Gypsum

This state is scarred with remnants of quests to unearth riches beneath the desert. Scores of Nevada gold- and silver-mining camps boomed momentarily before the ore petered out and the prospectors scattered. Yet, about 100 miles north of Reno, on the edge of the Black Rock Desert Wilderness, the community of Empire worried little about the ephemeral nature of other mining towns. Theirs had bustled along since the 1920s — when Empire was named for a brand of plaster — and building materials giant U.S. Gypsum Corp.

  The tanks, mortars and firefights rumbling and crackling through the ancient city of Sana are endangering not only Yemen's future but also its magnificent architectural past of intricately decorated earthen houses and slender brick towers. The old city, with its stealthy alleys and fortress walls, is one of the most striking visions in the Arab world, a bit of fairy tale in a harsh, despotically ruled land. But once-peaceful protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh that have escalated to street battles involving tribes, government forces and mutinous soldiers are encroaching on the historic center, settled more than 2,500 years ago and named a World Heritage Site in 1986 by the United Nations.

The Big Horn Mine, perched on a mountainside overlooking the headwaters of the San Gabriel River, still holds an estimated 262,000 ounces of gold in its quartz bedrock. At current prices, that haul would be worth more than $430 million. The wild country surrounding the mine, framed by alpine peaks and watered by snowmelt running through wrinkled canyons and ancient pine forests, is a refuge for bears, mountain lions and endangered Nelson's bighorn sheep. Within a few days, preservation will trump economics when the 277-acre parcel is handed over to the public.

The Big Horn Mine, perched on a mountainside overlooking the headwaters of the San Gabriel River, still holds an estimated 262,000 ounces of gold in its quartz bedrock. At current prices, that haul would be worth more than $430 million. The wild country surrounding the mine, framed by alpine peaks and watered by snowmelt running through wrinkled canyons and ancient pine forests, is a refuge for bears, mountain lions and endangered Nelson's bighorn sheep. Within a few days, preservation will trump economics when the 277-acre parcel is handed over to the public.

To protect a rare species of trees in Coal, Gypsum and Freemont canyons, the Sierra Club chapter representing 45,000 Los Angeles and Orange County members recently adopted a resolution stating that the 1,000 acres of Tecate cypress should be incorporated into a public or private nature preserve.

Weyerhaeuser Selling Unit: Tacoma, Wash.-based Weyerhaeuser Co. is selling its profitable gypsum wallboard business. The move is another in a series of sales by Weyerhaeuser to divest itself of businesses that "fall outside the company's desired strategic focus." The timber company announced at its April 20 shareholders meeting that many operations would be sold. The gypsum mine and wallboard facility in Briar, Ark., is the third-largest such facility in the United States, with annual production capacity in excess of 600 million square feet and annual sales of more than $35 million.

Weyerhaeuser Co. announced Monday that it is selling its Arkansas-based gypsum wallboard business, even though the operation is profitable. The move is another in a series of sales by Weyerhaeuser to divest itself of what management believes are operations that "fall outside the company's desired strategic focus." Top executives of the timber giant announced at the April 20 shareholders' meeting that the company's portfolio would be reviewed and that many operations would be sold.

Our readers wrote letters throughout 198 7 expressing their viewpoints on a variety of issues. Here are condensed versions of some of those letters. We appreciate their taking the time to share their viewpoints and look forward to hearing from you in 1988. I commuted through the Gypsum/Coal Canyon on the Riverside Freeway for years. I don't believe that prisoners should have to live in a desolate, smog-ridden areas such as this. DICK MAULE San Clemente

In the heart of the Wilshire Park historic district, Horacio Fuentes has built a garden with the feel of his native El Salvador. It begins by the sidewalk, where a pito coral tree grows, planted 15 years ago. It hasn't yet produced the dramatic red flowers that, when eaten, are said to prompt a deep sleep with intense, erotic dreams. Maybe it's too cold here, Fuentes said. He's had more success with his papayas. The plants are scattered around the frontyard, low enough to harvest, each with a cluster of ripening fruit pushing out from the main trunk.

The bogus drug busts are notorious: Mexican immigrants were jailed, went broke or got deported, only to have the evidence against them fall apart. The bricks of white powder they were charged with peddling turned out to be plaster of Paris--not cocaine or speed, as police had claimed. In all, more than 70 arrests have come unstrung this winter in a very public crescendo of bad cop work and shoddy prosecution. Now Dallas is in an uproar. Federal investigators are probing the police department.

This state is scarred with remnants of quests to unearth riches beneath the desert. Scores of Nevada gold- and silver-mining camps boomed momentarily before the ore petered out and the prospectors scattered. Yet, about 100 miles north of Reno, on the edge of the Black Rock Desert Wilderness, the community of Empire worried little about the ephemeral nature of other mining towns. Theirs had bustled along since the 1920s — when Empire was named for a brand of plaster — and building materials giant U.S. Gypsum Corp.

BPB Industries of Britain on Tuesday offered $1.1 billion for National Gypsum Co., the No. 2 U.S. wallboard producer, and investors were betting that bidding would rise. BPB, a major wallboard producer and an industrial force in Europe, said it offered $48.50 a share for all of National Gypsum, which emerged from bankruptcy less than two years ago. Charlotte-based National Gypsum said this was the first "outside" offer received since it rejected two unsolicited offers from companies led by C.D.

An injured engineer was rescued Tuesday after being trapped for eight hours in a locomotive covered with tons of gypsum at a quarry in eastern San Diego County. Leroy Witherspoon, 34, remained alert throughout the ordeal, which began shortly before 3 a.m. when the locomotive he was driving into a tunnel-like loading shed hit the bottom of a hopper, sending its contents raining down. Matt Gonring, spokesman for the Chicago-based U.S. Gypsum Co.

I was standing on the crest of a 60-foot dune of pure white sand, watching the setting sun turn the sky to myriad shades of red and purple. Behind me, the sand cascaded to a flat desert of saltbrush and yucca, while before me the dunes marched away until their shapes blurred to a uniform band of sterile white, fading into a distant range of mountains sharply etched against the sunset.

Within 10 days, the Orange County Board of Supervisors will have before it yet another report on jails, this one offering suggestions for expanding inmate capacity. The report being prepared by county staff members will come at the end of a year in which, despite the county's deepening jail crisis, there were only backward steps.

The City Council on Tuesday quietly passed the final motion that will make the city's annexation of Gypsum Canyon official. Passed unanimously by a voice vote, the resolution formally set the terms of the 2,340-acre annexation, which city officials and the Irvine Co.--the canyon's owners--hope will eventually be the site of an 8,000-home development.

A dump in Gypsum Canyon would cover 500 acres, or one-half of Orange County's rare Tecate cypress forest ("Supervisors Identify Four Possible Landfill Sites," Aug. 17). Plans shown on county maps would cause Tecate cypress to diminish by a significant amount, not only for Orange County, but also for the entire species. Additional rare plants and animals, some of them candidates for federal endangered species listing, would also dwindle considerably if this plan were put into effect.

A powerful local planning agency cleared the way Wednesday for Anaheim to annex Gypsum Canyon for a housing development, and county officials signaled afterward that they may soon drop their own efforts to acquire the property. Supervisors and other officials said the board will almost certainly abandon a proposed Gypsum Canyon landfill when it takes the issue up in December.