ChrisC
Well-known member
This is a terrible development for the season at Telluride that a developer Tom Chapman bought $250k in mining claims/100 acres and was able to effectively shut perhaps the best sidecountry in the US (4,000 vert of treeless alpine terrain). However, I am sure it will play out badly - with many locals ignoring the USFS closures and escalation is likely.
On the other hand, Telluride has seen this type of situation before - and should have learned from previous experience. For example, the Trommer's were able to close all hiking on Gold Hill for a few years around 1990 since they owned a mining claim on the access ridge. The solution was permission to build a house and allow snowmobile access via the ski area property in exchange to letting skiers hike the ridge. It's now the Alpino Vino restaurant. If Dave Riley has conducted a year long survey (summer 2009 to even this fall 2010) which featured possible Bear Creek expansion, some due diligence on mining claims in the area and buying them as an "option" should have been completed as well. There is also precedence for Tom Chapman being active in extortion in the Telluride area - below.
Denver Post
http://blogs.denverpost.com/sports/2010 ... ide/14612/
Telluride Daily Planer
USFS closes Upper Bear Creek
http://www.telluridenews.com/articles/2 ... 604792.txt
Tom Chapman bio
http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_15058325
Chapman's blazed trails
1984: Tom Chapman announced plans for 132 homes on 4,200 acres on the north rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, then a national monument. The Park Service paid $500 an acre, compared with the $210-an-acre appraised value.
1987: Chapman helped a rancher close a trail through his ranch, blocking access to a Gold Medal Fishery on the Gunnison River. The Bureau of Land Management and local fishermen paid $400,000 to buy back a pathway and restore traditional access.
1993: Chapman sent out pictures of helicopters lugging timber for a home on 240 acres in the West Elk wilderness he had purchased with investors for what he said was $960,000. The Forest Service in 1994 swapped the West Elk land for 107 federal acres in Alta Lakes Basin, above Telluride, which the agency assessed as comparable land. The following year, Chapman sold the alpine acreage in two deals worth $4.2 million.
1998: Chapman and Alabama investment firm TDX acquired 112 acres in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument, the year before Congress designated the Montrose County area as a national park. He paid $240,000. Park officials appraised the acreage at $500,000 in 2003, the same year Chapman listed the land on eBay for $1.24 million. Early this year, Chapman and partner Ron Curry finished construction of a 4,700-square-foot home on 33 acres inside the park. Last week, he sold the remaining 79 acres — which hosts five home sites — to an out-of- state buyer in an undisclosed deal.
1999: Chapman and TDX printed glossy brochures of mining claims inside wilderness areas near Vail, Durango, Crested Butte and Cañon City, with prices including potential homes ranging from $2 million to $8 million. Montrose businessman and conservationist Mark Young bought those 19 wilderness parcels from Chapman for $950,000 in 2007, but they are now in foreclosure.
2005: Chapman sent conservation groups and the Forest Service pictures of a bulldozer poised at the base of Red Mountain's famed Yankee Girl mine. Young bought the Yankee Girl in 2006 for $246,300 and put the historic property into a conservation easement.
April 2010: Chapman announced his Gold Hill Development Co. investment group had spent $246,000 on 103 acres of mining claims in the Bear Creek drainage above Telluride (pictured below). The Telluride ski area had recently won Forest Service approval for guided backcountry skiing in the popular Bear Creek. Chapman, citing avalanche danger, promised to prohibit skiing and hiking on his belt of land that bisects the roadless valley.
On the other hand, Telluride has seen this type of situation before - and should have learned from previous experience. For example, the Trommer's were able to close all hiking on Gold Hill for a few years around 1990 since they owned a mining claim on the access ridge. The solution was permission to build a house and allow snowmobile access via the ski area property in exchange to letting skiers hike the ridge. It's now the Alpino Vino restaurant. If Dave Riley has conducted a year long survey (summer 2009 to even this fall 2010) which featured possible Bear Creek expansion, some due diligence on mining claims in the area and buying them as an "option" should have been completed as well. There is also precedence for Tom Chapman being active in extortion in the Telluride area - below.
Denver Post
http://blogs.denverpost.com/sports/2010 ... ide/14612/
Telluride Daily Planer
USFS closes Upper Bear Creek
http://www.telluridenews.com/articles/2 ... 604792.txt
Tom Chapman bio
http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_15058325
Chapman's blazed trails
1984: Tom Chapman announced plans for 132 homes on 4,200 acres on the north rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, then a national monument. The Park Service paid $500 an acre, compared with the $210-an-acre appraised value.
1987: Chapman helped a rancher close a trail through his ranch, blocking access to a Gold Medal Fishery on the Gunnison River. The Bureau of Land Management and local fishermen paid $400,000 to buy back a pathway and restore traditional access.
1993: Chapman sent out pictures of helicopters lugging timber for a home on 240 acres in the West Elk wilderness he had purchased with investors for what he said was $960,000. The Forest Service in 1994 swapped the West Elk land for 107 federal acres in Alta Lakes Basin, above Telluride, which the agency assessed as comparable land. The following year, Chapman sold the alpine acreage in two deals worth $4.2 million.
1998: Chapman and Alabama investment firm TDX acquired 112 acres in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument, the year before Congress designated the Montrose County area as a national park. He paid $240,000. Park officials appraised the acreage at $500,000 in 2003, the same year Chapman listed the land on eBay for $1.24 million. Early this year, Chapman and partner Ron Curry finished construction of a 4,700-square-foot home on 33 acres inside the park. Last week, he sold the remaining 79 acres — which hosts five home sites — to an out-of- state buyer in an undisclosed deal.
1999: Chapman and TDX printed glossy brochures of mining claims inside wilderness areas near Vail, Durango, Crested Butte and Cañon City, with prices including potential homes ranging from $2 million to $8 million. Montrose businessman and conservationist Mark Young bought those 19 wilderness parcels from Chapman for $950,000 in 2007, but they are now in foreclosure.
2005: Chapman sent conservation groups and the Forest Service pictures of a bulldozer poised at the base of Red Mountain's famed Yankee Girl mine. Young bought the Yankee Girl in 2006 for $246,300 and put the historic property into a conservation easement.
April 2010: Chapman announced his Gold Hill Development Co. investment group had spent $246,000 on 103 acres of mining claims in the Bear Creek drainage above Telluride (pictured below). The Telluride ski area had recently won Forest Service approval for guided backcountry skiing in the popular Bear Creek. Chapman, citing avalanche danger, promised to prohibit skiing and hiking on his belt of land that bisects the roadless valley.
