Mr. EDMONDSON. Mr. Smith, with reference to the San Xavier Indian Reservation, can you show us on this map over here where your property is located? Mr. SMITH. I go right through part of the reservation to my ranch. Mr. EDMONDSON. For the record, would you repeat what section you are in? Mr. SMITH. Sec. 12, T. 14 S., R. 14 E. That is where the largest portion of my land is, sec. 12 T. 15, R. 12. Mr. EDMONDSON. Directly north of the San Xavier Indian Reservation? Mr. SMITH. Yes. Mr. EDMONDSON. Thank you. Mr. UDALL. For the record, he is just north of the Valencia Road. Mr. SMITH. The Valencia Road goes through my ranch. I am on both sides of it. I am on the north and south. Mr. EDMONDSON. Thank you. Mr. SMITH. Are there other questions? Mr. EDMONDSON. Do you want to show your slides? Mr. OLSEN. To further identify the location, this is the location Mr. Twitty testified was a mineralized area? Mr. SMITH. I believe I heard him include that. I am not sure. Mr. UDALL. The record will show this is outside the proposal Mr. Twitty made and his proposal would not help you in any way? Mr. SMITH. I do not believe it would. I was not able to definitely establish in my mind just where his proposal was. Mr. UDALL. We have identified your property, and it is outside the black line he has drawn here. Mr. SMITH. Yes. This first slide is the building in which our family is now living, in what might be called a "hotspot" because we do not know what day or time the Bear Creek Mining Co. will put a bulldozer up there and bulldoze it down. Mr. EDMONDSON. Is that a big wolf standing in the drive? Mr. SMITH. That is a dog. [Laughter.] There is one of the mining claims that shows how big the holes were, how deep they were. Evidently, with the big machines they have, they were not able to comply with the 4 by 6 by 8 discovery shaft. Mr. OLSEN. How large is that hole? Mr. SMITH. It is about as large as half of a bedroom, an ordinary bedroom, I would say. About half that size. Mr. OLSEN. How many feet long and wide? Mr. SMITH. I never did measure exactly, but I would say it is 10 or 12 feet each way and more than 10 or 12 feet as a rule. Mr. OLSEN. More than 10 feet wide and 10 feet long and 12 feet. deep? Mr. SMITH. Possibly. 82463-62-6 Mr. OLSEN. I wanted it in the record. That is the purpose of my question. Mr. SMITH. Yes. Mr. UDALL. How close to your house, Mr. Smith? Mr. SMITH. That is not the one that is right near my house. I will show one here that was the one. They were blasting, which shook the house, it is estimated 400 or 500 feet from the house. There is one that has been dug and then filled in. Incidentally, it shows what I suppose they intended as the discovery monument, which consists of a stake 1 inch each way and about 6 feet tall, with a plastic cylinder on top, and in that plastic cylinder is a mining location. Most of them had red ribbons on them, and I thought they were surveyor stakes. But evidently that is what they considered their discovery monument. This shows how they left it when they filled one of them in. They filled a few of them in. To show you the depth and height and all, I got one of the boys down in there. This light makes it a little difficult to see them clear, but they are all large holes. There is one that was not dug up, but I think that ribbon on there represents what they intended to be a discovery monument, and I do not know what the other stick is for. That was really on part of the land that belongs to my wife. This one shows the machine that they dug the holes with. You can see it could not be a small hole dug with that. And also there is another one of those. This one was placed when they were getting ready to dig. They had not dug yet on that one. There is the discovery monument. There is another one that is on the ranch. That is some distance from my house. That is rather irregular and not quite as big at one end as the other. That is the one with the dirt on each side of the pole. You can see how large the hole might be, and the discovery monument is on the other side. Mr. EDMONDSON. How close is that one to your house? Mr. SMITH. That one is not too close to my house either. You see, each claim being 20 acres, you only get about one of them that is close to your house, and that one is not too close to my house. But all of them I am showing are on my land. There is one that is not too far away from the house because the mountain that my house faces is right there in the foreground. Mr. OLSEN. These open holes you have shown, were they filled in? Mr. SMITH. Not all of them. They filled in some of them. However, one of my boys day before yesterday was riding around in one of his jalopies or something, and he found about a hundred holes off my property not filled in. Not a one of them. They are all open. Mr. EDMONDSON. Are all of them in excess of 6 feet in depth? Mr. SMITH. Yes. I never saw any of them that were that small. and I have been around all of them on my land and those adjacent to my land for a mile or two. I would not have any idea how many thousands of acres they have plastered with mining claims, but from the number of claims in the recorder's office, which I checked, there are thousands of acres covered. That is another one that is not too far from my house. It shows the Baboquivari Mountains down there about 60 miles away. I do not believe that one was ever filled in, either. That is a machine I think you saw in the other picture. That is one that has just been filled in. I do not know why they filled some of them in and not all of them, but they did fill some of them in. Here is the one. You can see my house in the background very dim. This is the one that caused the trouble. That blasting happened when neither my wife nor I knew they were on the place, and I think they said this was the last one. They had put about 15 down. I do not know when they did it. We did not see anybody and would not have known about this until we heard the blast. You will see, with the foilage and trees and all out on the ranch, you do not see very much in the distance, you have to go to it before you really see it. Mr. EDMONDSON. That one appears to be within 150 to 200 yards of the house; is that right? Mr. SMITH. Yes. Mr. OLSEN. Has that one been filled in? Mr. SMITH. No; that is still open. Mr. EDMONDSON. Is that the road running by within 50 feet of the hole? Mr. SMITH. That is the gasline road, El Paso gasline runs through my ranch, and they have that for their vehicles to travel and check on their equipment and all. But it is used by a lot of people, and those holes, being open, are quite dangerous. And if somebody fell in, they would be suing me, I am pretty sure. That one, I do not know just where it is, but that is one of the good large ones, and deep. That one is not too far from the house and not too far from the gasline road. Mr. EDMONDSON. Is that a river just beyond? Mr. SMITH. No. That looks like it, but that is what they call a flat down there. The motorcycle boys use it. That is one that I did not get the hole in; I got just the excess dirt to show how tall it was. That one is pretty square and almost what you might call neat. That one shows the stick they used for a discovery monument, I suppose. You can see the plastic cylinder on top, and that has a little lode claim in it. That is just another one. That is not right near my house because Saginaw Mountain is in the background there, and I know that is one some distance from my house. With 500 acres, you can have them quite a distance from the house, some of them. I do not know just where that one is, but it is on my land. There is the back of our house, and it shows the shuffleboard court. And the mountain in front contains-I own 79 and a fraction of that mountain, and the Bear Creek mining people did not touch that. The reason for it was when I acquired it, the mineral rights were not reserved except uranium. It shows how closely they check on the property. They knew that, and they never touched that mountainside. Now there is one of the core drillers they used. I heard one of you gentlemen ask one of them yesterday if they knew the value of the ore and the content of the ore, and to me it seemed like quite an evasive answer. Well, they had two and three of these core drilling machines going day and night for months, and every few feet they took samples of the core and had them assayed. And Mr. Walthier, if he would, could tell you the actual values of all of those that they core drilled. He would have it in his office. And I think you people ought to be entitled to know it. I tried to find out, but they would not tell me. The only thing they told me was they struck water at 98 feet. I even asked them if they would tell me if any one of those holes that they dug on my place contained no mineral whatsover, that I would like to know for my own protection in future cases. No, they would not even tell me that. So I have no idea of the value except I do have an assay I made from samples I took out of 10 of the holes, and I would be glad for you folks to have that. I think you are entitled to it. Mr. EDMONDSON. We will be glad to receive it. Mr. SMITH. I think you are entitled to everything that is connected to this situation. You want the proof. Mr. EDMONDSON. Do you have a copy of this? Mr. SMITH. Yes. That is out of 10 of the claims. Mr. EDMONDSON. This is a Jacobs Assay Office report dated April 22, 1960, submitted to Mr. A. T. Smith, by Mr. Ben P. Jacobs, and showing reports with regard to gold, silver, and copper on 10 samples submitted. Mr. SMITH. That is right. Mr. EDMONDSON. If there is no objection, it will be made a part of the record. Hearing no objection, it is so ordered. (The report follows:) |