So I couldn’t do much except consider it holy ground, never to be touched by me until I cleansed myself of the crappy car and located a 4WD. It took a couple of years, but I made it happen – and let me say that my motivation for the purchase was just to get down to Devil’s Canyon. When I bought the Jeep, we went to see what the legend was made of . . .
Smitten by the canyon, I returned often. Then one Sunday morning not too long ago, I’d been blocked from going down to Devil’s Canyon by large mining equipment – a massive drill or some contraption had been placed right in the road. No access, broken spirit. My topo map showed another route, and I learned later that this route is covered in a few OHV guidebooks and called Hackberry Creek or Powerline Road.
Here be dragons, eh?
Somewhat. Then talk started in different circles: Resolution Copper Mining had been digging around and located and studied the copper ore deposit and was looking to get a land exchange proposal through Congress so they could operate a block cave mine underground; the depth of the deposit too great to do an open pit mine. Reasonable enough.
Climbers heard about it, OHV enthusiasts heard about it, bird watchers heard about it, the list can go on – they’d lose access to the climbs, canyons, trails, and the campground. More trouble: the governor approved, our representatives approved…
“We The People,”believe it or not, were doomed if The People didn’t get up to raise their voice.
For the record, the Queen Creek Coalition was formed to be that voice, advocating for recreational users with respect to the proposed Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act.