MEDORA Billings County wants to span some rough tough country on the Little Missouri River north of Medora and is looking at three places to do it.

The county's engineer, KLJ Engineers, explained the alternatives at a public meeting in Medora on Thursday night and heard stiff objections to the general location of all three.

Two roads to the river crossing would go right through the newly public Eberts Ranch, and a third alternate south of the Ebertses' would be one river mile from the Elkhorn Ranch Site, protected by the Theodore Roosevelt National Park because the park's namesake president lived at the ranch in the 1880s.

The county wants a crossing for fire protection and industry because the county is in the heart of a 70-mile gap between river bridges.

This is one of several attempts the the county has made to cross the river in the last decade.

None of the alternatives is more than three miles from the protected Elkhorn Ranch, a location that tripped up at least one other potential crossing in years' past.

Jan Swenson of Bismarck said all three are within easy earshot of the Elkhorn, "and it's a national park."

Bill Whitworth, chief of resources for the National Park, said the park will make a formal comment on the noise of bridge traffic and the visual impact to the Elkhorn.

Whitworth said none of the three alternatives is located far enough away to not be heard, if not seen from there.

Lillian Cook of Medora asked why two routes go right through the Eberts Ranch when the U.S. Forest Service is still developing a management plan after buying it a year ago to protect it for its historical connection to Theodore Roosevelt.

Ron Jablonski, Forest Service district manager, said he hadn't seen the alternatives until Thursday.

He asked if KLJ Engineers, the firm preparing the environmental impact statement for Billings County, sees any conflict between the Forest Service and the crossing planning process.

Con Short, whose land would be crossed in the alternative south of the Eberts Ranch, said he and his family are 100 percent opposed to cutting through pristine river bottom loaded with mule deer.

"We'll fight this with all of our resources," Short said.

Jim Obenfoell of Sentinel Butte said he didn't think much of any of the alternatives.

"They'd just be opening up another area of the Badlands that would be broken up into little housing units," he said. "This is a violation of trust for me."

KLJ will take comments through Aug. 22 and expects to issue a draft environmental impact statement in 2009, with a final decision by the Federal Highway Administration in 2010.

The project will look at either a low-water crossing or a bridge at the locations with associated road work between six and 10 miles depending on the site.

The estimated project cost is between $1.5 million for the low-water crossing to $7.5 million for a bridge in excess of 1,000 feet at one alternative location.

The county wants to span the Little Missouri River and connect paved Highways 85 and 16 with this project.

More information is available at www.billingscountynd.gov.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@westriv.com.)