'Perfect property' may become well site

[TransitJohn]

'Perfect property' may become well site

By RENA DELBRIDGE
Star-Tribune correspondent Sunday, August 28, 2005

DOUGLAS -- Becky Swisher will never forget the day she came home from work to find a uranium company's stakes on her 15-acre ranch. Puzzled, she asked her husband Don about them.

"He said, ‘That's from Canyon (Resources). They staked the place while we were at work,'" she recalled.

The couple had only recently found their "perfect" property only a few miles outside Douglas, making it a home and hoping to start a business with miniature horses. They loved the seclusion, the lush views, and the fact the nearest neighbors were barely within sight. Now, they are uncertain what the future will hold.

"We knew Canyon was going to be staking, but we thought they would contact us," Becky Swisher said, still frustrated by the intrusion three weeks later. "I grew up on a ranch, and you respect people's boundaries."
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/08/28/news/wyoming/d6221760162fd5438725706a00713782.txt

[Zenlitened]

1. Sorry, we little people don't actually own property.

We are merley allowed to use it until corporate interests come along.

From the article:

This isn't unusual in eastern Wyoming, where surface landowners often do not also own mineral rights. In the Homestead Act of 1916, the federal government gave surface rights to homesteaders, keeping the mineral rights. Now, companies may lease those mineral rights, regardless of who owns the actual land. The so-called "split estates" has been a hot topic in the Powder River Basin, where coal-bed methane development has a number of surface landowners at odds with companies.