A question of road ownership

Crook County School District #1 superintendent Mark Broderson has asked for assistance from the town to ascertain the ownership of Rail Road Street to the east of the finished Little Horn Avenue intersection. School attorney Mark Hughes, according to Broderson, attempted to investigate without success.

Town engineer Heath Turbiville of HDR Engineering said at Monday night’s meeting of the Moorcroft Town Council that, when HDR’s surveyors had earlier attempted to determine this information, “The only thing they found was that any right of ways going through there was stopping at the intersection of Little Horn and Rail Road.”

When he checked the county records, they report the roadway in the same parcel as the railroad; however, the mayor expressed his doubt of the veracity of this information.

“It’s not. If you go down there, 150 feet is right on the edge of the street from the center of the original track,” he said.

The easement for the railroad would be 150 feet from the center of a state- or town-owned roadway and all of the railroad supplies are and have been maintained no closer than 150 feet from the road. There are also no town utility easements along the roadway.

Said road was, early in the twentieth century, the main thoroughfare from Moorcroft eastbound, which would have made it a state highway before Highway 16 was created. Town Attorney Jim Peck explained that if the state had abandoned the property, “They would offer to transfer the ownership of that easement or right of way to the municipality; if it’s in the county, they’ll offer it to the county. If the county and municipality say they don’t want it, then they’ll just vacate it at that point.”

Councilman Owen Mathews asked why the school district is not “doing the leg work to find this out?” and Peck offered his concern as well: “I have personally invested hours trying to figure out ownership of property.” With this concern for the potential cost to Moorcroft citizens, Claar asked Turbiville to make a call to the state to find out what their records show, “if there is no cost”.