Mark Boyce posted:Reminds me of a true story my maternal grandmother told many times. When the PRR wanted to build a branch line from the Connemaugh Division at Freeport up over the hill and back down to Butler, the railroad people came to her father and said they wanted to build across part of his farm. They were willing to pay a certain amount, but great-grandpa said he was willing to let them have the right of way for free, because he could get his farm goods and lumber he cut transported with ease.
Funny, once the line was abandoned in the '80s and they were building the bike trail, one farmer took the local rails to trails to court claiming the right of way reverted back to him afterwards. He even dumped truck loads of rock on the right of way to block bikers. He lost out, and has now passed on. Now his son, who is a friend of mine, raises turkeys right up next to the bike trail, and it is a nice stop for city bikers to get a bit of a view of farm life.
The same thing happened with my buddy's family . Miles of the Mac were supposed to revert back to the family. No compensation was ever given, the original contracts blown off by the courts. The land was stolen imo. Eminent domain includes compensation, there was none. And age alone doesn't void a contract. ....The same year of another contract that keeps some donated land from being anything but the city's largest park. And of another where the land was recovered before house building began. All this land was chosen carefully to build up the area between Alpea and Mackinaw... and this is the thanks they get ... There ought to be a law 
...oh wait... That was ignored 
