Rant (Public road closed on private land)

[TaperPin]

There are some Wyoming roads like that. One in particular that is obviously not legal to lock has been enabled by the good old boy system in the Sheriffs department. They say the department’s position is it’s a civil matter and anyone is welcome to file a lawsuit, but the gate will be most likely unlocked after the season. Well of course nobody is spending their own money on an attorney when driving 5 miles around takes care of it and by the time it goes to court it’s no longer an issue. It’s not surprising that it happens more when an outfitter is guiding the spot.

 

[NMJM]

Yup that happens in New Mexico. There is a place on BLM land I used to hunt quail on. There was a county road that crossed private for about 400 yards to access the BLM land. The property owner made a campaign donation to a county commissioner and he was able to get them to close the road.

 

[HNTR918]

Carry a bolt cutters!

 

[WiscoHoundsman]

Have 2 different examples of what I have seen.
CO near Leadville. I talked to the US Forrest service in person when picking up a MVUM he mentioned we may run into some posted areas as they have easement through private. He said just stay on the road and drive through. Basically anything on the map was ok to drive just don’t hunt if it’s not public. We ran into may signs.

Second case happened on my family farm that’s a big pain in the ass. Dead end town road went through our pasture to one cabin. Cabin owner put up a gate and no one stopped him. My uncle/dad/aunt should have said something but no one cared as he gave us keys. 5 years later he sold the cabin and the new owner wanted to log the road had had the town fix it up. Got told after 5 years they don’t have to maintain it any more. Later on the new owner wanted an actual easement and as he didn’t has one. My unspent a ton of money and ended up moving a fence for him. I don’t know what the outcome could have been if she fought it more but lawyers are expensive.

 

[505Wapiti]

Same thing happened to me last month scouting for upcoming deer hunt in souther NM. Public, country road, gated and locked… Road is less than a half mile through the public. Infuriating.

 

[RufusB.Marion]

I was reading a report written by the Colorado State Fish Commissioner from like 1897 or 98 in a half-baked quest to find the yellowfin cutthroat trout. In that report, he was discussing the challenges of creating a fish hatchery in Leadville, CO. Apparently, the locals of Leadville believed that the fish being raised there were only for the benefit of the rich men in Denver and elsewhere. In response to that notion, the locals of Leadville repeatedly blew up the fish gates with black powder. Damn shame what happened to those fish...

 

[downthepipe]

Owyhee County in Idaho has this a lot. Some places it just runs over a small corner. Sure wish I had the balls and money to bulldoze a new section of road to go around that corner!

 

[3gunyotehtr]

It really is a problem in the west. Bigger problem than corner crossing I think. No one wants to get a trespassing charge for assuming a public road is a public road.

 

[AHayes111]

Owyhee County in Idaho has this a lot. Some places it just runs over a small corner. Sure wish I had the balls and money to bulldoze a new section of road to go around that corner!

If it is just a small corner, I would ask the BLM to build a road. This happened in SE MT. Hunter found out a two track road had an old county easement. Road gave easier access to some quality public. Landowner/outfitter got his blood pressure up and got the county to abandon the road. Took a few years but the BLM put in a new road over 4 miles long for access. The BLM did the right thing, but there were few winners. With all the publicity what was once a magical place to hunt is now a pumpkin patch all of hunting season.

 

[AHayes111]

There are "county" roads that have never had proper public easements, we've had a cpl up here in the last few years get gated off.

This.

A while back the FS wanted to do an upgrade on one of the main access roads to the Custer in SE MT. Hundreds if not thousands of hunters us that road every year to access the Custer and it was in disrepair. Everyone thought it was a county road. To do the upgrade the FS had to have copies of the easements. Found out that there wasn't any easements across the two landowners that have private land the road crosses. FS then reached out to the two landowners about easements and we both made a deal. Most of the public never knew.