Gate reignites old controversy in Pine Creek
The gate that Joe Avery placed at the south end of Pine Creek Road. The section of road beyond the gate has become subject of dispute among locals, some of who have used for accessing Jeep trails, others who want it closed for undisclosed reasons. But no one seems to know who has jurisdiction over the road.
Courtesy photo
PINE CREEK — Whose road is that road?
This may be the question of the year, or at least has been a question for the better part of the past 12 months.
It was around this time last year when Pine Creek resident Joe Avery constructed a makeshift blockade at the southern end of Pine Creek Road and it appears as though he’s done it again.
Only this time he installed a much more official looking gate that was subsequently torn down and then replaced by Avery upon his discovery of it.
The real question herein lies with who owns the road beyond Pine Creek Road after where Avery has placed his multiple blockades.
Once it moves past Avery’s property it cuts through a swath of land owned by Hancock Forest Management before cutting back into federally owned lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
Avery had previously told the News-Press that he doesn’t claim any ownership to the road, but also doesn’t believe it to be owned by Shoshone County.
He believes that the road is off limits to motorized vehicles of all sizes.
Shoshone County is unsure of their ownership as the road is over a century old and was put in in 1910 as a way to access mining and timber claims in the area during their heyday.
According to Shoshone County Commissioner Mike Fitzgerald, the section of road in question is not claimed on the county’s annual mileage reports and the county only maintains Pine Creek Road to the Avery’s property.
This is where it gets sticky for all parties involved.
If a road is not publicly owned, and also not privately owned, who determines what can and can’t be done with it?
As mentioned, the road does lead through several properties before landing in BLM territory, where they have designated lands specifically for the use of “rock crawling (extreme 4WD) activities” according to their most recent Resource Management Plan (RMP), which contains the rules and regulations for all of the land under the purview of the BLM, as well as the maps that outline those rules and regulations.
The only real restriction from that point is that there is a seasonal break from Aug. 25 through Dec. 31, where motorized activities are paused.
But the question remains, who gets to enforce what with the road and how do the people access the areas beyond if the roads are gated off.
With this being the second time in a year that this situation has reared its head, Fitzgerald believes that the situation is only going to rectify itself through a legal process.
“In order to solve the issues here, we need to go through an official process,” Fitzgerald said. “The parties involved need to come in and determine the county’s interest in the road.”
The parties that want the road open would have to prove that in some capacity three pieces of criteria have been met — even if it’s ever-so-slight.
That criteria is showing any bit of active maintenance, historical use and county expenditures on the road.
According to Shoshone County Public Works Director Jim Cason, the official maps that he has say that the road beyond where Pine Creek Road ends all the way to where it forks into West Fork Pine Creek Road and Middle Fork Pine Creek Road is labeled as unmaintained county road right of way, or proposed Federal management highway.
County officials did go onsite and inform Avery on Monday that the gate he placed was on county right-of-way, which meant it was placed illegally.
They also told him that it was no longer allowed to be up in its current location.
However, the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the matter and has already identified an individual involved.
The Shoshone News-Press will continue to follow this story.