Park County Pre-Emptively Threatens NPS
Sep 15th 2007ScottWyoming & Yellowstone East Gate & multiple use & satire
A county road north of Cody was recently reopened. County Road 2ABW, just past the WY 120 bridge that crosses the Shoshone River has been gated shut for a decade or more.
Park County Attorney Bryan Skoric, several county commissioners and other county employees met along the road that runs along the north side of the river on Wednesday morning for an official “gate opening” ceremony.
By January, Skoric hopes to complete work with the Bureau of Reclamation that will allow the public not only to access public lands on Rattlesnake Mountain, but even to loop down a gravel road to the Hayden Arch Bridge in the Shoshone Canyon and turn back toward Cody on US 14-16-20.
Some have seen this as a gesture of being a good example. The National Park Service is slated to soon decide the fate of winter use on Sylvan Pass, just inside Yellowstone National Park’s East Entrance.
It is imperative to understand what is really going on here.
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.”
County Attorney Skoric is not setting an example for the Park Service. He’s posing a threat. Should Regional Director Mike Snyder decide that Sylvan Pass open in the winter is too costly and/or dangerous, Mr. Skoric, with the help of our DC Delegates, state legislators, Governor, and county commissioners will haul a front-end loader up to the East Gate and have it removed from the road restoring access to an historic road
This of course after our elected DC officials push legislation through that pushes back the boundary of Yellowstone West of Sylvan Pass.
Technorati Tags: Yellowstone National Park, winter use, Sylvan Pass, Park County Attorney Bryan Skoric
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Yes, I’m Still Around… « Political Cowboy on 05 Oct 2007 at 7:05 pm #
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