The Cache County Council is taking the same attitude toward roads in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. "We in the county are stepping up and saying . . . these are our roads," said Councilman Cory Yeates. These roads, those roads - all the roads. The trouble is, the county's ownership is more tenuous than Miller's. It must be proven, road by road, because the national forests are owned by all Americans.

The county has laid claim to 197 miles of roads and intends to take over the remaining 150-plus miles in the forest, based on what remains of a Civil War-era mining law that was repealed in the 1970s.

The county cites RS2477 as the basis for their claims. That old law giving counties and cities the right to use routes across federal land was repealed, but existing rights of way were grandfathered in. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that states can interpret "existing right of way," and Utah law defines that as 10 years of continuous use prior to 1976.

Further, counties have to do more than simply say a particular road has been in use since the '60s. They have the burden of proving the road has been in use and maintained by the county over all those years.

Cache County leaders say they don't plan to go to court, unless the Forest Service tries to block access to any road in the forest. But unfettered access by any group threatens to undermine the responsibility of the Forest Service to manage these public lands and to protect them for all Americans.

There may be some roads the county can legitimately claim. That is for the courts to decide. Undoubtedly, there are others that should be closed or restricted by the forest managers to protect fragile wildlife habitat, watershed and non-motorized recreation.

Larry Miller can say, "Mine, all mine!" But for Cache County, saying "they're all mine" simply doesn't make it so.