This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Regarding the proposed Bears Ears National Monument, Rep. Rob Bishop recently said, "The problem with the administration is that they have to use the Antiquities Act. A very poorly written act, a very old act that is more abused than used."
It may be all of that. Yet that same description is even more applicable to the 1866 law called RS 2477 that, in its entirety, states, "The right of way for the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted."
That law is the legal basis for the misguided effort by the state to claim 36,000 miles of cow paths and dry washes as "highways." Bishop should apply his myopic criteria to RS 2477, which "is a very poorly written [law], a very old [law] that is more abused than used."
Mark Luttrell
Seward, Alaska