For decades prior to Utah statehood, Latter-day Saint pioneers routinely walked, floated and fished in streams across private lands.
The practice was so common that there were no trespass laws on the books at the time and no one gave it a second thought, attorney Michelle Quist told the Utah Supreme Court Monday.
The high court is now weighing the pivotal question of whether 19th century Utahns’ unfettered access to streambeds established an “easement,” grounded in the Utah Constitution, across private land that persists to the present day.
The Utah Stream Access Coalition, represented by Quist, is seeking to overturn Utah’s restrictive stream access laws, rooting its case almost entirely in the understanding of Mormon pioneers that they could freely walk and float streams prior to 1896.
The case centers on a 23-mile stretch of the Provo River, where it winds through bucolic and mostly private Woodland Valley between the Uinta Mountains and Jordanelle Reservoir in Wasatch County.