Land owner offered to pave road to Anniversary Narrows before he closed it

Robert Ford swears he never wanted to ruin anyone’s favorite hike.

The man who blocked access to a popular trail near Lake Mead said he originally offered to pave the road to Anniversary Narrows — and keep it open to the public — but the National Park Service turned him down late last year.

Once that happened, Ford said, he had no choice but to close the only direct route to the slot canyon. His insurance carrier was threatening to drop him unless he did something about the potential liability posed by the existing dirt road, which winds through a narrow wash and past old mine openings and areas prone to rock slides.

“That road is very unsafe, and there’s no cell service,” the Las Vegas businessman said Friday. “If you get out there and get hurt, you’re stuck.”

Though the Park Service promotes the slot canyon on brochures it hands out to visitors, Ford said, the government has stuck him with the responsibility for providing safe access to it.

Right now, the road is blocked by a 12-foot-tall fence he had put up at his property line in the bottom of the wash. If people keep ignoring his “no trespassing sign” and climbing around the fence to reach Anniversary Narrows, he plans to haul in two large shipping containers to close off the canyon completely.

But what Ford said he prefers to do is improve the whole 2½-mile road so it’s safe enough to drive on for hikers and his mining trucks.

“It’s safer for someone to be driving through there in a car than to be walking,” he said. “If they’re in a car, they’ve got insurance.”

So far, Ford said, three or four insurance claims have been made against him by people hurt while walking or climbing around on his property — another reason his carrier didn’t want to cover him unless safety improvements were made.

Ford mines limestone and other minerals on his 215-acre tract surrounded by federal land. He also runs a composting operation there and, until recently, was renting space to a Las Vegas indoor gun range that offers packages to people who want to shoot military weapons including heavy machine guns and grenade launchers.

He said he recently put that rental arrangement on hold because the sound of gunfire was startling hikers in the narrows and prompting complaint calls to the federal Bureau of Land Management. His insurance company also advised it to stop until he had a contract in place with the gun range to protect him from liability.

“It’s kind of a tough decision to make. They pay good money,” Ford said of the gun range. “The BLM isn’t giving me any money. The people walking to the narrows aren’t giving me any money. All I get is aggravation.”

Park Service officials could not be reached for comment, but in a Dec. 17 letter to Ford’s attorney the chief of Lake Mead National Recreation Area politely declined Ford’s offer to pave the entire road.

“While we appreciate your client’s offer to improve Anniversary Mine Road for easier access to its property and mining operations, as well as improving public access, it is the longstanding policy of the NPS to retain the road in its primitive, unpaved state,” wrote then-Superintendent Bill Dickinson. “Our General Management Plan designates that area of the park as a Natural Zone, which is managed to preserve unique geological, biological and scenic features.”

Anniversary Narrows itself lies just north of the recreation area’s boundary, within the BLM-managed Muddy Mountains Wilderness Area. There are no other roads leading directly to it.

The Anniversary Mine was founded in the early 1920s, more than a decade before Hoover Dam was finished and the recreation area was born in 1936.

Ford said he first entered into a deal to buy the old mine in 2006 and finally took possession of the land in 2011. The following year, he fixed up the dirt track leading to and through his property by covering it with asphalt chips. That triggered a letter from the BLM telling him he shouldn’t have done that, he said.

What followed was a dispute — still unsettled as far as Ford is concerned — over who the road belongs to.

The federal government claims ownership of the road where it crosses land managed by the BLM and the Park Service. “I think they’re completely wrong,” Ford said. “The road was built for the mine. It was named Anniversary Mine Road. To me, the whole right of way goes with my property.”

He is thinking about testing that theory soon. Ford said he’s already got engineering plans, a county dust permit and a $300,000 bid from a contractor to pave the entire road. If he gives the go-ahead, the work could start as soon as March 1.

Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Find him on Twitter: @RefriedBrean.