Attorney, land owner spar

The status of Cheyenne River Road has been a bone of contention for many years, but Weston County Attorney Michael Stulken has determined it to be a county road, as indicated in a letter dated June 8. The letter  was a response to a concern from local resident Diane (Simon) Harris, who owns property on Cheyenne River Road, and has been concerned about an increase in truck traffic there since a bridge on a nearby road burned down two years ago. 
The pertaining sections of the road include Cheyenne River Road No. 54, T41N R61W, Sec. 13, 14, 18, 19, 22 and 23, and Stulken stated that the Weston County Commissioners Record Book No. 3, Page 196, explains the establishment process of this road on Dec. 30, 1914, known as the Sheep Creek Divide Road. 
According to those records, dated Jan. 4, 1915, the road “is a practicable route and should be allowed … (T)he said road is hereby declared to be a county road.” The county surveyor was instructed to survey and plat the area. 
“Further, Weston County surveyed Cheyenne River Road  No. 54 in 2014, with the portions of the road included in which cross your (Harris’) land,” Stulken said in the letter. “The recorded survey can be found at the Weston County Clerk’s office, Plat Cabinet No. 2, Sleeves 82 and 83.”
The minutes from the Oct. 16, 2018, Weston County commissioners meeting state that the 2013 board of commissioners authorized a survey, which Stulken said was completed in 2014, but “it was not signed or recorded.” Commissioner Ed Wagoner moved to authorize the signatures a few years later at the 2018 meeting. Additionally, then-County Attorney William Curley declared it a county road, according to the minutes. 
“When we reviewed it, we went right to the courthouse, and it was signed and dated,” Stulken said. 
However, Harris said that it is “fraudulent” for Stulken to declare it a county road because there was no original record or signing of the survey. She added that the minutes from the county commissioners’ meeting in 1914 stated that a survey was going to be taken of the road, but there were no further records of the survey being taken. 
“My attorney (Tad Daly from Gillette) says that there is nothing mentioned in it,” Harris said. “All I can tell you is that we’ve had the title searched numerous times. … No one has been able to find an easement on the road.” 
Stulken said he was not sure what Harris was referring to when she mentioned an easement and reiterated that his research determined it to be a declared county road. 
“I know they (the county) didn’t have the easement back in 2012. One of the commissioners, Randy Rossman, came and knocked on my door wanting to know what it would take to get an easement,” Harris said, adding that she was not interested in giving an easement at the time. 
The dispute intensified for Harris when the Halliburton company wanted to start mining bentonite on nearby property owned by the Bureau of Land Management. Access to the mine was reached via the bridge on old Highway 85, which she said Halliburton had an easement for, until the bridge burned down in 2020. Weston County Road and Bridge Superintendent Jim Hansen said that Cheyenne River Road is “the only county road access in Weston County for Halliburton without a crossing over Beaver Creek.”
According to the Jan. 5, 2021 official minutes of the Weston County commissioners, then-Road and Bridge Superintendent Marty Habeck said Halliburton offered to reconstruct the bridge to meet Wyoming Department of Transportation specifications. Then-County Attorney Alex Berger stated that a legal arrangement between Halliburton and the county was needed.
“It would be much more advantageous to the county to fix the bridge rather than build 5 miles of road,” Harris said, describing the road in question as a “two-track dirt road” that goes through her pasture. 
As a cattle owner, Harris said, declaring this road to be a county road makes her livestock more vulnerable to cattle theft. Additionally, there have been issues in the past, she said, with teenagers partying and leaving trash.
“Would you like someone coming through your property? That’s my contention,” Harris said. “It opens it up for a lot of problems.”
However, both Stulken and Ertman stated that in their research they found this road to clearly be a county road.
“Our research indicated the current status of the road, and that’s what it (the decision) is based on,” Stulken said. “It is what it is.” 
Halliburton did not respond to emails from the News Letter Journal.