Submission Number: UBR-DEIS-00041 

Received: 11/19/2020 9:39:12 PM
Commenter: Margaret Bringhurst
Organization: Argyle Wilderness Preservation
State: Utah

Agency: STB
Initiative: Uinta Basin Railway EIS
Attachments: No Attachments
Submission Text
FE36284November 19, 2020 Write by Margaret Bringhurst/ Docket #FE36284 Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity.” – John Muir Ever had a week where you felt tired and nerve-shaken? Or is that the norm? Maybe you need to unplug. Get away. Go to the mountains. Sometimes we think that life has become a fast-paced frenzy, but Muir points out that this was a problem decades ago. His solution? Go to the mountains. - Social Hiker trail guide. Around thirty years ago after packing up our kids and tent trail for a fun week-end at one of Utah's campgrounds we had to come back home because every place we went was full. After that disappointing experience we started looking for recreational property to buy. We looked at several pieces within a few hours from our place but almost gave up after a few years until we found Indian Canyon Summit and Argyle Canyon properties. Vern, the original surveyor and then Real Estate agent, took us to three properties for sale. We started getting excited because past properties didn't have the pine trees we wanted. We asked him if there was anything with both shade, sunshine and pine trees. Shade for Kent and sun for me. When we drove into our future place we felt like we were on sacred ground. We spent every liquid dollar we had to buy it. That was twenty seven years ago. We love going to “the property”. We have had multiple reunions and many wonderful memories. Last summer I counted 15 cars ,2 trailers and around 17 tents. Our place is frequented by deer and elk plus a variety of migrating birds, chipmunks, rabbits and squirrels. One grandson called it “deer poop property”. Imaginations run wild and the little people have build multiple “forts”, and before the fire of 2012 the grand kids found enough dead trees for a zoo that they proudly introduced their parents to. There was a pirate ship and a sea-saw. The teenagers have sufficient room to be away from the crowd and build friendships that otherwise wouldn't have happened. The adults siblings and spouses circle up for chatting and table games. At night we share talents and skits and we don't need to be quite by 10PM which means that they could tell scary stories in the dark. It becomes a place for the young and old to find commonality. The discovery of beaver ponds and little dribble water falls was a delight for years. Kent and I could sit in our trailer and watch the chipmunks chase each other and ground feeding birds looking for food. It is soothing and healing. To me, the most powerful reason for not building in Argyle Canyon is the report given during by a former coal miner/property owner about the instability of the mountains in this area. Men were injured/killed by a gas explosion during an exploratory operation to build another coal mine. At 2:48 a.m. on Aug. 6, 2007, University of Utah Seismograph Stations recorded a seismic event measured at 3.9 on the Richter scale near the Crandall Canyon Mine, Nearly an hour later, the Emery County Sheriff’s Office is alerted of a mine collapse that has left six men trapped. It was later discovered the collapse caused the seismic activity. “This mine is going to be sealed and closed. I will never go back in there,” Murray told NPR in an Aug. 23, 2007 interview. “The mountain is alive, it’s a deadly mountain and I’m not going near it. Who is to say that Uinta Basin RR project will not cause more seismic events and destruction to the Area.