Caught in the middle, landlocked acres for sale

Talk about it

Home to a sprawling 70,447-acre spread, Theodore Roosevelt National Park contains an estimated 690 acres of privately held land. The South Unit’s only privately held piece is caught in an access conflict and has been for quite some time.

High atop a bluff overlooking Interstate 94 sits 218 acres of land for sale by Norbert Sickler of Dickinson, represented by Little Missouri Land Company of Medora. Comprised of rugged, grazing and flat land, the 218-acre section is inaccessible by motorized vehicles, making development difficult.

Prior to the construction of I-94 in the 1960s and Sickler’s ownership of the land, U.S. Highway 10 was situated north of the property and served as the vehicular access point, said Valerie Naylor, superintendant of the park. Once I-94 was built, road access was severed and this piece of land was left with no access, other than by foot or horseback.

“The people who owned it at the time (of road construction) were compensated for that severance of access by the state of North Dakota,” Naylor said. “When he (Sickler) purchased the land, he was aware that they had been compensated for that.”

Sickler cites some confusion or miscommunication in his knowledge of the accessibility of the land.

“I believe I knew there were some limitations on it to get across, but I didn’t think that would really be a problem because of the North Dakota laws,” Sickler said. “Generally in our day in age in our country, you don’t find too many places where someone has land and they are restricted to getting to it.”

Norbert Sickler’s son, Randy Sickler, attorney at Dickinson law firm Ebeltoft Sickler, is assisting his father in resolution of the problem.

“We’ve been working on it for a couple of years, but it’s still unresolved,” Randy Sickler said.

To alleviate the accessibility problem, Norbert Sickler is proposing an access road along a section line.

“There is state statutory law that says that you (owner) have access across section lines,” Randy Sickler said. “The issue lies that the section line that leads to this property is through the park and there is no road on the section line.”

Since the proposed access by Norbert Sickler involves state and federal laws, questions have arisen as to which laws supersede each other.

“When it was assessed, it was felt that access would be able to be obtained,” Norbert Sickler said.

Norbert Sickler said he has also hired an attorney out of Colorado who specializes in land ownership rights to assist in finding a resolution.

The Sicklers are working with the park as well as Billings County to obtain vehicular access to his land.

High atop a bluff overlooking Interstate 94 sits 218 acres of land for sale by Norbert Sickler of Dickinson, represented by Little Missouri Land Company of Medora. Comprised of rugged, grazing and flat land, the 218-acre section is inaccessible by motorized vehicles, making development difficult.

Prior to the construction of I-94 in the 1960s and Sickler’s ownership of the land, U.S. Highway 10 was situated north of the property and served as the vehicular access point, said Valerie Naylor, superintendant of the park. Once I-94 was built, road access was severed and this piece of land was left with no access, other than by foot or horseback.

“The people who owned it at the time (of road construction) were compensated for that severance of access by the state of North Dakota,” Naylor said. “When he (Sickler) purchased the land, he was aware that they had been compensated for that.”

Sickler cites some confusion or miscommunication in his knowledge of the accessibility of the land.

“I believe I knew there were some limitations on it to get across, but I didn’t think that would really be a problem because of the North Dakota laws,” Sickler said. “Generally in our day in age in our country, you don’t find too many places where someone has land and they are restricted to getting to it.”

Norbert Sickler’s son, Randy Sickler, attorney at Dickinson law firm Ebeltoft Sickler, is assisting his father in resolution of the problem.

“We’ve been working on it for a couple of years, but it’s still unresolved,” Randy Sickler said.

To alleviate the accessibility problem, Norbert Sickler is proposing an access road along a section line.

“There is state statutory law that says that you (owner) have access across section lines,” Randy Sickler said. “The issue lies that the section line that leads to this property is through the park and there is no road on the section line.”

Since the proposed access by Norbert Sickler involves state and federal laws, questions have arisen as to which laws supersede each other.

“When it was assessed, it was felt that access would be able to be obtained,” Norbert Sickler said.

Norbert Sickler said he has also hired an attorney out of Colorado who specializes in land ownership rights to assist in finding a resolution.

The Sicklers are working with the park as well as Billings County to obtain vehicular access to his land.

The park, however, is holding strong to their convictions.

“It is the opinion of the Department of the Interior solicitors, our attorneys, that there is no legal access to that property through the park,” Naylor said.

Owner of the land since 1982, Norbert Sickler does not recall what he originally paid for the property, but that it was assessed with the idea that access could eventually be attained.

Norbert said he and the park have not been able to come to an agreement on other deals such as a land trade or possible development of overnight accommodations.

“I don’t know why they haven’t bought it,” Norbert Sickler said. “I haven’t heard from them for several years.”

Naylor expressed the park’s intense interest in acquiring the land.

“It’s within the boundaries of the national park,” Naylor said. “Almost all people that drive by or come to the national park believe that it is part of the national park, it looks like the rest of the park and we are very eager to purchase that property from Mr. Sickler so that it can become part of the national park.”

Despite the high interest of the park to obtain the land, funding the purchase has proved to be a challenge.

“We can only pay the appraised value,” Naylor said. “This is to protect taxpayers, as otherwise people would expect the government to pay higher amounts.”

Norbert Sickler said he is asking $3,000 per acre. With his estimated total of 218 acres, the total purchasing price is approximately $654,000.

“He is asking much more than the appraised value and so we cannot pay that much,” said Naylor.

Lynn Arthaud, Medora tax director, said the property was assessed as non-accessible, grazing land.

“It’s (Sickler’s land) non-cropable and better for grazing so the production on it is very low,” Arthaud said. “That is what we base our property values at for ag land only. It is state law that we use soil types.”

Arthaud said the total assessed value of the acreage is $12,076.

“We’ve been trying to purchase that property since the owners had it back in the 1960s,” Naylor said.

Open to negotiations, Norbert Sickler said he and his son plan to meet with the park again to see if they can reach a resolution.

“As a last resort we’d have to end up in court,” Norbert Sickler said.

A hot commodity, the land in question is posing a problem for both parties involved.

“I don’t know if he’s in a predicament or we’re in a predicament,” Naylor said.

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