## Facts

- Huntington Machinery & Equipment Rental, Inc. owned a 305-acre tract containing substantial coal reserves.
- A 6.57-acre portion of the tract, the “Beehunter Site,” was archaeologically significant and used for farming.
- An archaeological society petitioned the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to protect the Beehunter Site by declaring it unsuitable for surface coal mining.
- DNR designated the Beehunter Site “unsuitable for surface coal mining,” while leaving the owner in title and permitting continued farming and other non-mining uses.
- The landowner and an industry association challenged the designation as an unconstitutional taking without just compensation.

## Issues

1. Whether DNR’s prohibition of surface coal mining on an archaeologically significant 6.57-acre portion of a privately owned tract constituted a taking requiring just compensation under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.
2. Whether Indiana law authorized DNR to restrict mining on privately owned land to protect archaeological resources.

## Decision

- The Indiana Supreme Court reversed the trial court.
- The court held the designation was not a compensable taking because it did not involve physical occupation and did not deprive the owner of all economically viable use of the property.
- The court upheld DNR’s authority to impose the restriction under Indiana’s surface mining and historic preservation/archaeology statutory framework.

## Legal Principles

- A land-use restriction is not a taking absent a permanent physical occupation or a deprivation of all economically viable use.
- Takings analysis considers the regulation’s economic impact and the owner’s reasonable, investment-backed expectations, evaluated in context of the property as a whole.
- The state may regulate ground-disturbing activities, including surface mining, on private land to protect significant archaeological resources as a legitimate exercise of police power.

## Conclusion

The court upheld DNR’s designation of an archaeologically significant parcel as unsuitable for surface coal mining, concluding that the limited restriction on one use of a small portion of the tract left viable uses intact and therefore did not require compensation.


Dep’t of Nat. Res. v. Ind. Coal Council, Inc., 542 N.E.2d 1000 (Ind. 1989)