State sues over blocked road

PALMER — The state of Alaska has filed a lawsuit against a Chickaloon man, hoping for an order barring him from blocking a road as he has for most of the summer.

Charles Lone Wolf insisted in a July interview with the Mat-Su Frontiersman that Chickaloon Branch Road is not the state road that shows up on maps from the early 20th century, but is instead a homesteader road installed much later. He said the road did not show up on his title when he bought the place.

But the state’s Department of Natural Resources, in a lawsuit filed Aug. 6, begs to differ.

The road “has a very detailed and well-documented history which is an important part of Alaska’s heritage,” the state says in the complaint filed against Lone Wolf. A few pages later, the state adds that, “the Chickaloon-Knik-Nelchina Trail was used as one of the main access routes through the Matanuska River Valley.”

A dozen maps accompany the lawsuit, showing the trail as far back as the 1880s.

Lone Wolf said he didn’t block people from crossing his land; rather, he detoured them up through his driveway. He said it was a means to get people to slow down.

The area has lately seen a few more visitors than usual, he said. It’s the closest road to access land for which Riversdale Alaska obtained leases to explore for potential coal mining. Lone Wolf said he’s not worried about coal mining — he doesn’t think Riversdale will find anything of value — but the company’s trucks threaten his family.

Neighbors have since claimed that the increased traffic is negligible and hasn’t, at least this summer, brought very many trucks, if any, past Lone Wolf’s property.

At any rate, the state lawsuit documents other ways it has attempted to get Lone Wolf to stop putting trees across the road.

On July 3, Alaska State Troopers handed him a cease and desist letter. On July 12, troopers stood by as DNR employees cut up the trees. Troopers again told Lone Wolf that day that it was illegal to block the road.

“By early the next morning on July 13, 2012, defendant Charles Lone Wolf re-effectuated the blockage by returning the previously cleared tree segments back onto the roadway,” the lawsuit states.

The state asks Superior Court Judge Kari Kristiansen to order Lone Wolf to stop block the road. The state also wants to be paid back for the cost of removing the blockages and for legal fees.

As of Friday, Lone Wolf had not filed a response to the state’s accusations in the lawsuit.

So far, Kristiansen has given the state a temporary injunction, meaning that Lone Wolf cannot block the road while the lawsuit is ongoing.

Though it wasn’t a ruling, Kristiansen said that the evidence prevented thus far was pretty favorable to the state.

“The state has demonstrated that it and/or members of the public may well suffer irreparable injury should defendants’ actions not be enjoined,” Kristiansen said. “Defendant’s actions appear to have become increasingly hostile, physical and threatening. The obstructions defendants have placed on the roadway create a safety hazard to those attempting to use the roadway.”

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.