Our Vanishing Roads

Our Vanishing Roads
by Perry H. Nelson
1991

“Before any productive discussion about public roads and access can proceed, our thinking about laws, roads, and some legal history needs to be clearly defined. Until everyone, for example, is aware that landowners and the public both have rights and can articulate them clearly, sportsmen/landowner relations will improve very little, in spite of the best efforts of the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks or sportsmen’s organizations…

After retirement from the state, I vowed that if I were able, and could meet up with enough citizens willing to pass through the hard knocks school of public interest activism, and research the historical laws regarding public roads, and promote their restoration, I would join with them.

That opportunity came during a public meeting called by an ad hoc group of public land users in 1984 when Gene Hawkes, a former Gallatin National Forest Supervisor, threw his $25 on the table at the Bozeman Public Library and said, ‘Here’s my start-up dues. Let’s organize a public land access group.’ After more people threw their $25 on the table that night, nine of us from Bozeman, Three Forks, and Livingston signed on as the Founders and first Board of Directors of the Public Land Access Association. PLAAI was incorporated as a Montana Corporation on April 18, 1985 by the Secretary of State.”

Original Founding PLWA (PLAAI) Board of Directors

Lewis E. (Gene) Hawkes – Bozeman (retired Gallatin National Forest Supervisor)
William (Bill) A. Fairhurst – Three Forks (educator and civic affairs)
Perry H. Nelson – Bozeman (retired Fish, Wildlife & Parks biologist)
Mark A. Simonich – Livingston
Bob Garner – Bozeman
Sandy Buchaklian – Livingston
Robert Olson – Livingston
J. L. Lawellin – Livingston (Montana Sportsmen Association)
Richard F. Creed – Bozeman