formation

The Coconino sandstone is a uniformly, medium-grained, wellcemented, white, pink and brown to red colored, cross-bedded sandstone of Permian age. The coloring usually follows the bedding or strata rather than crossing through it at angles, producing solid colors rather than varicolors in particular stones. It ranges from less than 100 feet to more than 500 feet in thickness and underlies the whole of the Coconino plateau where it crops out over wide areas in Mojave, Coconino, Yavapai, Navajo and Gila Counties, from as far east as Holbrook to as far west as Seligman, Arizona, a distance of 150 miles. It has been quarried in a great number of places.

Most, if not all, of the presently operating Coconino sandstone quarries are located in the vicinity of Ashfork, Arizona, where a wide range of colors can be obtained and the cost of quarrying and transportation is as low as any in the industry.

Mr. Wilson stated that the objective in a Coconino sandstone quarry is to get out as much flagstone as possible. He described a commercial grade of flagstone as being a minimum of two feet square in size, with a thickness varying from

under one inch to around two inches. The value drops fast on any stone over two inches thick.

He stated that thicker slabs may be cut into strips, called ashlar strips, which are marketable for veneering. In any quarry there remains a certain amount of waste rock of all shapes and sizes, not conforming to any particular specification, called rubble, which can be used for laying up into walls or making fireplaces. This material is so plentiful in all quarries that it can usually be obtained for the price of hauling it away.

He stated that all the quarries produce as many colors as possible and all colors sell for essentially the same price. A dealer price list (Ex. 9) shows the current prices paid producers for the various types of Coconino sandstone.

In general, the sandstone exposed on the claims is a rather thick-bedded, medium to fine-grained, light brown to dark red rock that has little tendency to split along the bedding. However, there are a few zones of cross-bedded rock in which the individual beds range from less than one inch to around fifteen inches in thickness. These cross-bedded strata contain sharp bands of contrasting colors that have a strong tendency to cut across the bedding. The most pronounced coloring is found in working No. 3 on the Arizona Picture Rock No. 2 claim. It is this type of coloring, in Mr. Wilson's opinion, that has led Contestees to believe the rock is an unusual variety.

In the way of improvements and development work on the claims, Mr. Wilson found a small one-room cabin, approximately 24 miles of abandoned logging roads that are being used as a means of access, six shallow bulldozer cuts, and one quarry. He plotted the development workings on Attachment No. 3 to Exhibit No. 2, and described them as follows:

No. 1 claim [footnote omitted]-Working No. 1 is a bulldozer cut approximately 40 feet long, 10 feet wide and 2% feet deep in which the overburden has been stripped from the top of the fine to medium grained, light to medium brown col

ored sandstone. The sandstone is highly fractured and breaks out into small angular blocks that have little tendency to split along the bedding. None of the material excavated from the cut has been removed from the site.

No. 2 claim-Working No. 1 is a bulldozer cut approximately 65 feet long, 12 feet wide and 21⁄2 feet deep in which the overburden has been stripped from the top of a thickly bedded, light red colored sandstone. The sandstone is highly fractured and has little tendency to split along the bedding. None of the material excavated from the cut has been removed from the site. Working No. 2 is a bulldozer cut approximately 30 feet long, 14 feet wide and 3 feet deep, in which the overburden has been stripped from the top of the light brown colored sandstone. The sandstone is highly fractured and breaks out in small angular blocks that have little tendency to split along the bedding. None of the material excavated from the cut has been removed from the site. Working No. 3 covers an area approximately 250 feet long and 75 feet wide where the overburden has been stripped from a zone of cross-bedded sandstone in which there are sharp bands of color ranging from light yellowishbrown to dark red. The rock is more thinly bedded than that exposed in any of the other workings of the claims. Some of it will split into one-half to twelve-inch thick slabs. From the appearance of the working as of September 24, 1968, no more than 125 cubic yards of stone have been removed from rock in place. A considerable amount of the stone removed has been sorted according to thickness and stockpiled on the claim for use as flagstone and cut ashlar strips. Some flagstone and the ashlar strips cut from the thick slabs have been removed from the claim, but the amount removed and the price received could not be determined, as Lee Chartrand, who claims to be the only person to have removed stone from the claims would only state that he had sold the stone he had removed at a good profit, and could have sold a lot more if the

Forest Service had not taken action to prevent him.

No. 3 claim-Working No. 1 is a bulldozer cut approximately 45 feet long and 30 feet wide, in which the loose rock has been removed from the top of an outcropping of fine to medium grained, light brown colored sandstone. The sandstone is highly fractured and has little tendency to split along the bedding. None of the material excavated from the cut has been removed from the site. Working No. 2 is a bulldozer cut approximately 60 feet long, 14 feet wide and 3 feet deep, in which the overburden has been chipped from the top of a medium to fine grained, light brown colored sandstone. The sandstone is highly fractured and has little tendency to split along the bedding. None of the material excavated from the cut has been removed from the site.

No. 4 claim-Working No. 1 is a bulldozer cut approximately 40 feet long, 12 feet wide and 2% feet deep, in which the overburden has been stripped down to expose a small area of light brown colored, fine to medium grained sandstone. The exposed sandstone is highly fractured and appears to be thickly bedded. None of the material excavated from the cut has been removed from the site.

No. 5 claim-The west end of working No. 3 on the No. 2 claim, is believed to extend onto the No. 5 claim. There is no other working on the claim, but there are numerous outcroppings of the Coconino sandstone in which the rock is highly fractured and thickly bedded and little tendency to split along the bedding.

According to Mr. Wilson, the stone found in the quarry on claim No. 2 and extending somewhat into No. 5 (identified as working No. 3) has an unusual characteristic in that the coloring has a tendency to cross the bedding at angles rather than following the bedding or strata. When this stone is cleaved along the strata, it presents a varicolored pattern on its surface, ranging in all colors from white to red to almost purple. In a normal Coconino deposit, a given stone

would cleave into a solid color only. This would be true of the stone he found in the other workings on the claims.

Mr. Wilson knows of no other Coconino sandstone that has a comparable coloration characteristic, and has never seen a quarry that has this feature in the rock where the coloring crosses the bedding so pronouncedly.

This type of coloration, in Mr. Wilson's opinion, resulted from weathering near the top of the Coconino formation. The ground water solutions have brought manganese and iron and, in percolating through the pores of the rock, precipitated the minerals causing the coloration. He felt that as the quarrying proceeds downward in the pit this type of coloration will disappear and the fresher rock at depth will have the normal solid coloration.

Mr. Wilson could not determine either from exposures, outcroppings or geological inference, as to how far this unusual deposit extended laterally from the quarry into the No. 2 and No. 5 claims. He stated it definitely did not cover the entire area of those claims and it did not occur at all on anything exposed on the Nos. 1, 3 and 4 claims.

Mr. Wilson expressed the opinion that the material on the claims would be classified as a common variety of sandstone of widespread occurrence and not locatable under section 3 of the Act of July 23, 1955. He also expressed the opinion that a market does not exist for the mineral material on the claims and that it cannot be marketed at a profit. He felt the claims are not chiefly valuable for mineral.

Mr. Leonard A. Lindquist, timber staff officer, Sitgreaves National Forest, with a degree in Forest Management from Iowa State University, testified that he made a timber appraisal of the area covered by the claims. He estimated that the total area is presently covered with 4,500,000 board feet of merchantable timber valued at $35 per thousand, or $160,000, and, in addition, 6,000 cords of pulpwood valued at $1.00 per cord, or $6,000.

These are stumpage values. He stated that the area is a very good quality site and constitutes an excellent place for growing timber.

Mr. Lee Chartrand, a timber cutter by occupation, began his testimony by displaying a large assortment of stone taken from the quarry previously described, and identified as working No. 3. (Mr. Wilson agreed that all the stone came from that working.) Part of the display was photographed in color and is shown in Exhibits G, H, I and J. Mr. Chartrand gave a demonstration of how the various stones on display could be cleaved by use of a hammer and chisels. An example was a slab of stone 3 feet by 18 inches by 12 inches thick, which he split into two 4inch thick slabs. The cleaved surfaces exhibited beautiful color patterns, perfectly complementing each other, as shown in the color photos. He stated that artists consider these complementary designs to be in the nature of hand painted pictures which can be hung on the wall. One such split stone, shown in Exhibit C, he sold to a stone yard in Montana for $15. Another one, shown in Exhibit D, he sold for $30.

Mr. Chartrand described other stones, all of which he characterized as rubble, as being suitable for cleaving into thin tile for flooring and drainboards, generally competitive with ceramic tile. Others he described as suitable for making fireplace facings, lamp stands, and other ornamental objects. An example of a fireplace constructed with this stone is shown in Exhibit F, in which 11⁄2 tons of rubble stone and 21 sq. ft. of hearth stone were used. An invoice in Exhibit K shows that Mr. Chartrand received $84 for this stone.

Mr. Chartrand stated he could alone quarry, split and prepare for market, three tons of stone in a normal eight-hour day. He estimated that as soon as the quarry is opened up to the point where he is working on fresh surfaces he can process ten tons per day, using simple hand tools. He also stated that he had quarried down to a depth of six feet and the farther down he went, the colors of

the stone became brighter and the designs more beautiful.

Prior to initiation of this contest action, Mr. Chartrand had been advanced $5,000 by a Mr. Hal Butler who was interested in marketing the stone from the quarry. By the middle of September 1967, Mr. Chartrand had about 100 tons of stone quarried and guillotined and placed on pallets, ready for delivery. He had built a hundred yards of new road which would have provided access to Mr. Butler's large diesel trucks. It was at this time, according to Mr. Chartrand, that the Forest Service blocked his access roads by bulldozing 3-foot-high mounds over them. This physical blocking of the roads prevented him from meeting his commitment with Mr. Butler, and resulted in cessation of his operations. Apparently the only actual sales he has succeeded in making so far are those shown by ten invoices, Exhibit K, totaling $286.72.

Mr. Hal Butler, Show Low, Arizona, a salesman of lumber products, testified that he visited Mr. Chartrand's quarry on several occasions and took samples of the stone to display to his customers in the lumber industry. On the basis of their interest, he advanced Mr. Chartrand $5,000 as capital to begin production. He stated that he immediately had two buyers, one an architect, for 100 tons at approximately $55 to $60 per ton f.o.b. the quarry. Mr. Chartrand was unable to fulfill his commitment, apparently because of being stopped by the Forest Service.

Mr. Gage Keith Fink, Phoenix, Arizona, testified as follows:

He first started prospecting for stone in 1945 and has since been in the business of quarrying different building stones throughout the southwestern states, establishing distributorships in the east and west, and retailing and wholesaling stone, with a yard in Phoenix and outlets in other cities. In recent years he has assisted groups on Indian reservations in Arizona in exploring for stone and investigating the possibilities of opening quarries for them.

He has purchased flagstone from Kai

bab, Dunbar and from six or seven different quarries in the Drake, Williams, Seligman and Snowflake areas. Throughout the year he sells approximately 300 tons of Coconino flagstone. He estimated that 95 percent of all of the stone in all of the various quarries of flagstone consisted of a solid type color, either brownbeige, beige, or red. A very minor amount would be in the multi-colors. Nowhere else has he seen anything to compare with the multicolors found on Mr. Chartrand's claims.

He quarries many different types and colors of stone for mosaic-type veneering, including schist, quartz, jasper, onyx, sandstone and epidote. This has been used in the construction of a number of buildings in Phoenix, such as the Thomas Mall, County Complex, Christown, Valley National Bank and Western Electric. Using 25-ton trucks it costs $6 per ton to haul stone into the Phoenix area from points farther away than Mr. Chartrand's claims. This stone sells in the retail yards for prices ranging from $35 per ton up to $200 per ton for some types. All of the stone exhibited by Mr. Chartrand could, without exception, be used in mosaic-type veneering. It can also be used as flagstone for patios, entranceways and flooring. Because of the swirling-type coloring, the stone is particularly attractive for use for entrances in homes, and for tile and other decorative uses. There is no other Coconino sandstone in the Arizona de posits which has this coloration characteristic.

For veneering purposes he sells stone for $50 per ton which is not nearly as attractive as that on display in the hearing room. For decorative uses he sells ordinary solid colored flagstone for two cents per pound whereas the stone on display would sell for five to six cents per pound.

He acquired one load of stone from Mr. Chartrand. He sold one of the stones, similar to ones on display, for $75 and he received a premium price for all the rest.

Mr. John J. Blakeley, Phoenix, Arizona, testified that he has been in the