Teton County Road 380 Summary

The Teton County Road 380, also known as the Salmond Ranch Road, goes up the Deep Creek drainage and connects to trails into the Rocky Mountain Front. It is one of the few access points into the front between Augusta and Glacier Park. The initial portion of the 3 mile road goes through the Salmond Ranch, then through the school sections which abut BLM and National Forest land. It is open only for foot and horse travel on the federal land.

The disputed access issue began in the 1930s, when Frank Salmond offered Teton County a dedicated public easement to ensure public access, in exchange for the county closing Road 380. Quote from Great Falls Tribune Story “Teton County set for fight over county road” “On June 2, 1930, the three members of the Teton County Commission met in an afternoon session to discuss the fate of a country road about 20 miles west of Choteau along the Rocky Mountain Front. Now, more than eight decades later, a legal battle is brewing over the decision the commissioners made that day: to vacate the road on the condition that the landowner, Frank Salmond, provide a public right-of-way to state lands. The renewed fight over the approximately four-mile section of right-of-way much of which is barely visible after nearly eight decades of little-to-no use is a thorny and complicated issue pitting the public’s right to access public lands against property rights and swirling it together with concerns about wildlife, weeds and land conservation. Throw in a proposed federal bill that would add some 67,000 acres of new wilderness to the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex and you’ve got an issue ripe for heated debate in western Teton County.”

In 1988 the Salmonds locked the gate and filed “a legal notice to all the world” that any public rights to cross the land had been unilaterally terminated by them. Then in 1989, the Salmond family posted “No Trespassing” signs on the road.

After public outcry on the issue, the Salmonds brought a quiet title action in October of 2012 hoping to validate their position. In response, the state Department of Natural Resources Conservation (DNRC) and the State Land Board filed papers on March 1, 2013, with documentary evidence, showing the right of way had not been abandoned. In a separate action, Randy (Randall) Knowles, a private citizen from Great Falls alleged, “The DNRC, State Land Board and Teton County breached their duty, as trustees, to protect the rights of Montana residents to the enjoyment of land entrusted to their care.”

A variety of parties then began negotiating. At the State Land Board hearing, Russell Country Sportsmens Association, as well as Public Land/Water Access Association (PLWA) president, John Gibson, testified at the hearing on July 20, 2015, along with the Montana Wildlife Federation. The proposal was unanimously approved by the State Land Board. As part of the deal, Salmond Ranch Co. Inc. would construct another unimproved route closer to a section line, which would limit damage to its property, with the state footing the bill. The public would then get access to that undeveloped trail, which leads to thousands of acres of wild state and federal lands on the Rocky Mountain Front prized for hunting and hiking, including lands in the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act, for six months of the year, approximately 50,000 acres of public land along the Rocky Mountain Front, west of Choteau – 1,900 acres of DNRC land, 10,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management property and some 38,000 acres of land in Lewis and Clark National Forest including the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

UPDATE: July 2015

Access Comes as Part of Settlement of Salmond Ranch Dispute

From the Office of Governor Steve Bullock

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 20, 2015

Mike Wessler, Deputy Communications Director, Governor’s Office, 444-9725

John Grassy, Communications Director, DNRC, 444-0465

HELENA, Mont. – Governor Steve Bullock today secured access to 50,000 acres of public land on the Rocky Mountain Front. It was secured through the unanimous State Land Board approval of an agreement to restore public access across the Salmond Ranch in Teton County to state and federal lands in the Deep Creek area of the Rocky Mountain Front.

“The right to access our public lands is something Montanans hold dear. Through this decision, we’re ensuring access to 50,000 acres of public lands that was previously in question,” Bullock said. “Today’s agreement shows that when we work together—landowners, sportsmen, and public entities—to find solutions, we can build a path that respects both private property and public access rights.”

Bullock commended all involved in this solution for their hard work toward resolution of the issue.

The road access issue dates back to 1930, when Frank Salmond offered Teton County a right-of-way to ensure public access, in exchange for the county closing Road 380. However, in 1989, the Salmond family posted “No Trespassing” signs on the road.  In 2012, the Salmond family brought a quiet title action seeking to clarify public access on the road. That same year, Teton County, the Montana DNRC, and Great Falls resident Randall Knowles intervened, arguing the road was public.

As part of the settlement, the Salmond family agreed to a new access road along the edge of its holdings. DNRC agreed to pay for a new public parking area and to maintain weed control along the new route. Once complete on October 1st of this year, the road will be accessible from July 1 through December 31st of every year. Negotiations on today’s agreement took three years to complete.

Bullock has long been a champion of access for Montanans to public lands and waterways. He drafted the landmark opinion that secured access to Montana’s public rivers and streams.

UPDATE: April 2013

Salmond Ranch Road – Key Access to Rocky Mountain Front

The Salmond Ranch road or Teton county road 380 goes up the Deep Creek drainage and connects to trails into the Rocky Mountain Front. It is one of the few access points into the front between Augusta and Glacier Park. The initial portion of the 3 mile road goes through the Salmond Ranch, then through the school sections which abut BLM and National Forest land. It is open only for foot and horse travel on the federal land . There is no conflict with the Rocky Mountain Heritage act pending in congress because the road itself does enter federal land.

In 1930 the county abandoned a portion road going thru the private sections with the agreement that they did hot abandon the right of way itself.

In 1988, the Salmonds locked the gate and filed “a legal notice to all the world” that any public rights to cross the land had been unilaterally terminated by them.

After public outcry on the issue, Salmonds filed court action in October of 2012 hoping to validate their position. In response, the state Department of Natural Resources and the State Land Board filed papers on March 1, 2013 with documentary evidence showing the right of way had not been abandoned. In a separate action, Randy Knowles , a private citizen from Great Falls alleges that ” the DNRC, State Land Board and Teton County breached their duty as trustees to protect the rights of Montana residents to the enjoyment of land entrusted to their care.”

It is great to have the State for an ally on this case. In the past we have not always enjoyed such cooperation – from either Montana or Federal agencies. As PLWA President John Gibson said in the past “I am getting tired of it. They are letting someone else do their work for them. They have the legal equipment, the money and everything they need to challenge this.”

So, we welcome this recent action by the state and thank them for it.

UPDATE: September 2011

Taken with permission from The Great Falls Tribune – September 8, 2011

Rocky Mountain Front Road Closure - Road #380 / Salmond Ranch Road

by MICHAEL BABCOCK

CHOTEAU -” A “private road no trespassing” sign on Road No. 380, also known as the Salmond Ranch Road, on the Rocky Mountain Front west of Choteau, surprised former Montanan Tim Callahan.

He first encountered the road closure in October 2009 while on a scenic drive in the area. At that time, there was just the sign saying the road was closed.

“We were out to see how close we could get to that part of the Rocky Mountain Front,” Callahan said of the 2009 trip.

Callahan was back recently to show John Gibson of the Public Lands Water Access Association and Dave Van Tighem of Russell Country Sportsmen in Great Falls the sign. But now, in addition to the sign, a new gate with a lock makes clear that Salmond Ranch Road is closed.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Gibson said of the Salmond Ranch Road closing. “This is happening all over the state.”

Indeed, on the Public Lands Water Access Association website, a map of Montana is dotted with at least 20 different balloons indicating cases where a private land owner has locked a road that the association maintains is public.

“Lots of land is changing hands, and we are concerned that roads are used as a public travel-way for as much as 100 years, and somebody comes along and says it is private,” Gibson said.

What really angers Gibson and other members of the public who want access to public land is that they say government agencies tasked with managing that land are listless in the face of the roadblocks.

“I am getting tired of it. Here it is, a bunch of individuals try to fight this battle, and the agencies like the counties, the state, the (U.S.) Forest Service and the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) are not doing a damned thing to protect access to their land,” Gibson said. “They are letting someone else do their work for them. They have the legal equipment, the money and everything they need to challenge this.”

On that recent trip to the Deep Creek area west of Choteau, Callahan, Gibson and Van Tighem also found an ominous orange “Private Property No Trespassing” sign on the road going up the South Fork of Deep Creek. That road leads to the Gordon Dyal ranch. Dyal is co-chairman of global investment banking at Goldman Sachs.

The road leads to what used to be Elizabeth, a settlement with its own post office from 1898 to 1910. Such settlements are important points when determining previous public use of a road.

“These people are closing travel-ways that were there before they were born. They belong to Montana and history,” Gibson said. “People move in and close a trail or a road that was there before the land was patented, and suddenly they think they own it and you can’t travel it anymore.”

Attempts to reach both Dyal and Salmond on Wednesday were unsuccessful.

While the roads travel through privately owned land, they also lead to sections of state and federal land that provide access to some of the most scenic parts of the Rocky Mountain Front.

“There is no other access road into that land,” Gibson said.

Callahan grew up in Montana - graduating from Malta High School in 1969, and later from the University of Montana. Now he lives in Seattle where he practices law.

“I started hiking back there in the early 1970s,” he said of the Deep Creek area. “That area is historically significant for me. I loved going into there.”

Callahan also said previous owners were much more lenient when it came to access.

“I am saddened to see that the old-timers are disappearing and that it is becoming money property,” he said. “Those old-timers would say ‘as long as you close the gate and don’t make a mess, it is OK to go.’

“I understand that times change, but it is sad to see,” Callahan added.

After seeing the no trespassing signs, Callahan contacted the Public Land/Water Access Association Inc., a Billings-based organization with a mission to “maintain, restore and perpetuate public access to the boundaries of all Montana public land and waters.”

The Salmond Ranch was once a huge, sprawling cattle empire on the Rocky Mountain Front that began in the late 19th century. It has since been divided up and handed down to succeeding generations of Salmonds. Two large parts of the ranch were sold -” one to Dyal and another to David Letterman.

Gibson said his research shows that, in 1930, Frank Salmond asked Teton County to abandon the road and provide a public easement over it. In 1988, Jack Salmond petitioned the District Court to rule the 1930 abandonment as “ineffective,” and terminate the public easement.It is unclear whether the court ruled on the petition.

Teton County Attorney Joe Coble, who met with Gibson and Callahan, told them it is likely a title search would be necessary to determine the validity of the 1930 abandonment and the 1988 petition. Coble said the title search would help clarify property ownership and whether the initial abandonment - and subsequent easement - or the later petition would take precedence.

Teton County Road 380 in Pictures & Maps