One of the trails near Theodore Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch site, where the former president ranched and sought solitude more than a century ago, could become a road and river crossing under a plan county officials have pushed for two decades.

Billings County officials say the road is needed. Opponents worry it would be a road heavy with oil traffic and RVs, ruining an area that inspired the conservation-minded president.

"Teddy Roosevelt would be going nuts over this," said Wayde Schafer, a North Dakota spokesman for the Sierra Club. "It's going to alter the whole feel of the area if this road goes through."

Billings County officials want a crossing over the Little Missouri River and a road north of Medora to connect state Highways 16 and 85. It would cut as much as 100 miles off the commutes of many who live in the area, encourage economic development in the region, and cut response times of fire trucks and ambulances, they say.

"It's been at a stalemate for 20 years because of opposition and economics," said Jim Arthaud, a county commissioner. "We think now that it will be done by the end of the decade."

Arthaud, who also is a rancher and owns an oil trucking company, said an engineering firm hired by the county has identified three alternatives for the river crossing and road, all of which would at least partly traverse federal land.

"Our plan is not an evil plan, and we are not trying to terrorize the people who love the Badlands," Arthaud said. "We need this and we have a legal right to it."

Public comment on the plan is being accepted until Friday, said Doug Hecox, a spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration. He said an environmental impact statement could be done by next spring, with a final decision sometime in 2010.

Hecox said hundreds of people and groups have submitted comments on the river crossing and road proposals.

"It's running about half and half," Hecox said. "A lot of folks are very supportive of it, and would like the benefit of shaving 90 to 100 miles off their commute."

Locals' comments would hold more weight with regulators, he said.

Billings County has 798 residents, census figures show.

"Locals are all for it, but I wonder how heavy they (federal officials) will weigh it in a county with about 700 people and losing population," Schafer said.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park Superintendent Valerie Naylor said all the county's proposed routes are within 2.5 miles of the Elkhorn Ranch.

"The three preliminary alternatives currently on the table are too close to the Elkhorn Ranch and we're very concerned about the soundscape and any potential visual intrusion and dust," Naylor said. "It would forever impair a very special place."

Two of the routes would go through a 5,200-acre parcel, the former Blacktail Creek Ranch, next to Theodore Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch site. The Forest Service completed the purchase of the $5.3 million parcel last year, with $4.8 million coming from the federal government and $500,000 from conservation groups, including the Boone and Crockett Club started by Roosevelt himself.

The county won a court battle in 2005 to build a six-mile long road and a low-water crossing through the ranch when it was privately owned.

Forest Service spokeswoman Sherri Schwenke said the county still has a right to the road, which currently is little more than a jeep trail.

"When we acquired the land, the county had jurisdiction over the Blacktail Creek Road, and we're honoring that," Schwenke said.

Arthaud said the three routes eyed by the county already have an existing roadbed and can easily be tied into existing farm-to-market road systems in Billings and Golden Valley counties.

"It's not like we just threw a dart - this is not only the logical location but the only place that is feasible because of terrain," Arthaud said. "Otherwise, we'd have to plow through six miles of untouched Badlands."

Roosevelt, who was president from 1901 to 1909, set aside millions of acres for national forests and wildlife refuges during his administration. He spent more than three years in the North Dakota Badlands in the 1880s.

The idea of conservation was conceived by Roosevelt during years that he spent in the Badlands, said Lowell Baier, executive vice president of the Boone and Crockett Club, started by Roosevelt in 1887.

"We see it as the cradle of conservation, where the concept of conservation started in this country," Baier said. His group strongly opposes the county's plans to build a road nearby.

"Find another route," Baier said. "Leave the sanctity of this place in silence."

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne visited the park and the newly purchased federal parcel in early August, saying he wanted to see the place where Roosevelt drew his inspiration.

Kempthorne said he did not have an opinion on whether a water crossing and road should be built there.

"I respect the locals' input," he said. "But it's still something that must go though the process."