RAVALLI COUNTY COMMISSIONERS WITH NO PROOF OF ROAD LOCATION,  IGNORING ROAD VIEWERS REPORT AND HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS ON THE HUGHES CREEK GATE , DOING NO NEW RESEARCH, STATING THE ONLY NEW EVIDENCE ON THE ACTUAL HUGHES CREEK PUBLIC ROAD LOCATION WAS THE PETITION SUBMITTED BY LANDOWNERS AT THE COUNTY ATTORNEY SUGGESTION,  ARE CLAIMING A PUBLIC ROAD EXIST ACROSS FEDERALLY PATENTED MINING CLAIMS AND PRIVATE PROPERTY

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Ignoring past County Attorneys recommendations, doing no new research on the actual county road location, ignoring the road viewers report, with no new evidence while using cherry picked information provided by the dark money group pushing for the gates removal, in January of 2017 Ravalli County Commissioners Jeff Burrows, Greg Chilcott and Chris Hoffman demanded the gate across Hughes Creek Road, that had been in place for over 40 years, be removed.  

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The basis for the denial for the decision was that no other public road or right-of-way provides substantially the same access to public land or waters, as required by § 7-14-2615(3), MCA.

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3) The board may not abandon a county road or right-of-way used to provide existing legal access to public land or waters, including access for public recreational use as defined in 23-2-301 and as permitted in 23-2-302, unless another public road or right-of-way provides substantially the same access.

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Despite no new evidence showing where the county road was located, a strong history from past county commissions and past county attorneys that there was not enough evidence proving the county road location, using a 60 ft width, instead of the roads actually much narrower width,  to get the road to actually touch USFS land and running it across federally patented mining claims a precedence has been set that will affect private property rights, not only in Ravalli County, but the state of Montana and surrounding states forever.

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This site has been created to show evidence, much of it located in the Ravalli County Court House,  regarding this precedence setting decision that County Commisioners finally reviewed in December 2019.  While the County Commissioners state they are unable to reverse their decision in light of further existing but newly uncovered evidence from the National Archives in DC, we feel this decision is in the County’s hands. This decision needs to be reversed by Ravalli County Commissioners, without the landowners having to invest more money to defend the private property rights that should have never been in question in the first place.