Gosar, Kirkpatrick Challenge Historic Designation for Proposed Mine

Former tribal historian documents that the Oak Flat campground has never been a sacred site

E&E News reported early on Tuesday morning about a deceptive effort underway by anti-mining groups to negatively impact the bipartisan Southeast Arizona Land Exchange, signed into law in December 2014, by designating the land acquired in this exchange as a National Historic place. This government land grab could further limit public access and undermine a copper project that is projected to create nearly 3,700 jobs and generate $60 billion for Arizona’s economy.

Congressman Gosar and Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick sent a letter on Monday to the Director of the National Park Service (NPS) and the Keeper of National Register of Historic Places requesting NPS formally withdraw the nomination of this land from consideration for listing as a Historic Place.

The letter reads:

We write to ask for the withdrawal of the Pinal County, Arizona property being considered for a listing in the National Register of Historic Places as published in the Federal Register notification by the National Park Service on January 21, 2016.

As you know, we wrote in June 2015 and requested that a similar nomination for a listing in the National Register of Historic Places be formally withdrawn. While we appreciate you heeding some of our concerns, including withdrawing the June nomination and no longer utilizing a misspelled city name 20 miles away from the proposed location, we are again concerned that the January 21 notice does not provide adequate information about the area being nominated and may not comply with Administrative Procedure Act.

Given the lack of detail in the filing, it is virtually impossible for our constituents who may be affected to participate in the public comment process. No maps were published with the January 21 notice, a formal address for the site is “restricted,” the February 5, 2016 deadline for public comments provides a mere 11 days for public comment, and the phrase “Chi’chil Bildagoteel Historic District” is not well known to our constituents.

One of the only publically available references to the phrase “Chi’chil Bildagoteel Historic District” comes from comments submitted for the June 2015 nomination made by opponents of the bipartisan Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act. We are concerned that the use of the phrase “Chi’chil Bildagoteel Historic District” and a lack of geographic information is an attempt by these opponents to limit transparency and public comments from constituents that disagree with this nomination, and an attempt to undermine our bipartisan bill that is estimated to create approximately 3,700 new jobs.

As we pointed out in our June 2015 letter, the common name for the location in question is the Oak Flat Campground, and the Forest Service stated in a response to Rep. Kirkpatrick dated August 18, 2015 that the agency provided this name in relation to the June 2015 nomination.

Furthermore, we are enclosing an op-ed written by Dale Miles, a member of the San Carlos Tribe and the former tribal historian, which documents that the Oak Flat campground has never been a sacred site.

Again, we would like to reiterate our request for removal of this nomination. If your agency chooses to not grant this bipartisan request, we request that the comment period be extended for 60 days to provide adequate time for our constituents to comment on this potential listing. We appreciate your attention and request a formal response to this letter prior to February 5, 2016, the deadline for public comment. As always, we ask that this matter be handled in strict accordance with agency rules, regulations, and guidelines.

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