When we ran the story about the Gist ranch being included in the National Register of Historic Places. A couple of readers told us that we should not feature that place as no one can get to it by road anyway.
There are two roads into the Gist part of the Missouri River. One is a road down from the Bullwhacker Coulee road. That road is in very bad shape and the owners of the ranch at the top of the hill will not let people go on the road in the first place.
The other road takes off from the Ferry road and most of the time it is closed as well as another rancher does not like people going over his private land.
So, prime and historic BLM land is virtually closed to the public unless a person wants to access it from the Missouri River.
Here is what I think is a brilliant idea. Apparently Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has plenty of money to spend millions on ranches no one will ever visit or see (how about as a for instance, the Aageson ranch north of Fresno Dam on the Milk River.)
Suppose that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks bought one of the two ranches blocking access to the Gist place since it seems like money is no object with them and then trade it to the BLM for some land that FWP needs for a good access that the BLM controls.
That would make recreationalists and hunters, two of the groups that really support FWP very happy and would turn a historic site into a site that can be visited by many.
Here is a thought. How about a State Park down there? Or a BLM Park? There are no state parks in our neck of the woods and that area would be dandy.
If groups of government work together along with private citizens, miracles can happen.
Or we can muddle along naming historic sites that no one will ever be able to get to.
