by Karl Fate
Tom Tiffany’s mining fantasies have not been working out. He authored what may go down as one of the worst laws ever written, designed to create a low cost iron mine by removing the top of the Penokee Hills and filling in the headwaters of the Bad River, a major river feeding Lake Superior, with the mine wastes. It did not end well for Mr. Tiffany.
October 12, 2022
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
On September 23 the Michigan Historic Preservation Review Board voted unanimously to support the nomination of Anaem Omot (The Dog’s Belly), the Menominee Tribe’s cultural sites to the National Register of Historic Places. The nominated area is 50 miles upstream from the mouth of the Menominee River and includes the site of the proposed Back Forty mine. The location contains burial grounds, raised agricultural fields and ancient dance rings of cultural significance to the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. The Menominee people occupied the Menominee River area for millennia, until an 1836 Treaty with the U.S. forced them to cede their original territory in Michigan.
by Michele Bourdieu, with information from Earth Justice
September 30, 2022
On June 29, 2022, preceding the Fourth Annual Menominee Canoe Trip held June 30-July 3 by Native and non-Native water protectors, students learn about ancient garden beds, cache pits and burial mounds during a tour of ancient Menominee cultural sites led by Dawn Wilber, who teaches Menominee culture and language at Menominee High School in Keshena, Wis. Ann Wilber, far right, tells students an ancient story. The sites are part of an area recently nominated by both Wisconsin and Michigan Historical Preservation Review Boards for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. (Keweenaw Now file photo © and courtesy Dawn Wilber)**
LANSING — On September 23, 2022, the Michigan Historic Preservation Review Board voted unanimously to support the nomination of Anaem Omot, a Menominee Tribe cultural landscape bisected by the Menominee River that separates Wisconsin and Michigan, to the National Register of Historic Places. The vote follows several years of advocacy by historians, scientists, and leaders of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin to recognize the cultural and historic resources in the district, including burial mounds, garden beds, and dance rings.
By Michele Bourdieu and Mark Doremus*
Keweenaw Now
September 9, 2022
During the July 23, 2022, Water Celebration to benefit the Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River, Coalition founder Dale Burie, left, presents a Trailblazer award to Ron and Carol Henriksen, leaders of the Front 40 grassroots environmental group, predecessor of the Coalition. Beginning in 2003, the Front 40 fought the Back 40 mining project that threatens the Menominee River until the Coalition took over the work five years ago. (Photo © and courtesy Mark Doremus of Back 40 Film)
MARINETTE, Wis. — The Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River held their second annual Water Celebration on July 23, 2022, at Stephenson Island, Marinette, Wis., featuring guest speakers — Native and non-Native leaders in the public opposition to the Back 40 mining project for gold and other metals. The projected open-pit and underground sulfide mine, first proposed by Aquila Resources and now owned by Gold Resource Corporation, threatens the Menominee River that forms a border between Michigan and Wisconsin.
October 6, 2021
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
After 18 years and an investment of over $100 million there is no mine next to the Menominee River and significant, ongoing resistance to any mining in the future. The permits Aquila Resources needs to begin mining have either been overturned, withdrawn, or rendered obsolete because the mine plans have changed to include underground as well as open pit mining.
Gold Resource Corporation (GORO) has NOT conducted “due diligence” regarding Aquila’s false and misleading claims about the permitting of the Back Forty Project.
During a September 8 conference call about GORO’s acquisition of Aquila Resources, Inc., Mr. Allen Palmiere, the President and CEO of GORO stated: “The key takeaway on this particular project [referring to the Back Forty Project] is that it has, in fact, been fully permitted before. The issue that arose was a very technical—it’s really a very administrative matter, but it was the way with which the wetlands permit was worded and it was viewed as being a conditional permit rather than an unconditional permit. And that was really the way—the reason that that particular permit was pulled.”
by Carol Amour
June 10, 2021
The open pit mine that the company intends to dig out of land a mere 150 feet from the Menominee River in Michigan would be deeper than the height of the tallest building in Wisconsin, at 750 feet. The proposed mine will extract gold and sulfide from the banks of the river.
28 May 21
The Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin sent a mine developer back to the drawing board after a legal battle over sacred sites and water contamination.
t’s no accident that the river that divides the places known today as Wisconsin and Michigan bears the same name as the Menominee Tribe. The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin lived along the Menominee River for thousands of years, and evidence of their ancestral past — including sacred sites, such as dance rings and burial mounds — still line its banks.
by Al Gedicks
May 18, 2021
Dear editor,
After Aquila’s decision not to appeal the denial of their wetlands permit they reaffirmed plans to submit a new mining permit application that will include both the open pit and underground mine plans. To minimize the cost and delay of submitting completely new mining, wetlands, air quality, wastewater discharge and dam safety permit applications, the company would like to submit a consolidated mining permit that would “compress the timeline to permit issuances.”
This map of Aquila Resources’ proposed Back 40 mining project shows wetlands in the area of the mine site, which is only 150 feet from the Menominee River. Aquila recently withdrew from its appeal on the January 2021 denial of its wetland permit. Click on map for larger version. (Map courtesy Kathleen Heideman of the Mining Action Group)
