Gravel Mine Plans Abandoned Near TR Natl. Park

A Montana businessman has agreed to halt development of a gravel mine near the site of Theodore Roosevelt's historic badlands ranch in western North Dakota.

 

 

 

 

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - A Montana businessman has agreed to halt development of a gravel mine near the site of Theodore Roosevelt's historic badlands ranch in western North Dakota.

Roger Lothspeich of Miles City, Montana says he signed an agreement Wednesday with the U.S. Forest Service to work out an exchange for other federal land or mineral rights at a different location.

Forest Service district ranger Ron Jablonski calls it ``a major change in direction.''

He says the agency is anxious to work with Lothspeich.

The federal government bought the ranch in 2007 for $5.3 million.

But the purchase of the 5,200-acre parcel did not include mineral rights, and Lothspeich fought to dig into the land that some have hailed the "cradle of conservation.''

(KFGO stock photo)

 

AP

   

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