A cabin tucked in the pines outside Placerville has been home to a series of owners for nearly half a decade. But because of a mining-claim misunderstanding even older than the cabin, the federal government views it as a squatter’s dwelling and the owners who have lived there the past 25 years as trespassers.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management notified Sally Siegel and David Mattner this summer that unless they can convince bureau attorneys otherwise, they must leave and wipe out any signs of human habitation on their 5 acres.
Siegel and Mattner and their predecessors on the property have been fighting the BLM since the days when Dwight Eisenhower was president and nearby Telluride was an undiscovered remnant of a mining town. It was an era when some mining claims were still marked with rocks and bridge posts.
“No one ever tried to dupe anyone. This is an abuse of power,” said Siegel, a well-known preschool teacher in the Telluride area.
The BLM has another view.
“We are trying to be as understanding as possible. … There are two sides to this story,” said Teresa Pfifer, a lands and minerals staff supervisor with the BLM in Montrose. She said the BLM can’t talk about specifics in the case until attorneys have made a final decision.
Siegel has a foot-high stack of letters and documents that tell her story.
In 1954, Maddox and Zaida Clegg bought part of a mining claim on Fall Creek from a friend who had filed for the patent. The patent paperwork didn’t come through, but the Cleggs and their friend reportedly didn’t know there was a problem. They annually paid taxes on the land and the improvements they made. Six years later, the BLM notified them the claim was filed on the wrong form.
Attorneys were hired to file new paperwork and said it would simply be a matter of time until the patent was approved.
The Cleggs built the cabin and surrounded it with flower and vegetable gardens and a strawberry patch.
They also wrote a series of letters to the BLM asking where the patent was.
In 1967, the Cleggs took a different approach and filed under the Mining Claims Act, which allowed for ownership of 5 acres for those who had been living on unpatented mining claims since 1954.
The Cleggs received a letter from the BLM saying that a government survey would have to take place before any action could be taken.
Letters show the Cleggs asked for that survey to be done for a decade.
The BLM wrote back several times that a survey was scheduled and then wrote later to apologize that the survey hadn’t taken place. Unbeknownst to the Cleggs, the BLM did do a survey in 1977. Trespassing was not mentioned.
The Cleggs moved on because of failing health in 1982 and quit- claimed their property to a friend who promised to keep up the fight to get the ownership paperwork. While continuing to contact the BLM, the next owner rented the cabin to Siegel and Mattner under a rent-to-own contract.
In 1993, when the cabin became theirs, Siegel and Mattner continued to push for recognition of their ownership and were told by the San Miguel County surveyor that the land they owned actually was on a steep cliff across from their cabin.
Siegel said they came to the conclusion then that the entire half-century problem was centered on an incorrect survey and when it was fixed, everything would be fine.
Instead, they got a letter from Pfifer in 2004 saying, “It has recently been brought to my attention by our surveyor that there appears to be developments on public land. …”
That was followed by another letter from Pfifer this August that read, “in the absence of legally persuasive reasons,” the BLM plans to issue a decision that would give the couple a year to vacate the property.
Siegel and Mattner, a carpenter, have hired an attorney and asked for support from the San Miguel county commissioners and U.S. Rep. John Salazar, a Democrat from Manassa.
“The BLM has helped contribute to a situation where there have been misunderstandings. Things have been done and said that led to wrong conclusions. It seems that we ought to be able to make this right,” said San Miguel County Commissioner Art Goodtimes.
Pfifer said she hopes a final decision on the matter will be made in 30 to 60 days.
She said this case is unusual because of the length of the ownership debate, but she said there have been similar cases across the country, including another near Placerville.
In 1994, a home and store owned by the Impson family was razed and the land restored after it was determined the Impsons had used two mining claims improperly and had been living on public land. The case took 22 years to resolve, and the BLM gave the Impsons a 10-year permit to stay on the land after it was determined that they were there illegally.
Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com.
