Well the game goes on and on! Saturday morning at 7:00AM I went to the Wallace Gravel Pit to fish. Not to my surprise, the gate was locked. So I called the Lewis County Sheriff Office and reported that my public access was being blocked and that I wanted a deputy to come out and verify it. It took the deputy about 40 minutes to get there. The deputy appeared, but seemed very reluctant to do anything at all. He never left his car.

I told him that his office was sent a copy of the easement map and that it should be on file in his office. I offered to give him the case number, but he did not want it. He then asked me why I didn't go to the other Public Fishing area to fish instead of Wallace's site. I attempted to show him the public area that was open but he did not show any interest about it.

He then told me that HE was not going to make anyone open the gate today. He said "that will be up to the County Commissioners". I couldn't hold back anymore and told him what I thought about his statement. I told him " you known that Dennis Hadaller is this areas Commissioner and that the Wallace's gave Dennis over $10,000 during his election campaign, and did he really expect that Hadaller would do anything against the Wallace's? He just gave me a "dome" look. I then told the deputy that the County Commissioners has nothing to do with this easement because it was not a "county easement" This was an easement granted to the State Game department, not the County. The deputy disputed it and stated again that it was up to the commissioners to open this area. I told him that I needed his name and that I also wanted this issue filed with a case number so that there would be an official record that the gated was locked and public access was being denied. He was not a happy cowboy after hearing that! He begrudgingly called into his dispatcher and assigned a new case number to my complaint. He wrote the number down on his card and gave it to me and said that was all that he was going to do. I told him, that's fine, and that this issue will be settled soon.

Here is the good part! About 40 minutes later when I returned to my car, I noticed that my ceil phone had received a call when I was out fishing. I did not recognize the number so I hit the number and redialed it. To my surprise, the lady answered saying " this is the sheriff dispatch, how may I help you. I told her who I was and that they had called my ceil phone but I was not there. She asked me to please wait one moment. In about a minute she came back on and told me " The gate is now open and you can go back if you want". I told her thank you and hung up!

The point is someone in the sheriff office got off there big but and must have reviewed the easement map that WDFW had sent them. It also meant that someone in the sheriff's office had to have called the Wallace's and told them to reopen the gate. It may be just a small win, but it's a big win for fishermen.

Cowlitzfisherman

Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook????

Thanks for your persistent effort to inform the rest of us about this area and to keep it open to the public. I would like to bank fish the Cowlitz more often, but don't care for the combat conditions at the hatcheries. Maybe I'll see you someday at the Wallace Pit PUBLIC ACCESS Area. This stretch of river should be named the Cowlitzfisherman Drift, in your honor

C-fisherman,

You're going WAY above and beyond the call of duty on this whole issue. It just goes to show how much action one can get if they're persistent. I applaud your efforts, way to not take "No" for an answer when you KNOW you're in the right.

Does a lawsuit need to be filed to get it through Wallace's thick head? I'm sure he enjoyed the money he got for agreeing to the easement deal, and now he's tring to welch on his part of the deal. Amazing.......

I'm glad to see you're getting results. Maybe this lunkhead will finally figure out that he's not going to be able to deny access that HE agreed to, and was compensated for.

BTW, did you get any action while you were there? Keep up the good work......

What is the case # so if anyone else has to call on this we can have our complant added to the file

I DROVE DOWN TO THE END OF MANDY ROAD TODAY JUST TO SEE WHAT THE HUBBUB WAS ABOUT. I WASNT SURE WHICH ROAD WAS THE ACCESS ROAD??? THEIR WAS A ROAD WITH A HUGE YELLOW BAR ACROSS IT RUNNING OFF TO THE RIGHT AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE GRAVEL PIT. IT WAS LOCKED. IS THAT THE EASEMENT ROAD??? OR DO YOU DRIVE THRU THE GRAVEL PIT. THE MAP DOESNT SHOW ANY ROADS. PLEASE LET ME KNOW..ITS JUST ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HOW THE LAND OWNERS WANT TO KEEP THE RIVER TO THEMSELVES.LIKE WHAT THEY DID ON THE EASEMENT TO THE GRAVEL BAR ACROSS FROM BLUE CREEK. IT GOES IN FROM THE HOLLY FARM BUT THE LAND OWNERS HAVE BROUGHT FENCES UP TO THE EDGE OF THE ROAD SO YOU CANT PARK. IN THE ONLY PARKING SPOT THAT WAS LEFT, THEY HAVE CALLED IT A SCHOOL BUS TURN AROUND ZONE AND YOU CANT PARK THEIR OR YOU WILL GET TOWED AWAY. FISHING REPORT FOR BLUE CREEK TODAY WAS 2 FISH CAUGHT AND 3 LOST FOR ABOUT 40 ANGLERS FROM 6-12AM TODAY. PS:LET ME KNOW ABOUT WALLACE ACCESS...REGARDS DENNIS