Loading...
HomeMy Public PortalAboutSanders, NeilState biew9 1.,4ne 42yr tgRs Man fights to reopen river tram BY ROGER PHILLIPS The Star -News The closure of an aging tram across the Salmon River has tensions be- tween a nearby resident and the For- est Service running as high as the river below. The Forest Service locked up the French Creek tram after an engineer's report stated the tram is unsafe for public use, according to Jack Carlson, the Slate Creek ranger for the Nez Perce National Forest. The report also estimated repairing the tram would cost approximately $200,000. An article in a travel magazine featured the tram as a recreational opportunity on the Salmon River, which prompted the agency to inspect it for safety, Carlson said. When the 56-year-old tram was closed, it stopped more than recre- ational use, it also stopped Neil Sand- ers from crossing to the ranch he leases on the north side of the river. "They should have left it alone or done the needed repairs, but no, they had to come in and mess it up," Sand- ers said. Sanders, 64, has been living at the Scott Ranch for several years. Losing use of the tram would force him to drive over the mountains to the north to get to Riggins, where he buys sup- plies and receives his mail. The trip over the mountains — when it's passable — is 80 miles round trip, roughly twice the distance he travels when he uses the tram to access the road that parallels the river, Sanders said. The tram, which was originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1939, is not as dangerous as the Forest Service is saying, Sanders said. He said as far as he knows, there has been no accidents or lawsuits since the tram has been in operation. "That tram is not unsafe to the point it should be locked up," he said. "Anything is unsafe if you're not watching what the devil you're do- ing." Sanders also said he has invested $400 in repairs and upkeep on the tram. Carlson couldn't verify the amount of money Sanders spent, but acknowledged Sanders has done maintenance on it. Carlson said the Forest Service is willing to allow Sanders use of the tram if three conditions are met. • The owners of Scott Ranch, Beverly Eason and her husband, who live in Jordan Valley, Ore., must re- view the engineer's report and sign that they are aware of the tram's con- dition. • Permission must be obtained from the land owners on the south side of ferently. "We felt it had very limited use except for Neil," he said. The Forest Service has tried in the past to turn the tram over to private citizens or another agency, but no one has been willing to take it over thus far. That's another idea at which Sand- ers takes exception. "It doesn't make any sense to me to put it in a private individual's hands; only a fool would take it over," he said. "It needs to be put in the government's hands and let the tax- payers support it." Neil Sanders Wants tram re -opened the river onto where the tram crosses. • The Easons have to acknowledge that Sanders is their agent. "We're trying to find ways to solve this situation," Carlson said. "In the meantime, we have to keep it locked up " Sanders is not satisfied with the arrangement, and he has not received a key to the tram, but he said that won't stop him from using it. "That tram is very essential to me," he said. "I haven't stopped using it and I won't stop using it." ' He also feels the public is being denied access, not just him. "I' m fight- ing for the public," Sanders said. Sanders says many people used the tram, and many people want it repaired, but Carlson sees things d Photo by Neil Sanders The Dave Hambright family of Pinehurst stands by French Creek tram, which the Forest Service closed. j /re 0(%6/a _ afe-sr-re7- vq p a fy�a9, LIFE IN THE WEST BOXED Oui ON THE SAo RNER Story by Art Lawler -- Photos by Chris Chung The sun has worked its way far- ther to the west than Neil Sand- ers prefers on this hot summer afternoon. Heat, like federal officials, is some- thing for which he has little tolerance. He is tired of the government screwing up his life. Tired of the man in front of him snapping pictures. Tired of the man behind him asking questions. Tired of listening to his Suzuki ATV strain to transport three grown men — Sanders, a reporter and a photographer — down the side of a mountain on a bumpy 4-foot wide dirt road. The sweat pouring from his bald head has forced him to stop the tiny all terrain vehicle on the incline and reach for his handkerchief. Above: Neil Sanders has lived in the cab- in that he built for 81/2 years. Before that, Sanders lived for 31/2 years in the shack on the right. The cabin has hot and cold run- ning water and electricity. At left: Sanders' cabin sits on land that he leases on the Scott Ranch, which is owned by Beverly Ea- son of Rome, Ore. He sleeps with a pistol un- der his pillow to ward off bears and cougars that venture near his door at night. Mountain man says feds taking him for a ride by padlocking tram that takes him home Tranquillity for Sanders ended Jan. 27 when Forest Service officials closed the French Creek tram east of Riggins. For a dozen years, the wooden box suspended from a cable has carried him over the Salmon River, between his mountain home and civilization, according to his own timetable. Built in 1939 by the Civilian Conserva- tion Corps, the tram had operated ever since without incident. Then in January, fearing that a recent news article would bring more people to the site, the Forest Service ruled the tram unsafe and chained it shut, cutting deeply into Sanders' wilderness lifestyle. "It's rotten that the Forest Service can walk up to the tram, have the engineer condemn it, lock it up, walk away and to hell with me after 12 years of use," Sand- ers said. Federal officials insist the tram is a safety hazard, that its timbers are rotting and that fixing it would cost $200,000. That's too much, they say, for a contrap- tion used mainly by Sanders. -7-4l> /(a/6 (5-kfes>77an • yAM5- 4� z ,of" y / qes Neil Sanders rides his ATV high above the Salmon River to make the 21/2 mile trip from "He's asking the American taxpayer to accept liability for his private use," says Jack Carlson, a district ranger in the Nez Perce National Forest. Cooler heads are trying to work out a solution that would preserve the tram — not only for Sanders but to keep open the access it provides recreationalists and historians. Some of them do use it, if not the thou- sands claimed by Sanders. There's a pop- ular hot springs on the other side, and a path recognized as Idaho's first North - South road. A man who likes to keep to himself, Sanders has been forced into the lime- light during his campaign to keep the tram. He's written letters to politicians, collected signatures on a petition, and driven his motorcycle 150 miles to Boise to present those documents to Sen. Larry Craig, Gov. Phil Batt and Rep. Helen rhPnnwPth his cabin to the tram. Sanders worked the trail for years to make it suitable for travel. He even invited the Forest Service to come watch him last month as he used a torch to cut away the chain they had used to lock up the tram. The service videotaped the inci- dent, and Sanders now faces an ap- pearance in federal court. The handkerchief clears away the perspiration on Sanders' face, but it does little to wipe away his declining disposition. "No way I'm going to be able to catch the evening news tonight," he complains. The fight has just begun There's a good chance none of this would have come up but for a mountain bike publication that en- couraged readers not to miss the ride over the French Creek tram. That prompted Forest Service offi- cials to have their engineers check it for safety. It was out of fear that users might get injured and the Forest Service would be held liable that they decided to shut it down. Since then Neil Sanders' mood has been on the snappish side. "They're a bunch of damn liars," Sanders says. "This has nothing to do with safety. They just don't want it (the tram) in there." So the defiant, 65-year-old moun- tain man with a grizzled white beard and a steaming red face took matters into his own hands. He freed the locked tram and let it sail across the Salmon River. With him in it, of course. `Il 7aa-ka 5 7�'sli7Crlr-//z/%S ���� 3of �/P�q�s Sanders is nothing if not honest about his law -breaking. Not only did he invite the videotaping of his violation last month, he plans to keep on doing it, unless he's thrown in jail which is another possibility. He has a date in federal court in Moscow on Nov. 15, where he faces charges of damag- ing government property and vio- lating the special order of the for- est supervisor. The fine is expected to be small, but if Sanders persists, as he says he will, he could ulti- mately be given a jail sentence and a $5,000 fine. For now he continues to get to and from Riggins by riding his ATV 2 % miles from his cabin to the north side of the tram. He steps into the wooden carriage, pulls a brake stick out of the pulley, and hauls himself 360 feet across the Salmon River. On the other side, he collects his mail from a box and hops into his parked Jeep pickup and drives 18 miles into Riggins, the nearest town. He makes the Riggins trip two or three times a week, for med- ical attention and other provisions. The alternative is to drive 80 miles round trip over a mountain road, which is closed nine months but of every year. That's more thar an inconvenience, Sanders says. Lt's a major added expense for Somebody who leases his land and Lives on a little over $700 monthly Social Security check. !Save the tram' Each day brings on new prob- lems. On this day he's been abus- Lng his Suzuki with too many pas- aengers, and the small engine is ovation could run as much as $200,000. Sanders shakes his head at the estimate for what basically is a box, a cable and rope attached to posts at each end. "No wonder the government is always running in the red," he says. His life on the mountain Sanders has never found any- thing in life an easy proposition. He reached the eighth grade, but admits he's only got about a fifth - grade education. "They just passed me to get rid of me," he said. He's had his share of disappoint- ments with family and with a mar- riage that went bad after 19 years. He was a journeyman auto body worker, then a farmer. Then he suffered a disabling in- jury to his back in the '60s that didn't help matters. He hasn't been able to hold down a job since. But before Jan. 27, for 12 years, Sand- ers could relax, even recover from some of those disappointments. "This is the only place I've ever been able to get any peace," he had said from the living room of the small, modern cabin he built with his own hands. The battery packs in his cellar keep a charge from the windmill on his roof and the generator on his deck, and they provide the pow. er for the television, which links him to civilization via satellite dish. In his cabin he can lie in his bed, the one with the .44 Magnum pis- tol under the pillow, and read from any of the 800 or so books he has stored neatly on the shelves. @himng noticeably in protest. Or, he can read from one of his - Writing letters to politicians and Bibles. Liewspaper editors and getting peti- "Yes, even though I'm frequently tins signed takes away from the disappointed in my fellow man, I wilderness experience he craves. do love the Lord," he says. One instead, he's fighting for the tram. gets the feeling, though, that Sand - A chief point of contention is us- exs is disappointed the Lord didn't age. Sanders claims thousands of Pecreationalists ride it each year — aotjust him. He says he has gathered 2,300 signatures of support from friends gong the Salmon River and in the Biggins area. "They wouldn't have signed it if they weren't interested in using it," he says. Carlson, with the Nez Perce Na- ional Forest, insists he never sees mone but Sanders use it. - Carlson, who still considers him - elf a friend of Sanders', is willing to see if there is enough interest to warrant a major renovation effort. The question is will that support hold up if people who use the tram are asked to help pay to bring the tram up to government standards? A forest service engineer's report estimates the price tag for the ren- invent a more deserving species than the two -legged kind. Something he might have some respect for, like the four -legged cougar who ate all but five of his 40 chickens in a week's time re- cently. "What a beautiful animal," he says. "They were just chickens. I wouldn't kill him for something like that." The ride to Sanders' cabin is 2 % steep, errorless miles on a narrow dirt road overlooking the Salmon River much farther if one hap- pens to steer off the edge, which drops 300 to 400 feet to certain death. Sanders rails against the govern ment as he drives. Rails against women, too. "I'm too good for the women who are available now," he says. "And the others are all taken. But the next best thing to a good wom- an is the wilderness." Without his unsolicited volun- teer labor, this stretch as histor ic a North -South route as the Ore- gon Trail is east to west would have faded to a narrow path by now, Sanders says. Five years, working on and off, has provided a fairly consistent trail, just enough for the ATV, or for hikers to ride the tram and then walk up to the hot spring. Sanders has improved that, too. For more than 100 years, a wooden tub filled with hot spring water has greeted bathers. But Sanders got tired of seeing them naked on his trips to the tram. So, he built a room around the tub, even put up a mirror inside without bothering to get a building permit. Sanders is a '90s mountain man, maybe the only one with vanity plates for his Jeep ("Mountain Man"), and for his motorcycle ("Mountain Men"). Sanders lived 31/4 years in a shack while building the cabin. Now he has much of what he needs to sustain him through the bitter cold of winter, including a dozen or so guns. Two or three times a week, he just needs to go to town. Some- times to see his doctor about his blood pressure, or for some sleep- ing pills to take his mind off the feds. Sometimes he just needs addi- tional supplies. The windmill pro- vides electricity but still he hauls two propane tanks over the moun- tains and into Riggins for refueling twice a year. The propane runs two freezers and a fridge. Between his frequent moments of angst an animated social crea- ture briefly emerges. For a man who likes his privacy, Sanders finds a lot of reasons to be around people. He's contributed to school -spon- sored events in Riggins, and to the Boy Scouts, who have a camp on the other side of the river, just south of the tram. Still, he would rather be out on his deck, surveying the majestic Salmon River Breaks and the deer, elk and bear that inhabit them. "I live quiet comfortably up here," he says. Burgeoning support He seems to have a sympathetic ear in Idaho's Republican Sen. Larry Craig. "We have contacted the Forest Service and right now we are pressing them to keep it open," says Maria Bolz, the Sena- - tor's representative. "If a lot of people are willing to enter into a challenge, cost share something like that — may be a possibility," says Carlson of the Cabin location c 0 E a) - ins oRiggins Salmon River E 3 6 -0 -c 1 Mlles C w ro French Creek N Nez Perce Forest. Such a solution might involve pooling private and federal funds to complete the project. Or it could be a partnership between a state and a federal agency. According to a briefing of the Nez Perce National Forest, the tram does need work: The timber supports are rotting; the anchor- ing, pulley and car systems are questionable; and the tram does not meet American National Stan- dards — the government standard for structures such as the tram. The Forest Service also consult- ed the Occupational Safety and Health and Administration about the tram and determined it does not meet OSHA standards. As for the $200,000 price tag, Carlson says, "That's just a rough estimate." The Forest Service findings don't necessarily line up with the conclusions of Dean Briggs of Briggs Engineering in Boise, ei- ther. Briggs is working on a struc- tural analysis on the tram. "I told him (Sanders) while I was up there it looked in pretty good shape except for certain things," said Briggs. Of the $200,000 estimate, he says, "I don't know what they had in mind, per se. But one never knows what the government is thinking." He does hazard a guess. "I've got a feeling they think it's just a liability for their system at this point. I don't think they've done an investigative study, other than to just take it down." He hopes, with modifications, the tram can be brought up to standards that provide the protec- tion the Forest Service needs. The current cable, though nearly 60 years old, has sustained only minimal wear and should last an- other 40 or 50 years, according to Briggs. "I didn't see a whole lot of deterioration of the cable, maybe a little flattening on top where wheels run over it," he said. The wooden carriage, which Sanders built a few years ago, will have to be replaced. "When you get done, I'm guess- ing, to meet all regulations, we'll probably be in the tens of thou- Sanders parks his Jeep, with "Mountain Man" vanity plates, in a ga rage near the tram on the opposite side of the river from his cabin for the trips when he ventures into town. sands of dollars," said Briggs. "But the wrong way, but ..." I can't tell you whether it will be $20,000 or $50,000." The hard ride home Sanders has other allies, groups Whatever happens will take that are interested in seeing the time, and that's a major problem tram preserved for historical rea- sons. Lynn Brown of the Trail Rid- ers and Walkers Association is one "Given the time," Brown says, of them. "We have the ways and means to tt B it We came down through Neil keep it (the tram) going. ut property in 1990," he said. The club does take a lot of tune." crossed one motorcycle and rider As for the current safety of the officials checked the tram riodi River near Riggins on the French tally after giving him the key, they 'C at a time. Brown wants either the Histori- i cal Society of Idaho or the Idaho Parks and Recreation Department - to take over liability for the tram. He even questions whether the government has the legal right to remove the tram. Brown says money really isn't a big problem if the Historical Society of Idaho de- cides it's interested. "A key link is Briggs' analysis, because a number of people in the Riggins, Grangeville area have agreed to volunteer time and mate- rials," said Brown. As for Sanders breaking the law, Brown finds that interesting. He wants to know if the Forest Service had permission to go on private property on the south side in order to lock up the tram. "Why didn't they lock it up on the government's land on the north side?" he says. When he asked that question of Forest Service officials a few weeks ago, he said it was greeted with silence. "They had to trespass on private land, to lock up the tram" he said. "There are no signs that say no trespassing, but still, it's private property. I didn't mean to rub them 01-7'f4q,,,-5- tram, Briggs says, "If I thought it was unsafe I wouldn't have gone across it. There's a degree of what it can carry. You need to limit the size of the load, and you need to make the carriage more accessible, and the cable less accessible to hands. "It's not made for the general public," he said. "But there are ways to accommodate that." What the Forest Service has done to recreationalists may be de- batable, but there seems little ques- tion about what it has done to Neil Sanders. When the tram was shut down, the rope that made it easier to to pull the tram across was left in the; river. The 65-year-old Sanders got a friend to help him fish it out. He'd still like to reattach it to make the ride across much easier, but he needs help — and some le- gal authority wouldn't hurt, either; Even if he does decide to keep breaking the law, and ride the tram home, it is a much more phys- ically demanding process to lift his arms and pull himself across with the steel cable above his head. At first, Forest Service officials of- fered to give Sanders a key, figur- ing he could ride the tram safely because of his experience. But all that did was raise anoth- er question: If the tram is unsafe for tourists, why is it safe for Sand- ers? Sanders feels strongly that the „. public has just as much right to use the tram as he does said they frequently found it un- locked. So they decided Sanders couldn't use the tram, either. For his part, Carlson of the For- est Service has been checking with people like Brown, looking for a solution. He just doesn't want any- one riding the tram until the prob- lem is solved. But people like Brown want Sanders to be able to use the tram now. Sanders agrees. "Don't lock it up or out," he says in one of many letters to political leaders, "let the people enjoy it while they can, their kids and the kids' kids. "Even God will smile." Then too, when Forest Service Sanders pulls himself over the Salmon Neil Sanders gets out of the French Creek Tram after crossing the Salmon River to get to his home nea Riggins. On the beam of the tram is the closure notice put up by the Forest Service. Sfd e5 M ah 41,14i, 199b Trial of `mountain man' from Riggins postponed Neil Sanders, the self-pro- claimed mountain man, will wait for another day to battle the federal government. The Riggins-area man was scheduled for Federal Court in Moscow on Thursday. He is charged with defying the Forest: Service by cutting a lock so he could use an aging tram to cross the Salmon River. The trial was postponed until June 26. It is the second time the case has been continued. Sanders used the tram to shave 40 miles off the trip be- tween Riggins and his isolated mountain home. Forest Service officials videotaped him cutting the lock after he invited them to the site. Sanders faces a penalty of up to $5,000 and a possible jail sen- tence, if convicted. -7-4/5 /c(aLi 6 54a &• ss--!a `e - Forest Service settles with Riggins man over tram use moscow — Charges have been dismissed against a man who feuded with the Forest Ser- vice over use of a tram across the Salmon River. The complaint against Neil Sanders, 64, was dropped this week after Sanders agreed to pay the $75 cost of the lock and cable he cut last year to use the tram after it had been closed for safety reasons. "He paid that and we agreed to dismiss the case," Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry McHugh said Wednesday. Sanders dives in the remote mountains 20 miles from Riggins and for years has used the tram — a wooden basket suspended from a cable on pulleys — to cross the river from his cabin on the canyon breaks to the road to Riggins. When the Forest Service closed the tram last year, Sand- ers faced charges of damaging government property and violat- ing a Forest Service closure or- der after he cut through the lock to use it. He maintains the tram is the easiest access to his cabin. Forest Service officials said the tram will be removed next week.