Jacob City

[v-stone]

I've been a fence sitter for most of my life on land issues. Sticking to myself and enjoying what I have. When the main road into Jacob City was closed to all motorized vehicles it hit close to home. I was up there a lot while growing up in the little town of Stockton that sits below the abandoned city perched on top of the Oquirrh mountains. This closure was still not enough to make me stand up and look around at what is going on. Our land is being stripped away from us! It wasn't until my Dad showed great excitement about the capitol Parade and Rally happening on the 8th of August that I realized this simple fact, as our land is closed so is the power/freedom that comes with it. We are loosing what made America so great, Freedom of land. Jacob City is a perfect example.
I paced the floor that night thinking of the injustice that has been done and is going on with our rights, freedom of land, being taken away. This was once a free land that we all could enjoy. Now, a ghost town with a rich history of man and machine has been closed to all motorized vehicles making it inaccessible to those with physical ailments keeping them from riding a horse or hiking 15 miles. These "motor vehicle" roads have been there longer than most (if not all) who are reading this have been alive. Man and machine toiled together to conquer that rugged terrain and work the mines. Allowing these roads to be open has not destroyed the area, but has helped to preserve its rich history. Why should we loose this just because a few want to have a secured "horse only" trail? We need to at least show people our desire, our need to have truly open land for everyone to enjoy. We can keep our public lands public, use them and keep them safe for generations to come. Protect them.

Please join the Capitol Parade and Rally on August 8th and have backed, good reasons to keep our lands open to share.

 

[Mug]

Well said!!! And I'll be there!


Related Thread Here

 

[Don B]

Thank you, very well said.

If only more people could see it this way

 

[cruiseroutfit]

When did this road close and why did it close? Was it a closure do to public land misuse or abuse? Management rulings? More than likely it was due to private property. Well, you can't 'take back Utah' from private land owners. I really wish we didn't lose access for this reason but its actually pften more common to lose high profile trails to private property than to public land closures. Working proactively with landowners would be the ideal solution, but its not going to allow un-tethered public access. Corner Canyon, Lower Helldorado, Cardiff Fork, etc are all private land issues that were not able to be mitigated with the private entities that own them.

I would love to know more info on the Jacob City closure as I was up there last fall and earlier this year and it was open from both sides???

 

[Skylinerider]

When did this happen? As of May this year the old toll road was open to travel. the spur to Jacob City has been closed for years because the townsite sits on private property.

 

[OldGeezer]

It was open on July 4th. There's even a sign about a Jacob City Loop trail going up the toll road, down Dry Canyon and coming back via the foothills.

 

[Skylinerider]

It was open on July 4th. There's even a sign about a Jacob City Loop trail going up the toll road, down Dry Canyon and coming back via the foothills.

Thank's for the clarification that it is still in fact open. I had seen the new signs for the Loop trail, and that's why this was so confusing to me.

 

[Kiel]

Went up there this past saturday with the MU group seemed pretty open New trail sign looks pretty good also

 

[v-stone]

My apologies. When I heard no vehicles, which is what a friend stated the county dispatch said, I asumed nothing with a motor. The Jacob city loop trail as mentioned is an AVT, motorcyle or mountain bike trail. I called the dispatch number givin on the sign (435-882-5600) and asked about jeeps or other vehicles. The dispatcher stated that a cop will be there and you will be ticketed if I were to continue. Why is this an AVT only trail? Not to long ago my dad took his stock wrangler up from the bottom, to the top, and down to Stockton. He is not a crazy adrenaline junky and he doesn't tear up the land, in fact he is very concious of his surrounding.
I know the majority of the east side of the canyon is privatly owned and understandable that access is closed by the owner. What does the loop include? Can you go up to the comador cabin? how about the South Oquirre mountain lanch point for hang gliding? Have these roads been left open?
I don't have an ATV to go inspect, I have been shut out to this once open area.

 

[Skylinerider]

The old toll road to Jacob city is open as has been posted here. The trail down dry canyon may very well be ATV (I don't think you could get a regular rig up it anyway.)

 

[cruiseroutfit]

I've driven it from the Ophir canyon junction up to Jacob City from the bottom, is that dry Canyon? (away from my maps)

 

[DOSS]

I've driven it from the Ophir canyon junction up to Jacob City from the bottom, is that dry Canyon? (away from my maps)

Ya that is Dry Canyon.. I have been up that many times. a little pin striping is good for you

news to me that it is closed I know that there are some roads that lead to private prop behind (IE East of) jacob city that are closed but I hope you are wrong about it being ATV only

 

[v-stone]

I drove up there myself last night which is something I should have done before posting this thread. The main sign in the parking lot area does say AVT, motorcyle, mountain bike only for the Jacob city loop trail but there are no markings on the road so we continued. After you're in Jacob city (dry canyon, not just where the hotel was) at the first Y the lower road has clear markers for ATV only. This road has a bad off side angle on it and understandable why they would mark it as such. No other roads where marked closed or limitted as of last night, thankfully. Didn't check coming up from the Ophir turn off. Although my information was bad, public land use is still a problem and is being taken away, restricked from use.

My lesson is learned. I will not asume information givin to me by word is true on such a scale. I will investigate myself before standing up to alarm. I'm now off the fence. Land use is a real issue we should all be willing to protect.

 

[OldGeezer]

My apologies. When I heard no vehicles, which is what a friend stated the county dispatch said, I asumed nothing with a motor. The Jacob city loop trail as mentioned is an AVT, motorcyle or mountain bike trail. I called the dispatch number givin on the sign (435-882-5600) and asked about jeeps or other vehicles. The dispatcher stated that a cop will be there and you will be ticketed if I were to continue. Why is this an AVT only trail? Not to long ago my dad took his stock wrangler up from the bottom, to the top, and down to Stockton. He is not a crazy adrenaline junky and he doesn't tear up the land, in fact he is very concious of his surrounding.
I know the majority of the east side of the canyon is privatly owned and understandable that access is closed by the owner. What does the loop include? Can you go up to the comador cabin? how about the South Oquirre mountain lanch point for hang gliding? Have these roads been left open?
I don't have an ATV to go inspect, I have been shut out to this once open area.

You just may be right. There's no mention of fullsize rigs on the signs. They also dont come right out and say that they're not allowed either. How can they justify closing a road thats been legal to drive on for decades? I'm confused.

 

[clem]

i have been on this trail many times i live in stockton and lived in tooele county all my life this sign is news to me i was up there in the spring and dident see it then but it would be a shame to loose this trail to wheelers i ride atvs also and it is becoming like the thing between skiers and borders with atvers and wheelers and i think( just my 2 cents )that the modifyed condition of our type of rigs make the older people not like us much i get funny looks from atvers in my blazer but when i am on the articat they wave and stop to talk to me.it is a very small group of atvers and horsemen that have very easy time shutting us down.the connections they have with county government it is hard to beat them the people here have family connections,money and clout.now i am rambling i get so pised when i loose my places to wheel.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

The problem is we didn't have any local Tooele County residents that knew about the upcoming changes to the Ophir area trails, which just last week resulted in more closures in the area. We need someone willing to keep tabs on these issues and be pro-active about addressing the issues before its too late.

 

[v-stone]

Good news. My Dad went in to talk to, Jerry Hurst, a county commissioner to find out what happened at the meeting about the roads in this area. To his surprise, Jerry told him the roads are open to all vehicles! Jerry didn’t know about the main Jacob city road being reassigned as an ATV trail, barring regular vehicles from traveling on it. He told my Dad that someone would go up and investigate the next day and take down any signs banning vehicle travel on designated roads. Now, where the signs once stood banning regular vehicles from traveling any farther are now nothing more than clean poles standing alone. Thank you Jerry for doing what is right. Our land is still under attack and we can make a difference.
If you want to thank Jerry or another Tooele county commissioner for doing what is right here is the County commissioners address:
Tooele County Commission
ATTN: Jerry Hurst, J. Bruce Clegg, Colleen S. Johnson, Cheryl A. Adams
47 S. main Street, Room #210
Tooele, UT 84074

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Good news. My Dad went in to talk to, Jerry Hurst, a county commissioner to find out what happened at the meeting about the roads in this area. To his surprise, Jerry told him the roads are open to all vehicles! Jerry didn’t know about the main Jacob city road being reassigned as an ATV trail, barring regular vehicles from traveling on it. He told my Dad that someone would go up and investigate the next day and take down any signs banning vehicle travel on designated roads. Now, where the signs once stood banning regular vehicles from traveling any farther are now nothing more than clean poles standing alone. Thank you Jerry for doing what is right. Our land is still under attack and we can make a difference.
If you want to thank Jerry or another Tooele county commissioner for doing what is right here is the County commissioners address:
Tooele County Commission
ATTN: Jerry Hurst, J. Bruce Clegg, Colleen S. Johnson, Cheryl A. Adams
47 S. main Street, Room #210
Tooele, UT 84074

Interesting, I hope this is the case. It seemed however that the county was in fact going to abandon their claims to roads. So I'm left feeling like there is something we are missing?

 

[Skylinerider]

Interesting, I hope this is the case. It seemed however that the county was in fact going to abandon their claims to roads. So I'm left feeling like there is something we are missing?

I believe they are seperate issues. The first was the issue of the main road being posted with signage limiting travel to ATV's and walking/biking. The second issue was abandoning the right of way on some of the other roads. The county did abandon those ROW's although I'm not sure which ones specifically.

 

[Don B]

On the www.takebackutah.org site they have a good map of the ROW's that Tooele County abandoned. Look in the Action Center