RUFFIN PREVOST Billings Gazette | Posted: Friday, September 14, 2007 12:00 am
CODY - A Park County road that has been closed to the public for more than a decade has been reopened, restoring easier access to thousands of acres of public land near Cody.
Now designated Road 2AB West, the road sometimes called Trail Creek Road had been closed to vehicle access by the Trail Creek Ranch, a move that angered longtime residents who had used the road for decades previously.
Park County Attorney Bryan Skoric said he was unsure of the original reasons for the road's closure, which happened before he took office.
The dispute centered on a claim by Trail Creek Ranch that the county vacated the road, which crosses the private ranch.
Many people had asked him to research the closure and see if it had a legal basis, Skoric said.
After exhaustively researching the history of the road, which had once served as part of the highway leading to Yellowstone National Park, Skoric said he could find no evidence the county ever abandoned or vacated it.
Skoric's efforts included trips to the Big Horn County archives in Basin and to Cheyenne for research with the Wyoming Department of Transportation.
With no records showing that the county ever vacated the road, the burden of proof would fall to Trail Creek Ranch owners to justify its closure, Skoric said.
"We instructed them to remove the gates," Skoric said. "We gave them sufficient time to come up with any vacating documents, which they couldn't do."
Park County Commissioner Jill Shockley Siggins said she recalled when the road was first gated, during a prior term as a commissioner in the early 1990s.
Shockley Siggins said that was a time when county revenues were in decline, making a potentially protracted legal battle and additional road maintenance expenses a burden no one was anxious to take on.
"This has come full circle now, and it's really gratifying that Bryan was able to step up and save that as a county road," she said.
Skoric said the road was first documented in December 1909, when what is now Park County was a part of Big Horn County. Park County split from Big Horn County in 1911, he said.
"That road was the way to get to Yellowstone, from the time they built the dam until 1925, when they constructed the Hayden Arch Bridge," he said.
Shockley Siggins said the area around the road includes tepee rings, thermal features and hiking and biking trails.
"Just to be able to drive out and see the city from that side of the river, to get that other perspective and view again, will be a great thing," she said.
Skoric said reopening the road restores vehicle access along the north side of the Shoshone River, including to public fishing spots, but it doesn't change the status of Trail Creek Ranch land or other private property in the area.
Many sections of nearby public land, including on Rattlesnake Mountain, will continue to be accessible only by foot or on horseback, he said.
Skoric said county road crews have made some repairs and improvements to the gravel road, and have installed several new signs marking public and private property boundaries.
Skoric and Shockley Siggins said the dispute over the road was part of a larger trend of clashes across the West between private landowners and the public over historic access to public land.
"Counties need to be in a position to take on landowners and defend the public's right to what is lawfully theirs. In many cases, they are roads that access a great deal of public property, even though they may traverse private property," Skoric said.
Shockley Siggins said she was pleased that the county road was reopened, but added that motorists should not repeat any of the behavior that may have initially motivated the closure, including shooting at stock watering tanks or driving off-road.
"I think he had some legitimate concerns," Shockley Siggins said of Trail Creek Ranch owner Daniele Bodini.
"People should respect private property," Skoric said. "It is a crime to trespass, and the last thing we want to do is open that road up and have to prosecute people for trespassing on private property."
Skoric said his discussions with the Trail Creek Ranch did not include any conversations with Bodini, and that he communicated with local attorneys for the ranch, including Colin Simpson.
Simpson was out of the office and did not immediately return a telephone call requesting comment. Attempts to reach Bodini for comment were unsuccessful.