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5. Victory—in Court and in Congress
- University of New Mexico Press
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65 Chapter Five Victory—in Court and in Congress Estella B. Leopold The temporary restraining order of July 10, 1969, from the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals was an unexpected blow to the private land developers intent on carving up the Florissant fossil beds. On the following Tuesday, July 15, Robert Johnson, attorney for the Park Land Company, and Claude Blue, a partner in the firm, filed a motion asking that the order of the appeals court be dissolved “on the grounds it violates substantial and fundamental constitutionally guaranteed property rights.” According to the motion, “No precedent exists for authorizing the court to enter a temporary restraining order and enjoining land owners from making a lawful use of their land, merely because Congress may at some future time declare the area . . . a national monument.”1 The next day, the Denver Post ran the headline “Florissant Company Seeks to Kill Order.” At the time, no action seemed forthcoming from the House of Representatives to put the Florissant bill on the floor for discussion and potential passage. This lack of action could spell doom for the temporary restraining order, and ultimately for the Florissant site. And then things began to move. On July 20, the New York Times published a persuasive story entitled “Fossil Beds in U.S. Go Unprotected— Government Fails to Act on Florissant Purchase.” The story carried a vivid quote from Richard Beidleman of Colorado College: “Destruction of such a site is comparable to what we might think of as a geological book-burning, especially devastating because there is only one irreplaceable volume on this Chapter five 66 subject in the universe.” Science News carried a story on June 21 entitled “A Treasure in Danger.” Still at this time we were very aware that would-be monument land might still be sold to real estate developers (figure 5.1). As the Defenders of Florissant, we were trying to raise money in earnest to pay for the mounting legal costs. We issued a one-page flyer featuring fossil insects and circulated copies to various groups under the title “Fossil Insects and Flowers Go to Court” (figure 5.2). The press aided our efforts by publishing announcements that our campaign was in “fiscal trouble” and looking for donations.2 We set up an elaborate network of information and donation collection stations at several Colorado shopping centers. In Denver, these included five shopping malls, two grocery stores, and a department store. In Colorado Springs we had collection tables at five shopping centers, and in Boulder we had tables at three. Sandy Cooper of the Thorne Ecological Institute organized this effort, and the response was very helpful. To increase public awareness, we printed lots of green bumper stickers that said “Bail Out Florissant” decorated with a beautiful fossil dragonfly. It was fun to see these showing up around Denver and Boulder. The first environmental bumper stickers in Colorado were printed in 1963 to “Save Grand Canyon,” so this was a second such use by our conservation groups. The Wright Stuff With only a temporary injunction in place, we were all anxiously preparing to go into district court again on July 29, when the full merits of the case would Figure 5.1. Real estate sale signs along the Florissant valley increased in number over time, creating further worries about saving the fossil beds. (Photograph by Susan Flader.) [44.223.37.137] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 09:03 GMT) Victory—in Court and in Congress 67 beheard.Afewdaysbeforethecourtdate,aDenvercitizen,VimCraneWright (figure 5.3), called me. We had first met when I gave a talk about Florissant at the Denver Audubon Society a few months earlier. She had been following the case since in the press, she said, and wondered what we were going to do if we lost in court. I said, “Frankly, I don’t know, but I am hoping we will win.” If we lost, she asked, “What would you think if my lady friends and I went down to Florissant and sat in front of the bulldozers?” I said, “Great heavens, oh, you what? Well, we should certainly think about that.” I said I would carry her intriguing idea back to several of the Defenders and see what they had to say. I saw Bettie Willard and Roger Hansen that evening and asked them what they thought. Bettie looked amazed. Roger shook his head and said, “Who is this person exactly?” I said, “Well, I really don’t know. She...