In accordance with our discussion on August 27, 1975 you are authorized to proceed with the validation of 246 Federal Mining Claims in the Medicine Bow National Forest, Carbon County, Wyoming. The area of interest for this project will be outlined further on maps and by myself. Cost of this project to be $10,500.00. All payments to be jointly paid to Ute Engineering & Surveying Company, and United Bank of Delta, Delta, Colorado. Please acknowledge your acceptance of the above by executing one copy of this letter in the space provided and return it to this office for our files. Accepted this 29th day of August, 1975 Earnest Schaaf Sincerely, This Reeves Wes Reeves Gulf WR:gj Cc: Leonard Hubbard STATE OF COLORADO) SS The foregoing was acknowledged before me this 29th day of August, 1975, by Wes Carol Wicburg My commission expires8-27=79 A DIVISION OF GULF OIL CORPORATION TELEPHONE: (303) 758-1700 January 15, 1976 Gulf Oil Corporation Gulf Building Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Attention: Mr. Jerry McAfee, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer Dear Mr. McAfee: This is a difficult letter for me to write. First, allow me to congratulate you on your elevation to your present position. I am enclosing, for your perusal, a copy of a letter written August 25, 1975 to your Denver office, attention Mr. Mesaros. The letter is self-explanatory. You can see from this letter that I have, in writing, accused Gulf, along with several other companies, of filing false affidavits concerning mining claims in Wyoming. I have worked for Gulf for many years as a contractor in the mining business and my work has been satisfactory, as none of my clients to date have ever lost mining claims that were staked by my firm, nor have any of them ever been successfully attacked in court. My firm has been the victim of short-sighted thinking by lower echelon employees upon whom excessive responsibility has been placed. My business, in effect, has been ruined by these lower echelon: employees attempting to save money at the expense of corporate reputation and ethics, I pointed this out to Kerr-McGee and Continental Oil Company, in the hope that the chief executive officers of these corporations would see fit to impartially investigate my charges through people disassociated with these lower echelon employees, but to no avail. Because of this attitude, we are now all involved in long drawn-out lawsuits, which can only result in creating additional problems. I realize that this is an unpleasant item to present to a man who has recently taken on a post such as yours, but I am doing it in an effort to bring to your attention a situation which need not exist, and does so only because of incompetence in misplaced authority at the lower levels. At the risk of sermonizing, no corporation which works as hard to maintain a good image, as out major oil companies attempt to do, needs to stoop to breaking laws and committing felonies in order to save a few thousand dollars, which is exactly the position Gulf is in, in Carbon County, Wyoming. Kerr-McGee, Continental Oil Company and Phillips have done the same thing on a much larger scale, but still in terms of over-all dollars, very little money was saved, in comparison to the amount riding on the claims which I hope to win. There will be a hearing in Cheyenne, Wyoming in Federal Court on January 30th for summary judgment on behalf of Natrona Service vs. Continental Oil Company. If we are successful in our pleadings, we shall receive 1,922 mining claims or approximately 38,000 acres of Continental Oil Company claims. The next step will be a similar action against Kerr-McGee,-Phillips, Gulf, Rocky Mountain Energy Company and Utah International. This sounds like a "Who's Who" of the energy industry, and to a certain extent, it is, but I do not lightly make the allegations and have full confidence that the Courts will uphold my attack on the methods employed by the afore~. mentioned companies. If you are wondering why this letter is being written to you, it is because I have never felt that the unconscionable actions pro- . mulgated by some low-echelon employees have fully represented the executive branches of the companies involved. The executive branches spend too much time and money attempting to create a proper image, to have it tarnished by irrational thinking. No company is above the law, and while a corporation cannot be put in jail, its object should be to set an example for the industry rather than become an object of contempt. transmit I wrote very demanding letters to the chief executives of Continental 011 Company and Kerr-McGee, advising them that should they not look into my allegations, I would in fact file suits, both for title to the mining claims in question and 'an anti-trust action to recover damages on behalf of my company. I fully expected these gentlemen to appoint someone they trusted to contact me and investigate first-hand my complaints. This was not done. Instead, the self-serving attitude of "We never break the law" was served up to me, and they asked the same employees whom I had accused of wrong-doing, to investigate my allegations. This naturally resulted in the filing by Natrona Service of a lawsuit for quiet title and a lawsuit for damages under the anti-trust sections of the laws of the United States. If you have any interest in this letter, I shall be more than happy to receive any emissary you might see fit to send to Wyoming, in an attempt to ascertain the truth of my statements. With this in mind, I am certain a satisfactory conclusion to this unpleasantness quite possibly could be accomplished, JWM:cb Very truly yours, John W. MacGuire. Your letter to Dr. Jerry McAfee, Chairman of the I have transmitted your letter to our Denver office with the request that a thorough investigation be made and a reply be sent to you. Let me assure you this matter is being investigated and you will hear in the very near future from our Denver office. RWF: pw Sincerely, Roberosotuller Robert W. Fuller Gulf Your letter of January 15, 1976, addressed to Mr. Jerry McAfee has been referred to the writer for investigation and reply. For your information, Gulf is not asserting any rights under Bow It is my understanding that you have located some claims on claims filed by Ute Engineering. We would be happy to discuss this apparent conflict to determine which of these claims are prior in time. Last year we had a drilling rig working on the Bow claims which you staked for us in 1971, and have performed geologic work in this area. We are concerned with your staking some claims on a geologic trend on which you performed work for Gulf pursuant to our agreement of September, 1971. We have formulated a work program for the area embraced by the Ute claims and will proceed as soon as the weather clears. However, your staking the seventeen claims in the middle of this area casts a cloud on our program. We are willing to attempt to amicably resolve this apparent conflict to avoid unnecessary expense to you and to Gulf. I would appreciate hearing from you at your earliest convenience. JH: CCJ:mst Very truly yours, Jaces Itanoon Jack Hanson Manager, Lands Acquisition A DIVISION OF GULF OIL CORPORATION TELEPHONE: (303) 758-1700 |