April 20, 2007
Jim Bohn

Local Control Essential for the Stehekin Road

I wish to express my support for rebuilding the upper Stehekin Valley Road in the North Cascades National Park. There are practical reasons to justify the project and many have already been articulated by other supporters. Another compelling reason relates to the legal rights associated with the road right-of-ways established and continuously maintained since the 1890s.

Revised Statute RS 2477, an amendment to the Mining Act of 1866, granted states and territories general road right-of-ways across federal lands not reserved for other purposes. The upper Stehekin road, pre-dating creation of the national park by more than 75 years, clearly fits this category of public road right-of-way (ROW). While the recent floods only destroyed the physical road structure, the ROW still exists as a dominant legal entity not necessarily restricted to a certain route. Accordingly, there may be some legal precedence to rebuild the road in any suitable location, even in the area designated Wilderness, and especially along previously used routes. The states of Alaska and Utah are currently having success under RS2477 in resisting similar attempts by the National Park Service (NPS) to eliminate public roads across federal lands.

Another issue of importance is how the NPS became the ultimate authority deciding the fate of the Stehekin road. According to my research, the Stehekin road was, and still is, a County Road that cannot be so easily erased from the earth or maps. This conclusion is supported by the fact that the general ROW grants were specifically to the states and territories, and in the case of the lower road, specifically for "a County Road...". Property deeds for the lower valley road still indicate this language in the ROW dedications. The upper road would be protected from elimination by the original dedication through prescriptive use under RS2477.

The present threat grew from seeds planted in 1970 when Chelan County transferred the road to the Bureau of Reclamation/NPS under a narrow statute for the transfer of "real property" without any recognition of the established grants of ROW. Moreover, the transfer was inconsistent with Washington state law and the published opinions of the state attorney general. Despite this illegality, the NPS boldly went on for years claiming fee title federal "ownership" and exclusive jurisdiction over the entire ROW area, including those sections across private property. These legal inconsistencies and related issues should be thoroughly investigated and resolved as part of the current efforts to save the upper valley road. For further details on the legal issues, please refer to the report published in 2004 entitled "The Illegal Conveyance of the Stehekin Valley Road from Chelan County to the National Park Service (A review of the unresolved issues)". (Copies available: http://www.coppercabinlighting.com/road.htm).

A key document referenced in the report is the Summary Judgment in the 1993 US District Court case for quite title where exclusive control of the road was affirmed in favor of the NPS based upon a series of false claims by the government attorneys. Incredibly, the existence of the road as a legal creation from right-of-ways and prescriptive use was never mentioned in the 24-page final judgment.

The long-term survival of the community can only be secure when the basic infrastructure is secure. Since arriving in Stehekin in 1968, the NPS has eliminated, through purchase, 83% of the private land base. With the road and most of the land base lifted from local control, what more could the NPS want? How about the valley's power plant and electrical transmission system. The NPS commissioned a University of Washington study on the feasibility of taking over the power plant from the Chelan County PUD under the pretense of environmental concerns (see Balancing Energy Options in Stehekin, Washington - 2003). Those who know the history of the NPS in Stehekin should understand how control over electrical power would be used to expand NPS operations while eliminating private development in the valley.

If the illegal and fraudulent actions of 1970 and 1993 are officially investigated and truth exposed, the ongoing threat of losing the road would stop, and control of the road could be handed back to the rightful owners - the public, Chelan County, and the Stehekin Community. However, if the situation remains unresolved, the entire road will remain in jeopardy of systematic elimination along with the community it serves.

I am confident the Stehekin road exists on a solid legal foundation. What really needs to be done is regain local control so the entire 21 miles of the Stehekin Valley Road may be restored to a free and unrestricted public way of necessity.

Sincerely,
Jim Bohn