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Galice Creek gold miner sent packing By PAUL FATTIG GALICE - Federal law officers quietly removed gold miner Jack Strubel from a cabin he was living in along Galice Creek early Tuesday morning. The action by U.S. marshals was the result of an order by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Hogan, of Eugene, at the request of the U.S. attorney's office, also in Eugene. The order evicted Strubel from a historic mining claim on the Bureau of Land Management's Medford District. His removal comes three years after BLM officials first issued a legal notice to the Strubels, asking them to vacate the site because they had not met the agency's requirement for a plan of operation. His wife, Cheryl, and their three young children moved off the land earlier this spring. "Jack Strubel left cooperatively without incident," said district spokesman Don Ferguson. Strubel was not arrested, officials said. For the past 10 years, the Strubels had been living on the historic Leopold Mine where Cheryl Strubel owns the mineral rights to the claim. The mine is about 20 miles west of Grants Pass on the north fork of Galice Creek. The mine was originally established in the mid-1800s. The site will be occupied by private security until next week when the structures at the mine, including the cabin and several outbuildings, will be removed, Ferguson said. Agency officials said they had no objections to mining the claim, providing the activity complied with the 1872 federal mining law. A plan of operation by the Strubels was rejected by the BLM last summer. The agency contends that the Strubels had no authority to live on the land. The Oregon Water Resources Department fined the Strubels $750 in February for illegally using a water right, a fine the Strubels disputed. The Strubels could not be reached for comment, but Galice miner Bruce Crawford, president of the Southwest Oregon Miners Association, said local miners are upset over the government's action. "The government is on a rampage," he said. "They got the loggers. They got the farmers. Now they are getting us." Crawford disputes the BLM's contentions that the Strubels had been in violation of the 1872 federal mining law. "The BLM did this illegally," Crawford said. "There is a lot of concern (by miners) about this. But it's hard to organize against the federal government." But BLM officials say they have attempted to work with the Strubels over the years. The operation failed to comply with state or federal environmental laws, they said. "Cheryl Strubel still retains the mineral rights to the claim," Ferguson said. "This does not end their claim to the minerals. They still have the option to mine, if they get an approved plan of operation." But they have to obey the same laws that other miners must adhere to, he said. The Strubels did not meet the criteria that would have allowed their full-time occupancy on the land, he said. "This is public land," Ferguson said. "We want to restore it to where the public can use it again. The goal is to get the site back to close to natural as possible." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.