YAVAPAI COUNTY, Ariz. — Drugs, child endangerment and felony warrants run rampant on a stretch of land just north of Cottonwood, according to the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office.
A micro-city, of sorts, has developed over time on state trust land along Bill Gray Road — a popular camping and hiking area. Since the pandemic, YCSO said more and more people started taking up residence near the road. As crime in the area increased, so did calls for service to the sheriff’s office. That’s when Sgt. Steven Warburton started to focus his Forest Patrol Unit on the area.
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His unit has been tasked with enforcing State Trust Land rules and regulations to crack down on illegal camping.
“We take a group of deputies out and we contact all the individuals camping on State Trust Land,” Warburton said. “Checking for permits to make sure that they have the required permit to be recreating and camping on State Trust Land.”
State trust land
State trust land, which is private land owned by the state, raises revenue for programs like the Arizona School for the Deaf and the Blind, and the Arizona State Hospital. It is also one of the primary sources of funding for K-12 public schools. The land raises revenues for the State through either selling parcels of the land or, as in the area around Bill Gray Road, leasing the land to ranchers.
“The last thing we want to happen is for it to get so trashed that they close it to camping and then ruin it for everybody. That's really our big thing,” Warburton said. “Just trying to keep people accountable, know the rules because if you push it too far, they'll just end up closing it because there's too much damage too many problems.”
Camping is permitted on state trust land with a 14-day permit. When YCSO started patrolling the area after the pandemic, many didn’t have a permit, and many had been there longer than 14 days.
Ruining it for everybody else
“One of the biggest issues is the lack of care for the area and the land,” Warburton said. “We've seen a lot of littering, subtracted a lot of crime.”
The area had become a refuge, of sorts, for those hiding with warrants for their arrest.
On the day 12News followed deputies on a detail, YCSO had someone on their radar.
“We're going to be looking for somebody today that our Criminal Investigations Unit is looking for who is said to be staying out here,” Warburton explained during a detail on April 3. “Just a lot of different activity that occurs out here.”
The rise in illegal camping makes it harder for legal campers to find spots and feel safe, the sheriff’s office said. A group of hikers flagged down Warburton on the April 3 detail to complain about a camper who was blocking a hiking trail.
Not everybody is on board
While the sheriff’s office says the sweeps for illegal camping are to make the area safer and enforce state trust land regulations, some legal campers do not feel it’s an issue worth addressing.
“The land is there, it's our land, we pay for it,” said Marilyn Neilson, who camps roughly 2/3 of the year around the country. “And for them to — the local municipalities — to put signs up saying no camping, when we're paying for that land, it's like me buying a house and being told I can't stay there.”
It’s hard to see the difference between state trust land and National Forest land, where no permit is required to camp, just by looking around. Being from Michigan, Neilson didn’t understand why state land could be leased privately.
Even so, she felt that the enforcement of state trust land regulations has been heavy-handed.
“I'm a landlord too, I own several properties, and understand that you don't want somebody destroying things. But the answer is not to make people feel like criminals,” she said.
Getting better
Warburton and his unit have made it a point to patrol the area around Bill Gray Road once or twice a month for the past few years. He told 12News that in the beginning, it was a bit like the wild west.
“When we were first doing details, we had child abuse cases and had to call the Department of Child Services quite a bit,” Warburton said. “Lots of warrant arrests. Just about a little bit of everything.”
During the sweep on April 3, the situation had vastly improved. Three tickets were issued for trespassing and one person was arrested on an outstanding warrant.
“It does seem like the details are working,” Warburton said. “Before we were writing a lot of tickets, we were dealing with a lot of criminal activity that was taking place out there. Now, it's cleaner than it used to be. People are abiding by the rules. They're staying their 14-day limit and then they're moving on… it looks tenfold a lot better than it did a handful of years ago.”
Warburton advises anyone thinking of camping outside of a designated campground to confirm if the land is federally, privately, or state-owned. The Arizona Land Department has maps that indicate land ownership.
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