Plans for one of the country's longest and most historic nature trails, created under a recent act of Congress, have run into resistance here in rural Missouri from a determined group of landowners led by a descendant of one of the area's earliest families.
Legal experts say the outcome of the dispute could have important implications for further development of a national trail system that has been expanding rapidly.
At issue in the current case is a 200-mile trail from St. Charles, Mo., near the Mississippi River point from which Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out in 1804 on their famous expedition to the Northwest. The trail follows the route of the expedition as far as Sedalia, in central Missouri. The route runs past scenic bluffs and villages, through farms and vineyards and near historic sites including the home and grave of Daniel Boone. Warnings Across Route
Cable fences marked by ''Keep Out'' warnings have been stretched across the route, an abandoned right of way of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, known as the Katy. The landowners acted early this month just as the state was preparing to open the first section, a 38-mile segment between Jefferson City and Rocheport turned over to it by the railroad.
The landowning group has also filed a Federal suit asserting claims to the land, but disclaims any link to threats against prospective trail users.Continue reading the main story
The litigation is one of two Federal suits that legal experts say could be significant for developments under the National Trails System Act of 1983, which became known as the rails-to-trails law. Under the act, which was intended to preserve railroad rights of way for possible future national necessity, abandoned lines could be turned over to states or other entities for development of recreational trails.
''The main purpose of our suit is to protect private property rights against an unconstitutional taking without due process of law,'' said the group's unofficial leader, John S. Williamson Jr., a former Air Force captain, as he stood with other resisters beside one of four steel-cable fences he has stretched across a section of the old rail bed running through his 1,300-acre farm outside Huntsdale. 'For a Railroad Only'
Mr. Williamson is the sixth generation of his family to farm land here since 1835. According to a copy of a 1892 deed that he displayed, his great-grandfather gave the Katy a right of way for development of a rail line. ''That was for a railroad, and for a railroad only,'' Mr. Williamson said.
Tom Douglass, a neighbor, said, ''This is the most dangerous thing that has happened to property rights we have ever seen.''
At issue mainly, the farmers and others say, is a conflict between the rails-to-trails law and a state law providing that any land transferred under an easement must be given back to the adjacent property owners when it is abandoned. The Federal law asserts precedence over any conflicting state statute, but provisions similar to those of the Missouri statute are also included in easements given by landowners to the railroads.
''Our position is that the land reverted to us as soon as it was abandoned,'' Mr. Williamson said.
Mr. Williamson and others in the opposition group, representing about 10 percent of adjacent landowners, say secondary considerations are worries about possible vandalism or littering by hikers and bikers who would use the trail, and concerns about liabilities in the event of accidents.
They dismiss the threats, telephoned to the state's Department of Natural Resources and a Columbia radio station, suggesting they were crank calls intended to cloud the issues, though the caller threatened to kill trail users. Issue of Commercial Benefits
Mr. Williamson also dismisses contentions by supporters that the trail will bring commercial benefits. Even if that is so, he argues, the area's small villages prefer their solitude.
He is supported by at least one restaurateur, Lucille Coleman, who runs the Wagon Wheel in the nearby village of McBaine. ''They tell us this will bring a lot of business,'' she said, ''but any bikers we have seen so far just come in and say, 'Can I get a glass of water and use your bathroom?' ''
The landowners' suit is similar to one now on the docket of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, filed by a Washington State group, which also seeks to have the rails-to-trails law declared unconstitutional. Those involved on both sides expect either one or the other of the cases to be pursued to the Supreme Court.
An ultimate victory for the landowners ''would make it very expensive to put together a national trail system,'' said David Burwell, president of the Rails to Trails Conservancy, a Washington-based group. ''It would make it nearly impossible ever to bring back a national railway system. As for the trails system, at the very least it would be very complicated.'' Arguments by Supporters
It would also be costly in other ways, said Darwin Hindman, a lawyer in nearby Columbia, who heads the Katy-Missouri River Coalition, a supporting group. Evidence indicates that tourism generated by the trail would increase spending in the area by $6 million, he said. And he contends that experience with hikers and bikers elsewhere has proved the farmers' fears groundless.
''Experience on other trails has been that fears expressed have evaporated once they opened,'' he said. ''Users aren't likely to litter or vandalize. They tend to be people concerned about the environment.''
Coincidentally, Mr. Hindman said, the same arguments were advanced several years ago when the City of Columbia was taking over a 4.5-mile section of an abandoned spur that branched off the same rail route that is in dispute here. Adjacent landowners protested as the city successfully used its powers of condemnation to acquire the land for a trail. Some of those same protesters are now strong supporters of the trail, he said.
Ron Kucera, deputy director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, agreed with Mr. Hindman. ''This is the same kind of resistance other states have run into, even the most successful,'' he said. ''But we have faith in this project. We are fully prepared to work with landowners, but we are not going to be deterred by a few fences.''Continue reading the main story