The Arizona State Parks Board is showing how to get things done during tough economic times. The state legislature should be taking notes as the board inked deals to keep 5 more parks open through the fiscal year.
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Feds Closing Dacite Cliffs Mine in Superstitions
The Superstition Mountains over on the east side of Phoenix is one of the most scenic and historic places near the city. And it’s still riddled with mine shafts and tunnels (not the same thing – shafts, or adits, are horizontal and shafts are vertical). One of the most-visited is Carney’s Mine in the Dacite Cliffs. It’s also sometimes called the Dacite Cliffs Mine.
Call it what you want – by any name, it’s a solid tunnel offering little danger aside from the overwhelming smell of bat guano. It’s bored into solid volcanic rock, and it’s a cool link to Arizona’s wild mining past. But the federal government has decided to bar it to further visitors. The reasons given?
1. Achieve visitor management in such a manner that preserves the wilderness character of the area, whatever the hell that means. I’m assuming the feds think putting metal bars on a mine shaft matches wilderness character, unlike rock climbers putting much-less obvious climbing bolts in the rock. Go figure.
2. Reduce risk of exposure to rabies, undetonated explosives (I call BS on this – clearing that mine of any undetonated explosives would be faster and cheaper than using metals bars to block the way), carbon monoxide poisoning (again, easier to check for the gas) and keeping people from bugging the bats, as if they’re endangered or something.
Closing tunnels is such a knee-jerk reaction. Shafts can truly be dangerous, and sometimes tunnels contain shafts. But still, why not evaluate them on a case-by-case basis and [...]
