February 9th marked the one year anniversary of the death of Roscoe Churchill, the grandfather of Wisconsin’s grassroots anti-mining movement. Folks in the UP may know Roscoe better as the author of that really big book, “The Buzzards Have Landed!”

Recently, Laura Furtman, Roscoe’s co-author of “The Buzzards Have Landed!”, sent an e-mail commemorating the death of Roscoe. This e-mail came at a time when many people in the Michigan anti-metallic sulfide mining movement recently took a hit with the DNR’s decision to approve Kennecott’s reclamation permit and landuse lease. Remember…It’s not over til its over.

All of our letters to the DNR did help make the land use lease more difficult for Kennecott. The company cannot begin mining until all contested case hearings have concluded. Also, we still have a chance to send letters to the Environmental Protection Agency to try to halt their approval of Kennecott’s Underground Injection Permit. There are a number of avenues we can still take as a community to stop this mine. Let’s put our heads together, keep fighting, and lay the Eagle Project to rest as Wisconsin did with the Crandon mine.

For more encouraging words please read the following e-mail from Laura in honor of Roscoe:

“Tomorrow it will be one year that Roscoe has been gone. And I really miss him.

Much has happened in the world of mining since then, and you can bet that if our dear friend were still with us, he would have been in the middle of the latest battles we face – offering inspiration and advice as we fight Kennecott’s push to mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Minnesota’s Aitkin County, Polymet’s proposal to build a huge open pit metallic sulfide mine between Hoyt Lakes and Babbitt, Minnesota, Aquila Resources’ exploration and development activities near Stephenson, Michigan, and the horrendous proposal to mine the Pebble Deposit in southwest Alaska’s Bristol Bay region. We’ve taken some real hits on each front over the past year, and that’s why I thought, on this one-year anniversary of Roscoe’s passing, I would pass along something I heard him say to his friends at Crandon after a particularly hard blow delivered by the courts:

“My friends, I came here today not only out of a sense of duty but because I wanted to spend this day with you. I have five children, and as each new one came on the scene, I wondered if my love could be stretched to cover one more. It was just no problem at all. And when I look at you today, I have no trouble stretching my love to take all of you into my heart. I have no better friends than you. I know you are sad and very disappointed… But I want you to know that I first came to Crandon in 1976, when minerals were discovered near here and Exxon was ready to begin mining as soon as possible. Well, twenty-five years have gone by and they still are not mining. We just cannot stop what we are doing.”

~Roscoe Churchill (March 2001)

I also heard Roscoe say a few years later:

“Don’t be depressed. Put on your fighting clothes. I will fight them till the day I die.”

As you know, the Crandon proposal was laid to rest – for good – in October 2003.

My dear friends, Roscoe may no longer be with us in person, but he will always be with us in Spirit. I hope his words inspire you to keep fighting, just like they do me.

~Laura Furtman