Opinion ID: 874087
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: ACR Is a Public Road Under R.S. 2477

Text: Section 8 of the Mining Act of 1866 provided: The right of way for the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted. An Act Granting the Right of Way to Ditch and Canal Owners over the Public Lands, and for Other Purposes, ch. 262, § 8, 14 Stat. 251, 253 (1866) (repealed 1976). This provision is more popularly known as R.S. 2477 due to its subsequent codification in the Revised Statutes as R.S. § 2477 (1873). The parties agree that, prior to July of 1897, when Sopatyk's predecessors in interest obtained a patent for the Anderson Placers, his land was federal property. Thus, if ACR became a public road under R.S. 2477, it must have occurred before July of 1897. This Court has held that R.S. 2477 was a standing offer by the federal government to grant rights-of-way on public land to the states and that it can be an independent vehicle for creating a public road if there is some positive act or acts on the part of the proper public authorities clearly manifesting an intention to accept such grant with respect to the particular highway in question. Farrell v. Bd. of Comm'rs, 138 Idaho 378, 384, 64 P.3d 304, 310 (2002) (quoting Kirk v. Schultz, 63 Idaho 278, 283, 119 P.2d 266, 268 (1941)). This standard is more lax than the requirements set forth in the state road creation statute. Id. at 384, 64 P.3d at 310. In Farrell, this Court found R.S. 2477 satisfied because there was an entry in the County Commission's minutes log from 1901 expressly accepting a dedication of the disputed road. Id. In this case, by contrast, there is no order or minute entry by the Board or any other order by a public authority accepting ACR as a public road. In 1878, however, a committee of local miners filed a plat with the mining district creating a road along Anderson Creek. The County asserts that even though the miners committee was an informal body, the plat is a positive act by a proper public authority for R.S. 2477 purposes because [t]his is how things were done on Idaho's frontier. The County erred as a matter of law by ruling that the miners committee could be a public authority with the power to create state rights-of-way on federal lands. There appears to be no legal authority suggesting that an informal, apparently unelected committee is empowered by state law to file plats creating public streets. This is especially true in light of the fact that years before the miners committee was formed, the Territorial Government had already created Lemhi County and its Board of Commissioners, which would have been the proper public authority for declaring roads in Gibbonsville. An Act Creating and Organizing the County of Lemhi, §§ 1, 3-4, Laws and Resolutions Passed by the Fifth Legislative Assembly of the Terr. of Idaho 734, 734-35 (1869). State law governs the manner in which a road on federal property becomes public under R.S. 2477. Galli v. Idaho Cnty., 146 Idaho 155, 160, 191 P.3d 233, 238 (2008); accord Standage Ventures, Inc. v. Arizona, 499 F.2d 248, 250 (9th Cir.1974); United States v. Pruden, 172 F.2d 503, 505 (10th Cir.1949); Smith v. Mitchell, 21 Wash. 536, 540, 58 P. 667, 668 (1899) ([Under R.S. 2477,] a highway may be established across or upon such public lands in any of the ways recognized by the law of the state in which such lands are located. ...). This includes territorial laws relating to road creation. Galli, 146 Idaho at 160, 191 P.3d at 238. Apparently, to help ensure that pioneers could access and settle Idaho's vast undeveloped areas, in 1881, the Territorial Legislature enacted legislation providing: All roads or highways laid out or now traveled, or which have been commonly used by the public... in the several counties of this Territory, are hereby declared county roads. An Act Regulating Roads, Highways, and Public Thoroughfares in Idaho Terr., § 1, Gen. Laws of the Terr. of Idaho 277, 277-78 (repealed 1885). In other words, all roads, trails, streets and thoroughfares, used as such, were highways. Kosanke v. Kopp, 74 Idaho 302, 305, 261 P.2d 815, 816 (1953) (referring to An Act Concerning Roads, Highways, Trains, and Public Thoroughfares, § 1, Compiled and Rev. Laws of the Terr. of Idaho 677, 677 (amended 1881), a virtually identical earlier enactment). To satisfy the 1881 law, the use must be regular, not casual or desultory. Kirk v. Schultz, 63 Idaho 278, 282-84, 119 P.2d 266, 268-69 (1941). When determining if the public is using a road, direct evidence is not required, but there must be sufficient circumstantial evidence to support any inferences. Galli, 146 Idaho at 160, 191 P.3d at 238. There is substantial evidence that ACR existed in 1881. In 1878, a miners committee filed a plat depicting a seventy-five-foot-wide road labeled Main Street going north, flanked by numbered lots on each side, and intersecting with two other streets running east-west. The accompanying plat description states that the road up Anderson Creek was to be called Main Street and was to be left open and persons taking lots are to appoint a committee to see that the said roads are made and kept open and passable. Books and newspaper reports in the record state that Main Street received its current name around the turn of the twentieth century, due in part to the fact that placer mining washed away a section of the road along with the buildings next to it in 1898. The road was likely repaired, as an 1899 map, a 1907 U.S. Forest Service map, and a 1913 U.S. Geological Survey map all show a road running north along Anderson Creek. Further, there is also substantial evidence from which the Board could infer that the public commonly used ACR in 1881. A photograph dating to 1878 depicts two roads lined with structures intersecting in the center of Gibbonsville, one of which was undoubtedly ACR. Published historical accounts included in the record note that most of the mineral deposits around Gibbonsville had been found by the end of 1877, including a number of claims upstream from town along Anderson Creek. A deed specifically indicates that by 1881 at least four mining claims were located adjacent to or very near ACR along its whole length. It was reasonable for the Board to validate ACR because it was open and commonly used by the public in 1881.