Smith River State Recreational Waterway, popularly known as the Smith River State Park, is a protected river corridor and "virtual park" owned and operated by the state of Montana in the United States. The site is not officially a state park, but rather a State Recreational Waterway and managed River Corridor. The park consists of the state-owned Smith River; a Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) put-in access point, Camp Baker; 27 FWP-owned and -leased boat camps on the shore of the river; and the FWP-owned Eden Bridge take-out point. Little of the area is owned by FWP. Much of the surrounding shoreline is owned by the United States Forest Service, United States Bureau of Land Management, and private owners. Through management agreements with other government agencies and private landowners, FWP manages the Smith River Corridor as a "virtual state park". The Smith River is the only river in the state of Montana where a permit is required to boat or float on the river.
About the Smith River
The Smith River is a long river which begins about southwest of White Sulphur Springs, Montana, and continues on a north-westerly and northerly course, passing between the Big Belt Mountains and Little Belt Mountains, before reaching a confluence with the Missouri River at Ulm, Montana. The river is generally divided into three sections. The first begins at the river's headwaters and runs for through a high valley between the two mountain ranges. The second, about long, runs through the Smith River Canyon Valley and features spectacular mountain scenery. The third, about long, begins at the canyon mouth and ends at the river's confluence with the Missouri. This final segment passes briefly through the foothills of the mountains and then onto the Great Plains, the water's speed slowing significantly as it does so. For nearly all of its length, the river is too shallow for motorized boating. Water flows are highest from mid-April through early July, with levels usually dropping too low by late July to permit boating.
A very limited number of roads and private ownership of most of both sides of the river limited public access to the Smith into the 1950s. Some recreational use, primarily fishing, unpowered boating, and "floating" began on the river in the late 1950s. As the public sought greater access to the Smith River for recreation, conflicts with private landowners emerged. Although the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) owned some of the shoreline, these federal agencies were not very responsive to local demands for access. The state of Montana stepped into this leadership vacuum to seek a mutually agreeable solution.
Creating a recreational waterway Proposals were first made by citizens of Montana in 1953 to turn state-owned school trust land on the Smith River into recreational areas. Although the Montana Department of Fish and Game (DFG; the predecessor agency to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks) supported these recommendations in 1954, and the Montana Wildlife Federation lobbied for them in 1954, 1956, 1957, and 1958, no action was taken by the state legislature.
In 1960, the DFG purchased a site, now known as the Smith River Fishing Access, about north of Fort Logan (accessed today via Fishing Access Road, off Smith River Road north of Montana Secondary Highway 360). Public use of the Smith River increased significantly in the 1960s, creating issues of safety and worsening the conflict between private landowners and the public. To create a new public access site, the Camp Baker Fishing Access Site was purchased from private landowners in 1968. The site, which provided boat launches ("put-in") as well as fishing access, was named after Camp Baker, the original military facility at the site of Fort Logan. DFG attempted to purchase other sites as well, but these efforts failed.
Two subdivisions in the Smith River Canyon, one at Castle Bar and another at Two Creeks, occurred in the 1960s. These deeply alarmed recreationists, who feared despoliation of this most scenic part of the river. Private landowners also worried about additional development, fearing the loss of the farming and ranching lifestyle to urbanization as well as the loss of the scenic viewshed they treasured. In response to these concerns, in 1969 the Montana Fish and Game Commission (the rulemaking body for the DFG) designated the Smith a State Recreational Waterway. This banned motorized boating on the Smith.
The same year, the Montana Legislature adopted House Joint Resolution 12, which ordered the state's executive branch to study the Smith River's resources in order to assess its potential for recreation. Governor Forrest H. Anderson ordered the Governor's Council on Natural Resources and Development, an interagency coordinating group, to conduct the report. The council considered three alternatives: Designating the Smith River a state park; designating the Smith a National Wild and Scenic River, and improved management without any new designation. The body declined to consider no management (the status quo) or managing solely for the benefit of local landowners. The report, issued on November 20, 1970, recommended the third option, with the added element that state follow through on its designation of the Smith River as a State Recreational Waterway.
The study also concluded that the Smith River was a navigable waterway, which made the water and riverbed state property (and subject to much more intensive state regulation). This was a critical finding, for the United States Constitution, various rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Montana statehood act, and federal law gave title to the beds of navigable waters to the state, and the state had the right to regulate access and use of its property. Moreover, Montana state law declared all navigable waters open for public use.
Management from 1970 to 1980 By 1970, more than 55 percent of the Smith River Canyon shoreline was in private hands, primarily ranchers and vacation homeowners. Another 15 percent of the land was owned by the Burlington Northern Railroad and the Anaconda Copper Company. While the Smith River Fishing Access site had picnic tables and seating, pit latrines, and limited garbage disposal, the Camp Baker site remained undeveloped.
Recreational use of the Smith River rose significantly throughout the 1970s, worsening conflicts between private landowners and floaters over access, cross-stream fencing, human waste disposal, litter, trespassing, and vandalism. The Department of Fish and Game began developing "floater gates" to allow recreational users to pass downstream but which contained cattle. DFG also attempted to purchase land for new public access and boat camp sites to ease access and trespass problems, although these efforts proved fruitless. Other issues also occupied the DFG. As additional subdivisions occurred, the department sought to purchase this land to keep development from occurring. But it lacked the money to do so.
In 1973, the DFG completed its first natural resource inventory of the Smith River, a necessary step toward the department's first formal management plan for the river. The report was not comprehensive, focusing primarily on big game, sport fish, game birds, and ducks. The report made a number of recommendations, including: 1) New state legislation to protect the river; 2) Adoption of a statewide water quality and water monitoring plan; 3) A rural zoning act, to minimize development along rivers and streams; 4) Appropriation of extensive funds to allow DFG to purchase land along the Smith River; and 5) Adoption of a sport fish management plan. This last recommendation included limiting the fishing season, adopting limits on the number of fish taken ("creel limits"), encouragement of commercial fishing of undesirable fish, and the stocking of hatchery-raised sport fish.
Another major area of concern for the DFG was water flow. By mid-July each year, snowpack in the mountains (the major source of water for the Smith River) had completely melted away. Combined with irrigation in the upper Smith River, this meant that water levels on the Smith were too low by mid-summer to support recreational boating or floating. Low water levels also hurt the sport fishery, but although DFG attempted to secure additional water rights these efforts largely failed over the next 20 years. In 1974, DFG abandoned its attempt to manage the Smith River as a sport fishery, and instead began implementing a wild trout fishery management plan. This meant stocking only native fish, as needed, and no more stocking of nonnative sport fish.
Management from 1980 to 1988
Early management efforts The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP; DFG underwent a name change in 1979) began more intensive management of the Smith River in 1980. Floater gates and hazard signs were installed for the first time, and the FWP established the first boat camps. FWP's budget for managing the Smith River was approximately $10,000 a year ($ in dollars). At the start of the decade, only about 1,400 individuals floated the river each year, 87 percent of them putting-in at Camp Baker. FWP's stated policy was to limit access to the Smith River to keep the number of floaters low. This not only would preserve the river's near-wild state, but maintain high levels of privacy and solitude for floaters. It also helped to keep conflicts with local private landowners to a minimum. FWP also worked cooperatively with the USFS, which largely bowed to FWP's wishes when it came to managing the river and its watershed.
Yet, over the next eight years, FWP undertook a wide range of actions which served to increase the number of floaters. In 1981, FWP began asking users to voluntary register before putting-in at Camp Baker. Both BLM and FWP hired a ranger to patrol the river mid-April to mid-July (the floating season), which made the Smith River the first in Montana to have a river ranger. (BLM discontinued its ranger in 1982.) That same year, the department began leasing of land at Eden Bridge as a place where floaters could land and leave the river (a "take-out point"). Eden Bridge also served as a parking lot for floaters, who usually carpooled (along with their supplies and equipment) to Camp Baker. In 1983, FWP issued a contract for a concession for a shuttle service to run from Great Falls to Eden Bridge to Camp Baker, which allowed floaters to retrieve their vehicles at the put-in point or return to the nearby city. More expansion occurred that year as well as the state built a warm-season cabin for park rangers at Camp Baker and pit latrines at high-use boat camps. The state also greatly expanded its footprint in the Smith River watershed, engaging in a land swap with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, and the Montana Department of State Lands. This transaction added 13 new parcels of FWP land totaling . With the establishment of the Eden Bridge take-out point and shuttle service, Camp Baker became the exclusive put-in site. Float trips now became an almost-standard four day journey.
Implementation of voluntary registration