Columnist Susan Snyder: Road rage surfaces in Jarbidge

Monday, Dec. 22, 2003 | 8:28 a.m.

Debate continues over whether a hotly contested stretch of dirt road in the national forest outside Elko remains open or closed.

And while the destiny of the 1.5-mile South Canyon Road remains in limbo, so does the future of a historical display commemorating the Jarbidge Shovel Brigade.

People in Nevada's small towns have way more fun than we do.

Our county's elected officials last week haggled over how many special groups of people and businesses will be allowed to avoid restricted water use during our ongoing drought.

In Elko County, commissioners dickered over where to display a shovel plaque and photographs depicting the history of a civil rebellion to re-open the road that U.S. Forest Service officials closed after it was washed out in a 1995 flood.

For those who have no idea what we're talking about, South Canyon Road is -- or was, depending on its status on any given day -- a dirt thoroughfare that runs along Jarbidge River to a primitive campground near the town of Jarbidge. The area is just south of the Nevada-Idaho border.

When the flood washed it out, U.S. Forest Service officials said the road couldn't be rebuilt without ruining the habitat of the endangered bull trout.

The battle among residents who want to re-open the road, federal officials and environmentalists has raged in courtrooms, newspapers and even grocery stores.

During a 1999 visit to Elko County, U.S. Forest Service workers told of being shunned in local businesses and of their kids being teased at school.

The ongoing controversy over a 7,920-foot-long strip of dirt gave birth to the "Shovel Brigade," a citizen's rebellion that became the poster child for land rights squabbles across the West.

Supporters sent some 10,000 shovels to the volunteers who dug out, and rebuilt in a primitive fashion, portions of the road on July 4, 2000. At one point, a giant shovel was erected in front of the Elko County Courthouse. Federal officials finally agreed to work with the county on plans to rebuild it.

In November, Elko County Commissioners voted to remove a plaque and photographs commemorating the Shovel Brigade from the county courthouse and place them in Jarbidge.

On Wednesday, commissioners changed their minds and decided the plaque and photos may hang as a historical display in the courthouse hallway.

And this mess ain't even history yet. The bickering continues, as does travel of it by those whose vehicles can make the trip.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife officials told the Associated Press last week they consider South Canyon Road closed because it was never reopened legally. Forest Service officials told the AP they don't restrict people from using it, but they wish people wouldn't.

They consider the road neither officially opened nor officially closed.

The whole ordeal is officially nuts.

Elko's commissioners on Wednesday also discussed a plan in which the Forest Service would pay $3 million to rebuild two-thirds of the road, leaving a third as a trail. Shovel Brigade members would rather rebuild the whole road with volunteers.

And the trout, well, they can't vote -- not even in Elko County where the improbable seems not only possible but inevitable.