THE HOLE STORY REVEALED BY DIRECTOR ELIJAH SULLIVAN

Mt. Shasta Herald
By Steve Gerace
Whatever their purpose was, the people who dug a deep and wide hole by hand on National Forest property on Mt. Shasta this past summer put in a great deal of effort.
Then they abandoned it.
US Forest Service law enforcement officer Carmen Kinch says she knows who is responsible and she’s proceeding with filing charges.
The hole, about 15 feet wide, was estimated by some observers to be 60 feet deep.
It was refilled by the Forest Service this past Friday because it presented a safety hazard, Kinch said.
The hole was dug on the site of the Mountain Thin project. Many of the trees in the area had previously been marked with paint, but that paint had faded over time. In July of this year, Kinch said the trees were repainted with blue rings on the bark. That’s when the hole was discovered, but the diggers were not seen.
Kinch said she was out of the area working on assignment in July and into August, but has been investigating the hole since she returned.
She says she now knows who is responsible but has yet to make contact with that person. She said he is not a local resident.
She believes the goal of the illegal hole digging enterprise was to find “valuable minerals.”
Remnants from the operation, including a wire above the hole that was connected to two trees and had a pulley mechanism on it, were left behind. Also left behind was a ladder leaning up against a tree near the hole and numerous buckets.
A large pile of dirt and rocks surrounded the hole.
This was not an easy enterprise.
One very large boulder was perched on a ledge just above the hole. It appeared that the diggers may have intentionally gone around it because it was too large to move.
One recent observer at the hole site noted with irony that one of the items that remained at the bottom of the hole was a bottle of “SmartWater.”
Two of the charges that Kinch said she plans to bring against the person responsible for the hole are: damage to a National Forest and removing natural resources without a permit – “and anything else I can come up with,”?she added.