Dad makes the local Montana News!
My Dad was interviewed in a Missoulian article a couple days ago:
CONDON - For years, Joe Raible and his family used a road across Plum Creek Timber Co. land to access their home in the Swan Valley.
Set about a mile from the nearest county road, the family depended on Plum Creek's generosity to access their homestead. And the company gladly obliged.
Not only did Plum Creek allow the Raibles to drive across its property, it even provided a utility easement for the family's telephone line.
Then, in about 1990, the timber company sold the property to a Florida man. Not long after that, a locked gate appeared across the road to keep the public out.
"At first he gave us a key to the gate, but then someone tore the gate down," Raible said. "He blamed us and dug a tank trap across the road right at our property line. He dumped the pile of dirt on our land and sowed the pile with logs so we couldn't just push it back in the hole."
Raible thought about suing, but changed his mind after a very direct discussion with his attorney.
"He told me that I could either put my kid through college or his kid," Raible said. "I had a friend who'd had an access issue and spent a lot of money on it. He lost."
The "Florida man" was a guy that I remember as "Jackass Burns". After using our "back road" for 20 years, he moved in and shut it down. That forced us to use the "front road" which has been a challenge ever since. My kids refer to it as the "bumpy road". Looks like lots of changes going on in good ol' Montana.
Posted by Chris Berthold on February 13, 2007 at 03:11 PM MST #
Hm...any relation to Conrad? ;-)
Just kidding. Sorry to hear about your family having to go through all that hassle, though. Seems like Montanans have been having problems for years with high-falutin', big money out-of-staters (e.g., Ted Turner, etc.). There ought to be a law....
Posted by Jonathan Lehr on February 16, 2007 at 04:42 AM MST #