This could be a big deal for public access. There are countless public roads that were established by custom and law back in the day that now private interests say are private. People forget how a road becomes a road. As more and more county and state records are digitized, anyone can check out the gated and posted "private road" near them. I have. One next to me was established by petition as a county road in the late 1880s' and is one of the oldest public roads in the area. It has never been vacated. Weyerhaeuser has it gated but every time they try to post it, the signs get torn down.
The difference between the Methow road in the article and many other roads is that there were people willing to fight for it. That's what is rare in Washington.
