The Natrona County road blocked by a Casper-area ranch couple on Friday had the barriers removed by county workers Tuesday morning.
Natrona County Board of Commission Chairman Peter Nicolaysen and Commissioner Dave North both confirmed County Road 505 also known as Circle Drive is now open to traffic and the county intends to keep it that way.
“We actually got some outside counsel and explained the whole situation to him and his recommendation was for us to open the road back up and so that’s what we did,” North said.
North said no one showed up on site to interrupt or stop county Road and Bridge workers from removing the barriers. A sheriff’s deputy accompanied them.
The road stretches from the top of Casper Mountain 13.5 miles to Wyoming State Highway 487.
Natrona County ranchers Walt and Stephanie Woodbury and their ranch business Woodbury Land and Livestock, LLC, purchased property that surrounds a portion of the road in 2023. They have complained about trespassing, littering and other issues on their property.
Nicolaysen said the county emailed their attorney John Masterson, who is based in Casper, and informed him that the barriers erected by the Woodburys would be removed.
The letter advised the couple that to “mitigate” financial damages the county could incur through the idling of contractors’ heavy equipment and extending county road projects occurring on the mountain, the county was taking action, Nicolaysen said. The county also has stated that the road is an escape route for residents living on top of the mountain in the event of fire.
The county is pursuing action to legally secure the road through prescriptive easement or adverse possession to leave no question as to whom the portion of the road belongs to. However, both commissioners say there is no doubt in their minds the road already belongs to the county.
“We think it is a county road, we think it was properly established, whatever the process was back in the 1930s or so, but we just can’t find a record yet and we are still working through getting records,” Nicolaysen said. “But what we can’t do is be in this limbo place. The statutory process is straightforward, and we are going to avail ourselves of that for the public benefit.”
North said that while a county bid for a preliminary injunction against the Woodburys to keep them from blocking the road failed in Natrona County District Court, the fact the couple took action by blocking it “changed the complexion of everything.”
“The bottom line is because that has been a county road for so long and declared as a county road, even numbered as a county road all the way through, we feel that, and our outside legal counsel says, that (we) meet all the legal requirements for everything,” he said. “So, that’s the reason why it was done.”
The process to claim the road will involve a public hearing and notification to property owners along the road who want to object to the county’s actions to obtain the road. It also requires a survey and plat of the road which North said was done about six years ago.
Wyoming law states that to claim adverse possession, the land has to be occupied openly, exclusively and continuously for 10 years. The county road has been in place for decades and recognized on maps. The Woodburys have had their property for less than a year.
Nicolaysen said process is an administrative one and will not involve the courts. A timeline for the action will follow the law’s requirements. He didn’t yet have an estimate on when a hearing might take place.
Repeated calls to Masterson have not been returned.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
