Local control essential for Stehekin Valley Road
Submitted by Jim Bohn

I wish to express my support for reestablishing the upper Stehekin Valley Road into 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 ReclamationlNPS 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 at http://www.coppercabinlighting.com/road.htm