Uncompahgre Wilderness
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "other uses". Template:Use mdy dates Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
The Uncompahgre WildernessTemplate:Refn (formerly called the Big Blue Wilderness) is a U.S. Wilderness Area in southwest Colorado comprising Template:Convert. Elevation in the Wilderness ranges from Template:Convert to Template:Convert, at the summit of Uncompahgre Peak.[1][2]
Managed by the Uncompahgre National Forest, it is located approximately Template:Convert northwest of the town of Lake City and some Template:Convert east of the town of Ouray.
The area is named for Uncompahgre Peak, which at Template:Convert is the highest peak in the San Juan Mountains. The Wilderness includes one other prominent fourteener, Wetterhorn Peak at Template:Convert.
Mining claim
Located within the Uncompahgre Wilderness is the Robin Redbreast Gold Mine, owned by Robert and Marjorie Miller of Montrose, Colorado. Marjorie Miller's father staked the claims in 1938, more than 50 years before the land was designated Wilderness, and was preserved by the General Mining Act of 1872. The Forest Service has established requirements that would lessen mining impacts, such as reducing motorized vehicle use and night lighting. The Millers say workers will use picks and shovels to extract ore, haul it out with mule teams over existing trails, and use helicopters to deliver larger equipment to avoid the impacts of truck use. Environmental groups have expressed concern that Acid Rock Drainage and the human footprint created by mining activities will degrade the Wilderness.[3]