Below you will find an article from ADN.com published April 12, 2005.
Murkowski asserts rights to trails
LAWSUIT: State is seeking entitlement under "highway" regulation repealed in 1976.
Published: April 12th, 2005
Last Modified: April 12th, 2005 at 03:27 AMFAIRBANKS -- Gov. Frank Murkowski mounted a dog sled to demonstrate that he's serious about claiming rights on historic trails and followed through Monday with a federal lawsuit seeking a stake in three Interior Alaska trails.
A day after Murkowski took a ride on the trail from Coldfoot to Chandalar Lake, the state filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, seeking quiet title to the trail and two others nearby.
Coldfoot is on the Dalton Highway about 250 miles north of Fairbanks. Murkowski was met by Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race veteran Ramy Brooks on Sunday.
"This is the best way to assert jurisdiction, being on the trail and really seeing what this RS 2477 statute is all about," Murkowski said, referring to the former federal law under which the state will make its claims.
The Coldfoot to Chandalar Lake Trail was established by prospectors in 1906 seeking to strike it rich in the Chandalar Lake gold fields.
It's one of more than 650 trails the state has identified as historic routes that should have unrestricted public rights of way.
Murkowski said the state sought control of the trails "for whatever future need we might want."
All three trails cross land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management.
"We think by initiating this action we might prompt the Department of the Interior to move on the legitimacy of our claim," Murkowski told reporters on a 45-minute flight from Fairbanks. "It puts the burden on them."
The state has been feuding for years with the Interior Department over Revised Statute 2477, a defunct federal law from 1867 that was part of the Federal Mining Law. The law said, "The right of way for the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted."
Congress repealed the law in 1976, but rights of way established under its terms continue to exist. The definition of "highway" has been debated for decades, but for the most part the law has been interpreted to mean roads.
Given the vast and undeveloped nature of Alaska, and that much of the ground is covered by snow for up to eight months a year, trails are the equivalent of roads, Murkowski said. Most of the roads in Alaska started out as a trails established by miners or mushers, he said.
Miners can use the 65-mile Coldfoot to Chandalar Lake Trail but must get a permit to cross BLM lands. Murkowski mentioned several times during the trip Sunday that he did not want Alaska to become a "permit society."
"We were assured there would not be a permit requirement," Murkowski said, referring to the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act that designated 106 million acres of Alaska land as federal conservation units. "That gets in the craw of some old-timers."
The other two routes mentioned in the lawsuit are the 85-mile Caro to Coldfoot Trail, another gold mining trail established in 1906, and the 60-mile Wiseman To Chandalar Trail, created by prospectors and miners seeking access into the central Brooks Range in the 1930s.
The three were identified by Alaska miners as the most important, Murkowski said.
None passes through a national park or wildlife refuge.
RIGHT OF WAY: To read more about the statute in question go to
www.dnr.state.ak.us/mlw/trails/rs2477