Aug. 9, in the Pete P. Gallego Center
on the Alpine Campus. A total of 125 students are candidates for degrees, 84 at Alpine
and 41 from Rio Grande College. State Rep. Pete P. Gallego will deliver the keynote address
during the Alpine ceremony. Visiting lecturer Stephen M. Bennack will play the processional,
“Pomp and Circumstance,” and the recessional, “Hornpipe.” Associate Professor of Communication Dr. Esther Rumsey will be
the mace bearer and Professor of Chemistry Dr. Avinash Rangra and Professor
of Political science Dr. Dale Christophersen will serve as marshals. Sul Ross President Dr. R. Vic Morgan will deliver the welcome
and confer the degrees. Dora G. Alcala, a member of the Board of Regents of the Texas
State University System, will introduce Rep. Gallego. Dr. David Cockrum, provost and vice president for Academic and
Student Affairs, will announce recognitions and honors. Dick Zimmer, director of the Wesley Student Center, will deliver
the invocation. Associate Professor of Music Dr. Donald Freed will lead the
singing of “God Bless America” and “Alma Mater.” ALPINE – Contemporary Literary Criticism, the world’s leading
resource for information on modern literature, has selected an article by Sul
Ross State University faculty member Dr. Barney Nelson for inclusion in
Volume 251. The article, “Dana Gioia is Wrong about Cowboy Poetry,” was
originally published in the Western American Literature journal in 2006. Gioia, a poet, literary critic and director of the National
Endowment for the Arts since 2003, has brought extensive attention to cowboy
poetry through his own articles on the subject. Nelson is an associate professor of English at Sul Ross. Nelson’s article challenges some of Gioia's ideas and summarizes
their differences. As a result of the original article and its republication in
CLC, Nelson has also been invited to contribute a chapter on cowboy poetry
for a new Blackwell Publishing Companion to the Literature and Culture of the
American West, scheduled for publication in 2010. Blackwell Companions are advertised as “Extensive volumes that
provide new perspectives and positions on contexts and canonical and
post-canonical texts, orientating the beginning student in new fields of
study and providing the experienced undergraduate and new graduate with
current and new directions, as pioneered and developed by leading scholars in
the field.” “Although I take Gioia to task a little bit, he has done a
wonderful service to rural Western America by providing his own pen in
support of the study of cowboy poetry," Nelson said. “He’s truly been a
leader in providing new directions for scholarship in literary criticism.” The Blackwell edition will be edited by Nicolas Witschi, current
president of the Western Literature Association, and chair of the English
department at Western Michigan University. Nelson has also published “Every Educated Feller Ain’t a Plumb Greenhorn: Cowboy Poetry’s Polyvocal Narrator,” in the journal Heritage of the Great Plains in 2000, and edited a volume of cowboy poetry, “Here’s to the Vinegarroon!” published locally by Bill Brooks as Territorial Printers in 1989. The
annual back-to-school state “tax holiday” will be next weekend, Aug. 15 to
17, to help parents stretch their budgets for school supplies. The
“No Tax Weekend” will allow shoppers to save the sales tax on items students
will need for the new school year. To
allow lifeguards, many of whom are school students, the Bicentennial Park
Swimming Pool will be closed Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 16 and 17. Many
of the lifeguards are also football players or cheerleaders so the pool will
also be closed on Friday, Aug. 22 for a scrimmage at Imperial. “We
had one of the best groups of lifeguards ever this year,” Pool Superintendent
Mike Sanchez said. “They did a really super job.” The
pool will open Saturday, Aug. 23, for the final day of the year. The
tax holiday law exempts most clothing and footwear priced under $100 from
sales and use taxes, which could save shoppers about $8 on every $100 they
spend. Backpacks
under $100 and used by elementary and secondary students are also exempt. Lay-away
plans also can be used to take advantage of the sales tax holiday. |
“Pumping
limits should be connected to aquifer recharge rates,” Big Bend National Park
hydrologist Jeff Bennett said. “Marathon gets 12 inches of annual rainfall.
The recharge rate is four to five percent.” The
use of transducers at the wellhead to monitor static water levels in Marathon
was also discussed. “If
it’s a data collection effort, great. You need more data,” Bennett said. AUSTIN
– The Texas Education Agency has rated Marathon schools “recognized” for the
second year in a row, the agency announced last week. Last
year, the school jumped two places from a “poor performing” rating the year before. The
state’s second highest rating category was only achieved by 26 percent of the
state’s 1,100 school districts. “That’s
two years in a row that we are a recognized school district,” MISD
Superintendent Conrad Arriola said. “We put together a good academic program
here. “The
teachers are doing the right thing and the students are stepping up,” he
said. “You can feel it in the classrooms.” Marathon
and Sanderson were two of eight districts in the 36 districts of Region 18 to
be recognized. “The
bottom line is we were very close to being exemplary,” Arriola said. An
“exemplary” rating is the highest rating a school district can achieve in the
four-grade system. Sanderson Elementary received an “exemplary” rating this
year. Sixty-six
per cent of Texas schools were “acceptable.” In 1993, the Texas Legislature mandated the creation of
the Texas public school accountability system to rate school districts and
evaluate campuses. The 1993 system remained in place through the 2001-02
school year. The ratings issued in 2002 were the last under that system. Beginning in 2003, a new assessment, the Texas
Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test, was administered. The school ratings are based on the results of those
tests. Schools can be rated exemplary, recognized,
academically acceptable or academically unacceptable. The state can impose sanctions on schools ranked unacceptable
but it usually gives them a few years to get up to speed. The
Marathon School Board will meet at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 20. Doug
Karr, financial consultant for most of Region 18’s school districts will address
the MISD board on budgetary items. The
first day of school for MISD’s 2008-09 scholastic year will start Monday,
Aug. 25. Enrollment is expected to be about 50 students. Teachers
will report back to school on Monday, Aug. 18. visit
library MARATHON
– Artist Mary Baxter and photographer Luc Novovitch, both of Marathon,
visited the Marathon Public Library this week. They
showed children attending the Summer Reading Program how to do photo paper
art. The
youngsters put objects on paper and placed it in the sun for two minutes.
Then the paper went into a water bath to bring out the designs. “The
children really enjoyed the art project,” Librarian Carol Townsend
said. Jackie
Boyd read “Jalapeño Hal” by Jo Harper this week. The
22 attendees colored pictures, photo art papers and decorated cookies. Shirley’s
Burnt Biscuit made Jalapeno cookies for the children to decorate. “We
wish to thank Don for all his hard work and donating the cookies,” Townsend
said. “They were very good. The
End of Summer Reading Party was yesterday at the Baptist Hall. “Marathon
Public Library is a great little library with wonderful community support,”
Townsend said. ALBUQUERQUE
– The US Army Corps of Engineers has rejected all bids received for the
construction of the 6.1 miles of concrete and steel barrier along the
US-Mexico border requested by the US Border Patrol for the city of Presidio. The
wall was to be constructed about three miles up and down river from the
existing International Bridge. Sources
said the bids were “too high” and that contractors would be requested to
re-bid at a later date. The
Bush Administration will leave power on Jan 21, 2009. The narrow window to
build and complete such a wall in that time makes it unlikely that the
administration will pursue border wall construction at Presidio. However,
Bill Brooks, spokesman for the Marfa Sector of the US Border Patrol said it will
happen. “The
construction has been mandated by Congress,” he said. “I’m all for the wall,” Terlingua resident
Dan Terlitz said. “The more money the federal government wastes, the sooner
we hit rock bottom and the sooner we hit rock bottom the sooner we can start
to make changes in this country.” By CHUCK HALL Culture Artist The
ultimate in energy independence is to live without electricity, just as humankind
did for thousands of years before Thomas Edison came along. Some
groups, like the Amish, have always lived without electricity. Others
“dropped out” in the 1970s during the “back to nature” movement. Still
more have come to more recent decisions to live off-the-grid without
electricity. Today it’s called “homesteading.” Why
on earth would anyone want to live without the modern convenience of electricity? Marci
Lilly of the High Lonesome Ranch in Birch River, WV, explained. “Living
without electricity is actually a lot easier than most people think,” she
said. “How can I not have TV or the blender, mixer, lights? “Well,
many people still choose to live without all the hassle, electric bills,
etc.,” Lilly said. “And life actually becomes easier, slower, even more
serene. You go to bed earlier, so you get up earlier in the morning. “We
lived for over five years without electricity and had very little
adjustment,” she said. “We never even missed TV. “But
it probably takes a week before the habit of switching it on diminishes,”
Lilly said. “Just think of the silence – sometimes that takes getting used
to.” I
know from my own personal history that living without electricity puts you
into a whole other world of experience. I
lived without electric pow-er for nearly a year back in the late 1990s. After
a while, you realize just how annoying all these electronic gadgets can be. Without
a television or computer or a video game to distract you, you begin to notice
the world around you. You
pay attention to the details. You learn to listen to the silence. Living
without electricity doesn’t have to mean living a life of austere asceticism.
Don’t
forget, ancient Rome’s palaces didn't have electricity. Nor did the palaces
of all the kings and queens of Europe in days gone by. It
is quite possible to live a life of luxury without electricity. The secret
lies in learning the alternatives to electric appliances. For
one example, let’s look at refrigeration. Think about that big
energy-guzzling appliance in your kitchen. It’s
there to preserve food but could there be another way to do so? Could
there be several alternatives to food preservation by refrigeration that have
stood the test of time? The answer, of course, is yes. If
you are a vegetarian, you can preserve most of your food by learning how to
do home canning or by storing it in a root cellar or by drying it on a line
in the sun or in a solar-powered food dehydrator. Do
you eat meat? Then a backyard smokehouse can add flavor to your meats while
preserving them. I
can still remember my grandfather’s smokehouse and strings of dried apple
slices strung across my grandmother’s kitchen. Sometimes
the old technologies are the best technologies. These
tried-and-true methods worked for the human race for centuries before
refrigerators came along. If
you don’t want to give up the convenience of refrigeration just yet, there
are solar-powered fridges. Vegas
Trailer makes one, designed for use in a travel trail-er. It could just as
easily be used in an electricity-free cabin or home, assuming you can get by
with a small fridge. For
more information, visit www.vegastrailer.com/sundanzer. Over
the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at creative alternatives to on-the-grid
living. It
could be that the Ecotopia of the future won’t rely on fossil fuels or other
polluting energy sources at all. Only
time will tell. Chuck
Hall's latest book, “Invasion of the Vegans!”
will be available at the Culture Artist website at www.cultureartist.org
later this year. You may contact Chuck by email at chuck@cultureartist.org. ALPINE – US Rep. Ciro Rodriguez will be honored at a private
breakfast Wednesday, Aug. 13, at Sul Ross State University. Rodriguez, who represents Texas’ 23rd Congressional District,
will be recognized for his support of higher education and service to Sul
Ross. His support has been instrumental in the award of several grants
to the school, including the US Department of Agriculture grant to conduct research
of freshwater resources in the Rio Grande Watershed. The research is conducted through the Rio Grande Research Center
at Sul Ross with collaboration from researchers from four other universities
within the Texas State University System, Texas State San Marcos, Lamar
University at Beaumont, Angelo State University and Sam Houston State
University at Huntsville. Rodriguez also has supported funding for GEARUP, Upward Bound
and TRIO programs at Sul Ross. at
Sul Ross ALPINE
– When Ryan Zent walks across the stage tomorrow, Aug. 9, to receive his degree
at Sul Ross State University, he will continue a tradition begun in the 1940s
by his great grandparents. Zent,
of Tucson, will receive a Master of Business Administration degree during Sul
Ross State University's summer commencement, the fourth generation of his
family to complete his education under the Bar-SR-Bar. Actually,
Zent became the fourth generation in 2007 when he received his Bachelor of
Business Administration degree. His
parents, Gary and Gracie Vee McMillan Zent, are 1977 graduates. His grandfather,
Wylie McMillan, completed his degree in 1955 and Ryan’s great-grandparents,
Elmos A. and Betty Odessa McMillan, began the tradition in the 1940s. The
elder McMillans, who taught in Eldorado, spent several summers and received
master’s degrees from Sul Ross. In
addition, the Sul Ross educational tree branched out for both sides of the family.
Ryan’s
uncle, Jeff Zent, received a bachelor's degree. Wylie
McMillan's sister, Betty Jean, and brother, Elmer, both received master’s degrees. Ryan’s
aunt, Vickie McMillan Wilson, received a bachelor’s degree in 1985 and a master’s
degree in 1987. Her husband, Dave, director of the Big Bend Region Minority
Small Business Development Center at Sul Ross, also holds two degrees from
1980 and 1987. Ryan
Zent learned about Sul Ross as a small boy, coming to visit his grandparents,
Wylie and Prudella McMillan, at least once a summer. Wylie
McMillan, after a lengthy career with NASA that included living in Bermuda,
Florida, New Mexico and El Paso, returned to Alpine to help his wife manage
her Hudspeth County ranch. “I
think it’s a good university and it has served my family and me very well,”
said Wylie McMillan. Despite
the family legacy, Ryan first attended Pima Community College in Tucson, then
Arizona State University before transferring to Sul Ross in the fall of 2005. “I
didn’t really decide what I wanted to do at first,” he said. “I studied
construction management at Pima Community College, then transferred to ASU to
study aeronautical engineering. “I
had my pilot's license and I thought I wanted to build airplanes,” he said. When
he changed his mind, he also changed universities. “I
decided I wanted to be more involved with flying airplanes than building
them, so I came here to get a business degree,” Zent said. “Ultimately, it
was family that brought me to Sul Ross. I came here once or twice a year to
visit, so I grew up loving Alpine. “I
also received a scholarship from the Sul Ross Alumni Association that helped
me afford the out-of-state tuition,” he said. He
has savored his Sul Ross experience and plans to go into real estate
appraisal business here after graduation.
“I have loved the education I have been able to receive,” Ryan said. “I made a lot great friends, both with students and my professors. “Alpine
just carries with it everything I enjoy and like to do, the people, the outdoors
and the airport,” Ryan
Zent’s graduation will not end family involvement, however. The
Wilson’s son, Tyler, will continue the Sul Ross tradition as a member of this
year’s incoming freshman class. |
“We’re
looking for people to volunteer to have their wells monitored,” Davidson
said. “Wells in Marathon, like the Gage Garden well. That’s a big well.” By MARK GOVER Marathon News Leader MARATHON
– Stacked with speakers from around the country and 20 plus vendors hawking
their environmentally-friendly wares, the Fourth Annual “Living with Nature”
festival drew a sizeable crowd here last weekend. “The
numbers aren’t official yet but we had at least 100 paying people on Saturday,”
Kate Thayer of Eve’s Garden Organic Bed and Breakfast and Ecology Resource
Center said. “It
might be Marathon’s signature event of the year and future,” former Marathon
Chamber of Commerce president Neil Chavigny said. Bennett
Jones, this year’s chairman of the event, was pleased with the turn-out. “I
think we did well,” he said. While
occasional guitars hummed and the shrieks of children carried near the Bounce
Castle in the August air, an array of speakers in both the Marathon Community
Center and the Parish Hall at St. Mary’s Catholic Church kept festival
attendees saturated in green lifestyle discussions. Home
power dominated this year’s energy talk with lectures on solar cell
technology, passive solar design, solar and wind combinations, wind generators
and geothermal tubes for home heating and cooling, but rainwater harvesting,
solid waste management, recumbent biking, organic gardening and the virtues
of Yoga were also well represented. Alternative
fuels for personal transport were discussed in several lectures including
hydrogen, natural gas and hybrid designs.
Representatives
of UT Austin’s Bloom House were on hand to discuss their “Solar Decathlon” philosophy
as well as green building techniques. The
biggest applause of the day, however, may have been given to the dancers of
Dance Tahiti, led by Dr. Kareva Mulholland of Terlingua. Reviva
Collective organized Saturday’s music and offered community building skills
and tips at their booth. The
Marathon Elementary School booth was well stocked with organic vegetables
from the school’s garden. “It’s
the best way to cure the country’s diabetes problem,” Thayer said. “Teach the
children to raise vegetables.” Blue
Water Natural Foods, the main sponsor of the event, sells locally-grown produce
at its Alpine store and gives 100 percent of the proceeds to the farmer. Thayer,
together with her partner Clyde Curry, sponsored Friday’s cocktail reception
at their bed and breakfast said, “Everything
I prepared was not only vegan but also organic,” she said. “I couldn’t have
done that a year ago. Besides my garden, we now have other sources in the
area for organic produce.” Proceeds
from the festival will be donated to the new Brewster County Library. By MARK GLOVER Marathon News Leader SHAFTER
– Aurcana Corp. of Vancouver, BC, has completed the purchase of the Shafter
Silver Mine and expects to commence mining in 2010 after engineering modifications
are completed. Aurcana officers met
with about 25 Shafter residents in a series of meetings last week with groups
of three to six to discuss the impact that the new corporate neighbor will
have on the town’s residents. “Disturbance of
lifestyle played a big part in the discussions,” mining engineer and Aurcana
Vice President of Operations Andy Nichols said. “Water [supply] was their top
concern, followed by dust, noise, jobs, etc.” The mine has supplied
most of Shafter’s residents with water for many years. The water is sourced
from one of the mine’s flooded shafts. “We plan to drill a
new well on the east side of the Highway [67] and continue to supply water to
the town,” Nichols said. Ten-year Shafter
resident Angela Perea attended one of the meetings. “They said the present
water had been tested and was safe but that they would drill another well at
their expense and continue to supply water to the town,” Perea said. “Water
pressure has always been a problem here. “Good water pressure
would be fine but I think I can safely say that many in the town were hoping
the deal wouldn’t go through,” Perea said. “This has been a quiet little town
and that’s why most people moved here.” All that quiet is
likely to change once the company commences operation. Aurcana plans to
operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with two 12-hour shifts on the
milling operation and two 10-hour shifts for underground mining. “They talked about
building a ramp to put the jaw-crusher underground, to make it quieter,”
Shafter resident Brenda Worsham said. “But they also said they’d have to
raise the money to build the ramp.” The jaw-crusher
reduces the ore from large chunks to two- inch pieces by crushing the earth
with powerful steel jaws. Not
only does Aurcana intend to pulverize the raw ore to small pieces but they
also plan to process it and produce silver dore on site, a 98 percent pure
silver product. An
ore processing mill, capable of refining 900 tons of ore per day is already
at the mine. The
dore will then be shipped by armored car to another location where the final
two percent of silica and quartz impurities will be removed to make silver
bullion. Aurcana
President Ken Booth said the company plans to produce three million troy
ounces of bullion per year, which will require processing approximately
325,000 tons of ore. The
sequence for converting ore to silver dore includes a chemical leeching
process where the ore is agitated in a bath of cyanide. Cyanide
is a deadly poison and its handling is regulated by the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality. “We’re
a responsible mining company and members of the International Cyanide
Manage-ment Code,” Nichols said. “Outside third-party auditors are involved
in the process and they expect much beyond what the law requires. The cyanide
is recovered at the end of the leeching and only small parts per million show
up in the tailings.” According
to the Blacksmith Institute, five of the ten most polluted places on the
planet are mining sites where heavy metal ore processing takes place. None
of the five sites is in the United States. “They
didn’t sugar coat it, although they did have soft drinks and snacks at the
meeting. They told us what they planned to do,” Perea said. “They were nice
people. But I wondered if it really mattered what I or anybody at the meeting
had to say. I mean, they’re going to do it anyway, right?” “We
asked them, what’s in it for us,” Worsham said. “And they said, ‘jobs.’ Well
most of us are not interested in working 1,000 feet under-ground, shoveling
dirt or whatever they do down there. “They
said something about the infant mortality rate in Africa going up when mining
companies were not allowed to mine,” Worsham said. “As if jobs provide
vitamins and health care.” Shafter
silver deposits were discovered in 1882 by John Spencer, a soldier in the US Army
who was stationed in the region. He
convinced William R. Shafter to purchase the land where the discovery was
made. Mining
expertise was brought in from San Francisco. In 1890 a smelter was
con-structed in Cibolo Creek just downstream from present day Shafter to
process not only silver but also lead. At
that time, mercury was used to separate the minerals from the ore. Later
cyanide was found more effective and a cyanide plant and new smelter was set
up in the creek upstream from Shafter in 1912. The
following year, hand drills were displaced by air driven percussion drills
and by 1930 the main shaft of the mine was 700 feet deep. The
first laborers of the mine were Irish who had come to Texas via the boom gone
bust placer region of northern California. The
next set of laborers came from Mexico and they became the backbone for the
mine until its closure in 1942. “We
don’t know for sure but under full production we expect 80 to 100 jobs to
open up,” Booth said. “We will employ from the local area.” “They
said Shafter residents would be given priority for jobs. They also said that
they would bus workers in from Presidio and Ojinaga,” Perea said. “Maybe it’s
selfish not to want the mine because a lot of people in Presidio and OJ need
the work.” Presidio
City Manager Cindy Clarke said unemployment in the area has dropped
drastically in the last few years and now hovers around 18 percent. Oilfield
work in the Permian Basin has exploded with the high price of crude oil and
many Presidio County resi-dents have moved or commute north. The
Piñon Gas Field north of Marathon employs close to 2,000 people alone. “I
don’t know if I’ll stay,” Perea said. “I’m hoping the impact will be minimal.
But it might be too early to say.” ALPINE
– Sul Ross State University Associate Professor of Music Dr. Donald Freed
will present a paper at the fourth International Conference on the Physiology
and Acoustics of Singing next year. The conference is scheduled Jan. 7 to 10, 2009, at the
University of Texas at San Antonio. Freed’s presentation, scheduled Jan. 9, will deal with stroke,
singing and the teaching of singing, arising from his experience as a stroke
victim. ALPINE – “Pecos Bill and the Ghost Stampede,” a tall tale of the
Wild West, opened last night, Aug. 7, on the Theatre of the Big Bend stage
here. It will be performed at 8:15 p.m. nightly tonight, tomorrow and
Sunday, Aug. 8, 9 and 10. Written by Eric Coble and directed by Keith Ray West, “Pecos
Bill and the Ghost Stampede” promises to bring out the kid in every
spectator. The biggest herd of cattle west of the Mississippi has disappeared
and, when that herd transforms into ghosts, Pecos Bill gets involved. When Young Missy Cougar-Wildcat, who has always wished she could
live a tall-tale, steps into the scene, a whole new legend begins. For more information about show times, ticket prices or group
rates, call 432/837-8218 or 888-722-SRSU or the website www.sulross.edu/tobb Book
Festival Update By ARLENE GRIFFIS Library Friend MARATHON
– This is the seventh and final in a series featuring the authors who will
appear at this weekend’s Alpine Rotary Club’s Way Out West Texas Book
Festival, which is a benefit for the Alpine Public Library and its Marathon
branch. Next
week, the column will return to its original format as a weekly book review. You
may feel that I have saved the best for last since this week I will introduce
the authors who will comprise the Big Bend panel. I
know at least most of us are here because we love the area and never tire of
hearing about it. William
MacLeod is a resident of Alpine who writes about the geology of Texas. In
an earlier life, he worked for the Nigerian Geological Survey in Nigeria and
in South Africa for a gold and platinum mining company. MacLeod
grew up in Scotland and majored in geology at the University of Aberdeen. He
first came to Alpine in 1992 as the guest of a friend and was fascinated by
the volcanic rocks. Wanting
to know more about these rocks, he sought a book on the subject and, not
finding any which sufficiently answered his questions, decided to write one
himself. The
result was “Big Bend Vistas,” which he later followed up with “Davis Mountains
Vistas.” Two
subsequent books are his most recent. “Palo
Duro Vistas” is about Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle and “River Road
Vistas” is about FM 170 from Lajitas to Presidio, often called the most scenic
drive in Texas. Roy
Morey has been photographing Big Bend National Park and state parks since
1986. His
photographs have been published in Texas Parks and Wildlife and Rangefinder
magazines and he has exhibited in Alpine and at the Barton Warnock Center
in Lajitas, the headquarters of Big Bend Ranch State Park. Roy’s
most recent book, “Little Big Bend,” is not a traditional guide to the area’s
common plants. Instead,
the emphasis of this book is on the little in the Big Bend, the overlooked
small plants or inconspicuous tiny flowers of larger plants that so often go
unnoticed. In
a landscape so immense, these plants may be right before our eyes but seldom
seen. Or they may be tucked away and quite difficult to find. Here,
in glowing photographs and insightful text, Roy Morey has brought them to
light. This
guide describes 109 species found in the United States only in Trans-Pecos.
Sixty two of these occur only in the Big Bend portion of the Trans-Pecos and
24 of them only within Big Bend National Park. Of
the 252 featured species, 71 are considered “sensitive plants.” In Texas, 28
are classified as critically imperiled, 18 as imperiled and 25 as vulnerable. James
Evans of Marathon has been photographing the landscape and the people of the
Big Bend since 1988. His
work has appeared in many national magazines and is in collections at the
Museum of Fine Arts at Houston, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
at the University of Texas at Austin, the Beaumont Museum of Art, the Art Museum
of South Texas, the El Paso Museum of Art and the Southwest Writers
Collection at Texas State University, as well as in many private collections.
He
has also published a book, “Big Bend Pictures,” with the University of Texas
Press. James
is a true artist in every sense of the word. He sees things that most of us
simply are not able to but, luckily, those of us who are not as imaginative
get the privilege of seeing what James sees through his camera lens. I
have known James for a number of years and, although his landscapes are
breathtaking, my favorites of his photographs are those of people who have
made their lives in the Big Bend. Not
everyone “gets” this wild, remote area but James obviously does and his body
of work will live forever as a testament to that fact. At
the book festival, James will share a power point presentation, which
represents a proposal for a new book.
Prepare
to be amazed. For information about these and other authors appearing at
Alpine Rotary’s Way Out West Book Festival, visit the website www.wowtxbookfestival.com. All
author sessions will be on Saturday,
August 9 at the Sul Ross State University Espino Conference Center and are
free to the public. A
copy of the complete program is posted on the site. Also available on the
website is ticket information for the Friday night chuck wagon barbecue dinner
at Kokernot Lodge with music by Mike Blakely, as well as for the Saturday
night gala dinner at the Espino Center, which will feature honorary festival
chairperson, Texas’s own Kinky Friedman, who will sing and tell stories in
his own unique style. Happy
Reading. Arlene
Griffis is president of Friends of the Marathon Public Library, which is a
branch of Alpine Public Library. She is also a member of the Rotary Club of
Alpine. |