{"id":25315,"date":"2024-10-13T22:23:31","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T04:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/free-land-holders-meet-locals-removing-fence\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:14:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:14:39","slug":"free-land-holders-meet-locals-removing-fence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/free-land-holders-meet-locals-removing-fence\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Land Holders meet locals removing fence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Danette
Danette Dillon and Travis, who wouldn\u2019t say his last name, on horseback on Friday, Oct. 11, while members of the Mancos community removed fencing at Chicken Creek. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

On Friday, Oct. 11, five members from the Free Land Holder Committee went out to where locals were dismantling their fence in Chicken Creek.<\/p>\n

Members of the group were unarmed, bringing with them only documents that they call \u201cevidence\u201d that proves their ownership of the land \u201cunder treaty law and land patent law,\u201d they said in an email to The Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope to help our neighbors understand we were willing to take the risk in order to demonstrate this is not an uprising, an insurrection or a rebellion,\u201d they said. \u201cWe were unarmed, in peace, with honor for our local neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a bunch of papers, land descriptions, but no deed in their name,\u201d said County Commissioner Gerald Koppenhafer, who met Free Land Holders at the fence Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil they have that (deed) they have no more right here than any of the rest of us,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Forest Service is pathetic, and so is our sheriff, as far as I\u2019m concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot of people who were removing fence that morning left, fearing the confrontation would escalate to violence, said Danette Dillon, whose family homesteaded in northwestern Colorado around 1865.<\/p>\n

As of Saturday, Oct. 12, all fencing has been removed from the forest.<\/p>\n

Dillon, like many others, were surprised at how much fence the group got up in so little time. She calculated that for fence posts alone, at $3 a piece, the group had to spend around $21,000.<\/p>\n

Bill Vaughn, a Mancos resident who frequents Chicken Creek to walk his dog, said that when he finished removing fence on Thursday, it was a 30-minute walk back to where he parked his car.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe how far it went,\u201d Vaughn said.<\/p>\n

\"Bill
Bill Vaughn, a Mancos resident, coils barbed wire fence on Friday, Oct. 11. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\u201cSee
\u201cSee how nasty that stuff is,\u201d said Bill Vaughn, a Mancos resident, as he coiled barbed wire fence. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

On Friday, Vaughn helped remove more fence, wearing thicker gloves than the day before. He said the fence punctured the rubber gloves he wore Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSee how nasty that stuff is,\u201d Vaughn said, showing off the barbed wire.<\/p>\n

Two women who asked not to be named, walked along the fencing and collected plastic ribbons and other waste that was strewed in trees, on the forest floor.<\/p>\n

That morning, the pair collected a bucketload of trash.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve cut trees, they\u2019ve driven motorized vehicles where they\u2019re not supposed to,\u201d said one of the women.<\/p>\n

\"A
A bucket of trash two women collected from the forest floor on Friday, Oct. 11. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Leftover
Leftover ribbons in the trees where the Free Land Holder Committee was constructing fence. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThey have no right to destroy grazing rights and land,\u201d Koppenhafer said.<\/p>\n

The Free Land Holder Committee rebutted rumors that they have been building more fence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gave our word to the Sheriff and to the Forest Service that we would pause the fence for now during this escalation of public concern,\u201d they said in an email. \u201cSo there was indeed no new progress on completing our fencing since we paused on Wednesday, October 8.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Free Land Holders Committee said that during the meeting with locals, some were more receptive to what they shared.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll in all, even though many of the people on the fence line were armed and appeared nervous by our presence, once the conversations opened up, they could see that we are pleasant, respectful, not there to discuss the fence issue. We merely presented evidence all in hopes of gaining more understanding,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the Sheriff has stood down, and the Forest Service has not shown up to intervene, ticket or arrest either side, the solution is left to the Free Land Holder Committee and to the good people of the Mancos area,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

members of the Free Land Holders Committee meet local people as they removed fencing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78888,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25315\/revisions\/78888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25315"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}