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Fallon County moves to clean up historic road records; many routes left 'primitive' pending research
Summary
County GIS staff worked with commissioners to review roads shown in a 1932 plat book; where petitions or resolutions cannot be found, staff will mark routes as 'primitive' on public maps, keep petition records in an internal layer, and task staff to research minute books or seek legal review for contested access claims.
Commissioners and GIS/planning staff undertook a detailed review of historic road notations from the county’s 1932 plat book, focusing on how to represent petitioned, disallowed and unresolved roads on public maps. Katie, the county GIS/planning lead, walked the commission through dozens of entries; many road segments appeared in the plat book as "County Road by resolution" or as petitioned but the county’s files lack a corresponding petition, resolution or minutes to verify legal status.
The group agreed on a practical approach: retain petition and research material in an internal layer (so staff can retrieve the history), but mark ambiguous stretches on the public-facing map as "primitive" or "abandoned" until records or legal advice confirm otherwise. Commissioners noted the legal complexity: one commissioner observed that if the petition process was incomplete "it's not a road," while others warned that a plat-book entry can create expectations of access and advised a legal opinion for contested parcels.
Specific examples discussed included entries labeled as disallowed, petitioned but with no petition on file, and instances where a road shown on the plat book crosses state or BLM lands. Staff will combine the edits, add notes to petition entries that appear disallowed, and return a cleaned draft map and a prioritized list of petitions/minutes for legal review. The commission asked staff to pursue minutes and related petitions for a set of identified township blocks and noted that some roads may require formal abandonment proceedings if records or legal review support removal from the public map.
