Man owns piece of Tollgate back road

As a matter of fact, Rick Geraths does own the whole road - a one-mile stretch of road in Tollgate known as the "back road," to be precise.

The new ownership is courtesy of a gifted deed by Brooks Resources, part of the former Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Mill empire.

It was a section of leftover land created when the original Tollgate subdivision was divided and platted out. For many past years, this unpaved thoroughfare has served as a multi-use recreational trail for joggers, mountain bikers, dogs and the occasional ATV.

"I think it's awesome and want to thank Brooks for deeding it over to me," said Geraths. "There's a lot of history on that old mainline. It's going to be a gas owning the back road."

For decades, the Brooks mainline bordering Tollgate served as the central railway route to the lumber mill in Bend.

Steam-belching Baldwin logging locomotives pulled strings of cars piled with felled trees through the pines, onward to their destination at the mill to be processed into lumber and paper.

The Sisters line was operated until 1956 when reduced demand and production led to them pulling up the rails and converting the roadbed into a private truck path.

This brought an end to the era of logging railroads out of Bend.

Kirk Schueler, President of Brooks Resources, is glad they found the road a good home.

"It's 7.67 acres total and runs 5,280 feet with a width of about 67 feet," he said. "All of those roads out in that area had ties to the forestry department. There were these agreements with the forestry service on how they must be maintained and managed. The piece existed because of the platting process when Tollgate was developed. It is known as a remnant piece. We've been taking care of these surplus properties at various land development projects and wanted to finally do something with them."

Schueler first went to the Forest Service, and they said "thank you but no thanks." At the same time, Central Electric Cooperative was going through a process to enlarge their electrical substation, and it was offered to them as well and they declined.

"Then we thought, let's go to the Tollgate owners association," said Schueler. "We thought this makes sense, it can be used as a fire escape or a common area, but they eventually passed, too. So we sat around and scratched our heads. We finally decided to go to individual owners who share a property line with the road, and were referred to Rick.

"It was a simple process, he called us and said he'd take it, we sent him some maps and paperwork. We signed the deed over to him and recorded it with the county."

As far as land use goes, the road is zoned as forest and restricted by whatever zoning laws apply. There is an existing easement to the public to access National Forest lands.

Other than weed control and any hazard safety issue, Geraths simply pays the $25 in property taxes per year and it's his.

"The paved gravel road road butts up against the entire west end of the Tollgate subdivision, spanning an entire mile," said Geraths. "You can't access the road with an auto directly from inside Tollgate, you must use the McKenzie Highway on one end, and the Cold Spring Cutoff on the other end."

Geraths plans to first put some speed limit signs on the road and try to slow the traffic down on it.

"There's some homeowners that are dumping yard debris and junk on the road and in the ditches so I'll ask them to help clean it up. I'm going to be nice about it and work with my neighbors and monitor the activity," he said. "I want to be a good steward of the property."

There are a number of restrictions on the road and for now, Geraths will leave it open to the public to enjoy. As far as naming the road goes, Schueler and the law say he can call it whatever he likes, with good taste in mind.

"I'm just an old hippy," Geraths said. "I was thinking about naming it 'Shakedown Street,' in honor of the Grateful Dead album..."