by Travis Mateer
I was a little shocked to see an image of Wally Congdon addressing Mineral County Commissioners at the Missoula “news” website, Missoula Current, but I set aside my shock to get to the following question: why is this Deputy Attorney/hall of fame cowboy telling Commissioners about the consequence of NOT suing a private landowner?
From the link:
Mineral County is taking legal action to open a section of county road that’s been illegally blocked for years, thanks to the groundwork of some concerned citizens.
On Friday afternoon, Mineral County commissioners voted unanimously to have Deputy County Attorney Wally Congdon sue landowner Paul Wheaton to get him to relinquish the county right-of-way along about 1 mile of the Cyr Iron Mountain Road, also known as Forest Service Road 344 south of Interstate 90 east of Superior.
About a dozen people attended the meeting to back Congdon’s proposal, including locals and representatives of the Montana Backcountry Horsemen, Hellgate Hunters and Anglers, Public Land Water Access Association, and the Big Sky Upland Bird Association. Wheaton did not attend.
Before getting to who Paul Wheaton is, and why I think what he’s doing with his land is interesting, I want to add a little political context to the issue of accessing public lands in Montana because the recent history of this issue has largely benefited Democrats, especially considering our current Governor has provided fodder for the framing of this issue, pitting out-of-state wealth against average Montanans who want to maintain their proud heritage of accessing public lands to hunt and recreate.
The link above is to a Missoulian article from May of 2016. Back then a liberal blog called Montana Cowgirl brought awareness to a 2009 lawsuit in which Greg Gianforte sued Fish, Wildlife and Parks because of claims an easement near his property was leading to damaging land incursions for this wealthy property owner who wanted to be Montana’s Governor. From the link:
Gov. Steve Bullock and Democratic organizers took aim at Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte on Monday after an anonymous liberal blog surfaced a 2009 lawsuit filed by a family-owned company to kill a public access easement in Bozeman.
East Gallatin LLC sued Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in May 2009 to remove an easement that provided public access along the East Gallatin River, arguing that users were damaging adjacent land, the original 1993 agreement by a previous owner was invalid and that the public had sufficient access via two other nearby sites. The complaint was filed to create a foothold for a case, but the papers were never served to the agency.
The dispute was resolved after a department visit to the site in July 2009 led to trail and fence upgrades that did a better job keeping users off the rest of the Gianforte property and the agency updated records on the easement boundaries, according to state documents requested by the State Bureau.
The reason I find this context interesting is because the political dynamics seem to be reversed in the case developing in Mineral County. Or maybe I’m reading too much into the political leaning of the Paul Wheaton who runs Wheaton Labs.
I don’t really care what kind of politics this “Mad Scientist” subscribes to, or what he does on his land. Permaculture is a pretty cool topic (NO sarcasm there), but maybe there is a reason this guy doesn’t want the locals of this conservative, rural county to come near his “experiments”.
I’ll preface my friendly warning to Paul Wheaton with a movie suggestion: watch God’s Country. It’s a movie that may have some helpful cultural context for what might develop, since I know at least one person who thinks Mineral County was the inspiration for this film.
Now, here’s the warning. In Mineral County there are people like David Barsotti, a supposed “wounded” Veteran who recently claimed to have contracted rabies from one of his lovers dogs. I followed up regarding this claim by contacting the health department in Mineral County, but everyone I spoke with was VERY unhelpful. It’s almost like this guy is pals with people in authority, like the NEW Sheriff (and odor expert), Ryan Funke.
Last week I attended a court hearing where David Barsotti (and his hilarious eye-patch) made a virtual appearance on Zoom. After the hearing, I approached Barsotti’s lawyer, Julie Sirrs, and asked her if she would have any obligation to report a case of rabies were she aware of one. After saying that was quite an odd question, I told her about the claim it appeared her client had made regarding rabies, and the action he had to take, which was to allegedly kill the rabid-crazed dog that almost killed him.
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And thanks for reading!
JC
Synchronicity again, this time with Paul Wheaton. An acquaintance on LinkedIn recently asked me if I knew Paul Wheaton and his work with permaculture. It was sort of out of the blue, but to many people living outside of Montana everyone in Montana must know everyone else right?
Well in this case, I DID know who Paul Wheaton was. About 13 years ago, the Independent did an interview with Wheaton, heralding him as then next permaculture messiah. The article was actually pretty informative, for those not in the know about permaculture, and talked a bit about some of his work with the Missoula Urban Development folks.
However, what was more telling, were the dozens of negative comments about him, his personality, and how he takes credit for the entire concept of permaculture and homesteading. The article mentioned he’d be at that years Earth Day, hosted down at Caras Park, which I was already planning on attending, so I made a point of seeking them out.
At the event, he had setup a rocket stove, which is basically a corn cob/mud stove that also often serves as a bench or couch. It wasn’t Franklin stove ingenuity, but it was a step towards a less resource intensive off grid heating system. He mentioned he was on Reddit, which surprised me because at the time, I could count on one hand the number of Missoulian’s who’d make that claim publicly. He told me to check out /r/homestead, which I did later.
It didn’t take long to figure out that most of the comments about him on the Independent’s website seemed to be true. He was very abrasive, didn’t acknowledge anyone else in the field, and actively shit on anyone who tried to make a name for themselves. I wasn’t as fluent in Narcissistic Personality Disorder as I am now, but he clearly fit the bill.
After the Independent article, he sort of disappeared from the Missoula scene. I found better sources for permaculture and homesteading on other Reddits, and basically forgot about him. Fast forward to today, and I hear the name twice in one week, and even saw him posting on /r/Missoula again. Weird coincidence.