Last week, KRWG shared news of the announcement of an effort underway to designate the Mimbres Peaks National Monument in Luna County. The proposed 245,000-acre monument would include the Florida Mountains, Cookes Range, Tres Hermanas Mountains, and Good Sight Mountains.
In an interview last week, Luna County Commissioner Ray Trejo shared that he supported the proposed monument saying the monument could help boost economic development in the area and preserve historic cultural sites. However, some have voiced opposition to the proposed national monument saying they are concerned about federal bureaucracy getting in the way of people trying to make a living.
Bruce Williams and Lori Coleman own and operate the Spanish Stirrup Rock Shop in Deming with another location in Alto. They say their shop in Deming offers locally harvested rocks to consumers.
“What we do in the Deming area is called rough rocks, so it’s like the rock that just came out of the ground that hasn’t been cut or polished or anything. People show up and we have all of the rough rock that we’ve mined and then normally the individuals that buy rough rock take it back to their shops and they can cut it and polish it and sell it,” Coleman said.
Lori said they have encouraged rock clubs and tourists to visit the area.
“We allow rock clubs to come mining with us, while we’re mining. We make it look really easy and so people who have a vacation period, we always say 'go to Rockhound State Park.' In the park you can find thundereggs, you can find agates and jaspers, and it’s a lot of fun,” Coleman said.
Lori and Bruce said they mine in an area that’s being proposed to be the Mimbres Peaks National Monument. They say it’s fascinating work.
“We mined in the Little Florida Mountains in March of this year and we’re cutting through that material now and it’s like Christmas every day, because you don’t know what’s inside it until you cut it and it’s kind of addictive. You cut one and if it’s really good you want to cut another one,” Lori Coleman said.
Lori says she was surprised when she got an email about an announcement proposing a national monument in the area where they mine for rocks.
“I’m a little bit emotionally charged about this because, everything was kept so secretive,” Coleman said.
She said this proposed national monument could close their business.
“I spoke with my representatives at the state mining and minerals and at the BLM and my deposit that I have right now that I’m working would be grandfathered in but we don’t know how long that deposit lasts. It could be done now or it could last another 20 years. You don’t know, that’s the thing about mining is you don’t know, and so it would not allow me to have any other new claims or any other mining permits. If you are going to continue to grow you’ve got to have more rock and you’ve got to have more mining permits. So, essentially the designation of the monument would take away my livelihood, it would keep me from being able to do this,” Coleman said.
Bruce Williams said he’s also concerned about the potential of federal bureaucracy slowing down the growth of their business.
“So, people are talking about writing rules that will let us mine, but the problem is it will take them ten years to write those rules to be able to allow us to do that,” said Williams.
They are not the only ones concerned about this proposed national monument. Loren Patterson is the President of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, he said ranchers in their organization could be impacted.
“We have some members that are going to be affected by this designation. It is my understanding that maybe this hasn’t been as publicly known as it should have been with this kind of designation,” Patterson said.
Patterson went on to say he’s concerned that local input needs to be the focus when discussing this proposal and not those of special interest groups.
“It seems like we never take the time to actually get the input not from nonprofit organizations or politically motivated, agenda-driven organizations, we don’t get the input from the community or the people that actually live there,” Patterson said.
Lori Coleman says they are apprehensive about meeting with the groups petitioning for this new national monument because of what she says was a lack of communication before the monument proposal was announced at a press conference last week.
“We’re a little bit gun shy of them right now, because they said we want to talk about this, we want to have meetings, we’ll why didn’t you do this before we had a press conference.” Coleman said.
How that communication develops with those petitioning for the monument and those who say they will be affected by it remains to be seen.
