Originally Posted by MTskibum
Spring creeks can be owned if the originate on the property. In this case passage would be restricted.
If the spring creek just passes through the property, then passage cannot be restricted and the high water mark law applies.
Not sure that's right, since DePuy's starts up on the Armstrong property, so theoretically Armstrong's could keep people from using their portion without paying, but DePuy's couldn't, since it only runs through theirs. And Nelson's is also owned by two separate landowners, I believe.
I always thought that the Armstrong/DePuy spring creek got around the law because it's not quite a "natural" spring creek. As I understood it, the spring once emerged and flowed a short distance to the river, while what is now the spring creek channel was actually the old channel of Trail Creek. The spring was diverted into the Trail Creek channel, and later Trail Creek was diverted to run directly to the river in the old spring channel. I don't know about Nelson's.