Miners remove Tennessee stone from a section of the Cumberland Trail near Soddy-Daisy. (AP photo)
Environmental alert
Rock harvesting along trail raises
ownership, mineral rights issuesBy Pam Sohn, Staff Writer
The Chattanooga Times Free Press
March 2007
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- Rock miners have torn up a 75-yard section of the Cumberland Trail along Walden's Ridge near Soddy-Daisy, prompting closure of the Soddy Trail and bringing the state -- which owns the trail -- into the fray over what is rock and what is mineral. "We'll have to reroute that section of the trail," said Paul Freeman, Cumberland Trail Conference executive director. "This could happen again somewhere else on the trail. The state owns the land, but not the mineral rights." The section, on state property some three miles into the Soddy Gorge and Walden's Ridge, is part of the 300-mile-long Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park. This week, at the request of Gov. Phil Bredesen, state officials took a step toward examining mineral rights issues, at least along the Cumberland Trail. "The purpose of this letter is to advise you that the state of Tennessee does not consider any form of 'Stone' to be encompassed within the meaning of the mineral (rights deed) created by Durham Land Company in 1951," states a letter dated Feb. 12 from the Tennessee Office of Attorney General to Elmer C. Hill and Lahiere/Hill Partnership in Florida. The Durham Land agreement was the mineral rights contract that Lahiere/Hill Partnership now owns. The state letter asks that mining on park property cease immediately. At issue is whether Tennessee mountain stone -- used on many area buildings, walls and walkways -- is considered a rock or a mineral. With the stone's increasing popularity and value, a growing number of mineral rights owners are beginning to strip mine it from areas all over the Cumberland Plateau. State officials' concern is not limited to the one damaged section of the trail. "This could happen again somewhere else on the trail," Mr. Freeman said. "The state owns the land, but not the mineral rights." Elmer C. Hill, manager of the Lahiere/Hill Partnership, said Wednesday, "There is no logic to the state's action. "The mineral rights were bought in 1962, and taxes have been paid on them every year since then," he said, adding that rock was mined there with no problem when Bowater owned the land. Tisha Calabrese-Benton, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, which manages the park, said the mineral rights claim is based on the 1951 property transfer -- long before the state acquired its interest in the land. Joseph Sanders, general counsel for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, said state attorneys don't think the intent of the 1951 contract was to include stone as a mineral. But he said each mineral rights deed is different, so the state's interpretation will not be a one-size-fits-all understanding for other property owners. Tennessee River Gorge Trust Director Jim Brown and attorney Allen McCallie agree that each mineral rights transfer or contract must be considered individually, but Mr. Brown, who has been fighting a similar case for the Gorge Trust, said he is encouraged. "We're certainly pleased the state is actively defending surface rights on state property," he said. "It shows the whole issue is broader than just private property owners. I think it's going to have to move to some legislation, and this is a good, encouraging sign that we may be heading toward that." The Cumberland Trail mining garnered the attention of Gov. Bredesen, who recently said he was worried the Martha Sundquist Wildlife Management Area might become "tens of thousands of acres of stumps" because the state does not own the timber rights there. In addition to a Cumberland Trail Park legal review, the governor asked TDEC Commissioner Jim Fyke for an inventory of state-owned lands that do not include state-owned mineral rights.
ONGOING HARVESTING
In January, after the harvesting was discovered on the Soddy Trail, Mr. Freeman told trail conference board members that the harvester had offered to do some cleanup and has moved off of the trail area but continues rock mining work nearby. Last week, harvesting continued about 50 yards directly above the marked-off and torn-up trail. Kenneth Reed, a worker running the five-man crew, said they had been harvesting rock in the area for about four months, hauling away about 40 tons of stone a day. He said the crew plans to continue mining there for about another year, aiming to mine all the way down the gorge ravine to the creek. The area he indicated included more of the trail area. "I understand everybody's concern about it," he said. "I just do as I'm told. I've got to have a job." Mr. Reed's employers, Randy Runyon, of Spring City, and Marty Daggett, of Dayton Mountain, said the state knew the mineral rights were owned by someone else when the property was purchased. "It started out that they (state officials) were going to work with us. We were to cross the trail in just one place. But the last couple of weeks we've not be able to talk to anybody. They all got hush mouthed," Mr. Runyon said. He said the harvesting operation is perfectly legal and permitted, and when harvesters are done, they will smooth out the land, sow grass and replant trees. "It's not like we're doing something wrong. This is a big company, and this is big business," he said. Mr. Runyon said he understood that the trail problem is "a bad situation" and said miners are trying to work with the state. Mr. Daggett said he and Mr. Runyon run the operation for the mineral rights owner, the Lahiere/Hill Partnership. "Right now, I can't answer any questions because it's all been turned over to a lawyer. I just got notified," Mr. Daggett said Tuesday afternoon. "They're (state officials) trying to shut us down." The trail conference, whose members raised the money and donated it to the state for the 2001 and 2002 land purchase, built the trail through the Soddy Gorge. Conference officials have flagged the trail, saying it is impassable and hikers could be at risk from "falling rocks dislodged by mining equipment on the steep slopes." Mr. Freeman said the group is soliciting volunteers to help move huge boulders, build steps and recreate a reasonably level walking space. Park Ranger Andy Wright said 60 to 70 people worked four days a week for four weeks last summer to build a half-mile to one-mile section of the trail. Cumberland Trail State Park is Tennessee's only linear park. It eventually will stretch 300 miles from Signal Point near Chattanooga through 11 East Tennessee counties to the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park on the Tennessee-Virginia-Kentucky border.
OWNERSHIP ISSUES
Generations ago, many poor landowners in the South sold the mineral rights to their property to coal and other ore companies. Today the landowners often are surprised to learn someone else owns the mineral rights on their land. Now, the question of whether the rocks fit the legal description of a mineral is catching landowners and the state off guard. In years past, mineral rights generally gave coal companies the right to mine beneath the surface of landowners' homes, and rocks were not considered ore or minerals. A landowner had full "surface rights" to his own land even if someone else owned the mineral rights. But with the advent of a home-improvement and building boom, the sale price and popularity of Tennessee mountain stone have pushed some rock harvesters to test tradition by claiming the rocks fall under their mineral rights ownership. For the past two years, Fredonia Mountain landowner Tracy McDaniel and her parents have held a harvester off their land with a court order, waiting for the lawsuit filed against them to be heard. The mineral rights holder has sued Ms. McDaniel's family and three other landowners, seeking access to the rocks both on and below the surface of their property. "When you own property, what do you own? The air above the property?" she said. In Sequatchie County, a third of county residents do not own the mineral rights to their property, records show. And on Fredonia Mountain only one in 10 landowners has the title to the mineral rights on the land, Ms. McDaniel said. In Hamilton County, one in 10 acres of privately owned land may be threatened, according to records in the county tax assessor's office. In Tennessee, mineral rights are assessed and taxed at the county level, just as property is. Assessor of Property Bill Bennett said the owners of mineral rights on lands owned by others pay taxes on property equivalent to 56 square miles of Hamilton County's 542 square miles.
