Public Lands for the People President Jerry Hobbs has died. He passed away Dec. 28, after a long battle with kidney and heart disease. He was 71. Gerald Hobbs, better known as Jerry, was a legend in the mining community, and the founder of PLP, a land rights advocacy group that fights to keep public lands open for multiple uses, including prospecting and mining. He was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on March 26, 1943. He joined the U.S. Marines after graduating high school in Pueblo, Colorado After leaving the Marine Corps, he moved to California from Colorado and became involved in gold mining. He supported himself by dredging for gold in the Mother Lode region for several years and then moved to Azusa, Calif., where he opened a gold prospecting store. Jerry was first and foremost a miner. He was tough, and he was strong. Jerry believed in conservative principles, the Constitution and the Mining Law of 1872, and he fought against big government interference in the daily lives of prospectors and miners. He was not afraid to speak up and stand up for the rights of others. He was a fighter and despite being delivered some knockout punches in life, he always rose to his feet for the next round. He never let down his guard. He was steadfast in his belief in the rights of the individual and was fiercely independent. He served as president of PLP for more than a decade until his passing. Jerry was a stickler for details, going so far as to scold unsuspecting prospectors for using the term “recreational miners.” He claimed there is no such thing. The only difference between a so-called ‘recreational’ miner and a full-time gold miner is that the latter had found gold, he would explain. ‘If those same miners who call themselves ‘recreational’ struck gold, they would run so fast to stake their own mining claim that you could roll dice on their shirt-tails,’ he would say. But, there is method to the madness. You see, Jerry was worried the government would try to break miners into subclasses, which already has happened in some states, and thereby divide and conquer. In Jerry’s mind and in the eyes of the law — a miner is a miner is a miner, period, each one with the same rights as the next. Jerry was ahead of his time and his words of wisdom will prove to be prophetic in time. As the PLP banner so often seen at Gold & Treasure Shows, says ‘Who’s Next?’ suggests, Jerry often warned other outdoor user groups that they should stand behind miners, because miners have been accorded congressionally granted rights to keep roads open for access to mining claims, which means those same roads and trails are open to the public for other outdoor uses. One of his deepest regrets was not being able to unite miners more closely with fishermen, hunters and off-roaders, who all stand to lose their rights without solidarity. In a sense, he believed miners are the ‘canary in the coal mine,’ and that if other outdoor enthusiasts don’t pay heed to miners and the loss of their rights, they too will suffer the same fate at the heavy hand of big government. He was fond of quoting Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” On a deeper level, Jerry was a staunch opponent of United Nations Agenda 21 and the Wildlands Project, which he saw as a step toward global governance and an affront to individualism, personal liberty, freedom and American sovereignty. He was never afraid to look at the big picture and connect the dots when it came to the threat of globalism under the guise of environmental extremism, global warming or climate change. Jerry was a man of vision. He could see the whole forest — and not just the trees. To join PLP or to donate, go to plp1.org. goldprospectors.org/News/News-Details/ArtMID/636/ArticleID/72/Mining-Legend-leaves-Legacy-of-Hope
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 17:00:02 +0000
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