(Cattle) driving down the highway
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By MITCH SHAW
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau
Cows, cars and tradition just don't mix, UDOT maintains
MORGAN -- The days of driving cattle on an open range might be coming to an end, but that isn't stopping one Morgan family from keeping a long-standing tradition.
For three generations, the Pentz family has been raising cattle in Morgan County. The family owns three ranches in Morgan Valley, and each year they transport 400 beef cattle from one ranch to another for seasonal feeding purposes.
Recently, 20 family members and friends helped make the annual cattle drive from the Morgan ranch to another near Croydon.
A portion of the 14-mile trek has the herd traveling on westbound Interstate 84.
Before I-84 was built through Morgan County in the 1960s, the Pentzes were able to drive the cattle without much of a fuss. But now, miles of concrete, asphalt and heat from the Utah Department of Transportation make the job more difficult.
"First of all, it's a way to get our cattle from point A to point B, but it's also kind of a historical thing for us," said rancher Lane Pentz.
"We have been doing it for three generations, before the highway even came through here, but it gets tougher and tougher every year."
Because they have moved their cattle through the same passage for three generations, the Pentzes claim they have a historical right to use the road.
UDOT disagrees.
"The Pentz family has maintained they have a prescriptive right, and we have disputed that," said UDOT Region One spokesman Vic Saunders.
With UDOT disputing those rights, the family gets little help from the state when it moves its herd each year. The highway remains open to vehicles during the transportation process, and the Pentzes do most of their own traffic control.
The entire transfer process takes about four days, but only a little more than half of one day is spent on the highway. As the Utah population continues to boom and traffic increases on I-84, Pentz said, UDOT will eventually have to make some accommodations.
"Something has to happen sooner or later. It's getting dangerous. But we would be willing to sit down with UDOT and negotiate another alternative."
Pentz said a cash buyout for the rights to the passage, a livestock trail or UDOT closing the road to traffic for half a day would suffice.
Saunders said those options are all on the table, but it is more likely some kind of agreement will be reached between the two sides to transport the cattle by truck.
"We are still very early in the negotiation process," Saunders said, "but we hope to have something worked out by next season.
"We want to try and work this out with them the best we can, but also maintain safety. Cows and cars just don't mix."
Pentz said the most attractive offer is for UDOT to install a livestock trail, a fenced right of way alongside the road.
"The stock trail should be there anyway," he said. "It should have been built when the road first came through."
Regardless of the outcome, Pentz said, his family will continue to transport their cattle no matter how hard the task becomes.
"When they built the freeway, the state tried to intimidate some of us and strong-arm some ranchers out, and they did do it to some, but not us," he said. "We're going to keep doing what we have all these years."
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It seems to me in reading these comments many of you contributors to this don't understand the LAW. When two parties enter into a contract both are obligated to uphold their end of the contract until another has been made. It is not the responsibility of the Pentz family to bail the State out of their obligation. This forum has taken the sour turn of petty mudslinging at the Pentz family personally and does not take into consideration the facts of the matter. As a outside observer of this ridiculous feud I think all those who have negative feelings towards the Pentz need to work it out privately or keep it to themselves and stick to the facts. We would all greatly appreciate it.
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