More than 50 participated in a peaceful demonstration
POWELL TOWNSHIP -- Barbed wire fences and the sweltering heat failed to hold them back Sunday afternoon. Mine opponents and the environmentally conscious covered the Yellow Dog Plains in a peaceful demonstration, a message for Kennecott Eagle Minerals to back off.
"We're nine years in opposition to this mine," said organizer Cynthia Pryor. "We will continue, and that's our message. This is just part of that. It's like, if you think we're going away, take a look at the people walking down the roadway here. We are not going away!"
Participants said the demonstration's concept came to two concerned U.P. residents in a dream; walking three four-mile laps around Kennecott's property and Eagle Rock to slow beating drums. That's a total of 12 miles in 95 degree weather, with a heat index of nearly 100.
Most of the trails were not covered by trees and completely exposed to the hot sun, but that didn't stop people from showing up. More than 50 people participated in today's event.
"We never thought of cancelling because of weather. We just thought that people who are really committed will be here, and we're surprised at how far some people came."
Like Bob Tammen, a Soudan, Minnesota resident who used to live and work as a miner in Palmer.
"You know I got some fairly decent paychecks from the mines, but I’d come back and I look at the communities where I lived when I was collecting those paychecks and they're withering away," said Tammen. "You have to go for sustainability."
Not all participants were able to complete the entire walk in dangerous temperatures but contributed what they could to get their message to Kennecott and the public.
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