Commission Grants North Six Mile Road Formal County Road Designation

It looks like a county road, gets plowed like a county road, develops potholes like a county road, and pickups drive on it like a county road.

But until Tuesday night, North Six Mile Road south of Zero Road was not an officially designated Natrona County Road.

The Natrona County Commission fixed that by extending that portion of Six Mile Road/County Road 119 south from Zero Road by a mile, and giving it the official County Road seal of approval.

This was never a big deal until about a year-and-a-half ago, when Casper College began the paperwork to buy the 168.75-acre Scolly Downs LLC ranch at 468 N. Six Mile Road.

The ranch with its administration business, barns, stable and nursery would enable the college to expand its agriculture and rodeo programs, outgoing president Walt Nolte told the commission.

The purchase motivated the need for the official county road designation, he said.

During the transfer of the property's title, college officials found the road did not have the official designation, even though the county had maintained it for years.

"Partly for our purposes, there was an exception to the title insurance in terms of access," Nolte said after he spoke to the commission. "And neighbors to the southern part of the road, south of Zero Mile Road, really could legally not have access."

Technically, the landowners' properties along this part of North Six Mile Road abut each other and the road has been on top of those property lines.

The road needed its own space.

So the college's attorney, Natrona County Attorney Bill Knight, and neighbors including Ben Taucher persuaded the landowners along the road to grant easements so the road could then be officially designated as County Road 119 and extended south for another mile.

The commission made it official Tuesday.