Landowner Closes Hiking Access to Medicine Hole

WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) — A landowner is closing off public hiking access to Medicine Hole in the Killdeer Mountains.

The Bismarck Tribune reports that landowner Brian Benz has put up barbed wire and "no trespassing" signs around his property.

Benz is upset that the National Park Service commissioned a North Dakota State University historian to study the 1864 Killdeer Mountain Battle site without first consulting landowners. Benz says he is tired of people who have never talked to him making decisions about his property.

Medicine Hole overlooks the site of the Killdeer Mountain Battle.

Arnie Skanchenko is another landowner in the area. He says he did not join Benz and other landowners in closing off the area to the public because that's "picking on the wrong people."