Following Year Of Masked Raids And Armed Guards, Penokee Hills Has Quiet Summer

It was a quiet summer this year in the proposed iron ore mining area of the Penokee Hills — especially when compared to last year, when a dozen masked protesters raided a drill site in June, and soon after armed guards began patrolling the hills.

With the exception of a mysterious bottle marked “GTAC nitric acid” that was likely deliberately placed on the farm of a family opposed to the mine, Iron County Sheriff Tony Furyk said that the summer has been uneventful.

“It’s like a switch and it turned right off. I mean, there’s a few little minor things where you might get a call, a lock that’s been tampered with. But other than that, there’s nothing. It’s just quieted right down,” said Furyk.

Besides the bottle incident, the Iron County district attorney’s office is also investigating possible trespassing in the mining area.

Gogebic Taconite spokesman Bob Seitz said that the company has been able to get a lot of surveying done at the mine site.

“I think we’ve been able to get a lot of work done,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of people in the field.”

Bad River Tribal Chairman Mike Wiggins, however, asserts that the quiet summer was unproductive for GTAC. He said they know nothing of the interaction between the Penokee Hills and Lake Superior watershed that flows through his reservation.

“These people that are pushing the mining agenda — these mining company PR specialists and that — are using smoke and mirrors and PR tactics as a sham, as a cover for the fact that they really have no idea what the heck they’re doing right now,” said Wiggins.