Chapman Lake?????

[Lotech Joe]

Anybody know what's going on at Chapman Lake in Spokane County? I hear the road into the resort is closed. I know the new owners have kicked a lot of the old time residents out. Someone at a retail outlet in Spokane told me that it's closed and the Game Dept. is really upset with the new owners. Any truth to this rampant gossip?

[Lotech Joe]

I did my own follow up and called the WDFW. They indeed said that the road has been closed. They have however continued to stock the lake and they are working with a land agent to locate a place to put a public access. It appears that the new owners of the resort, in closing the lake, have been hoarding the lake for themselves. Makes me wonder if there is some kind of "Branch Davidian" thing going on there. I won't even venture a guess where the new owners are from. Wherever they're from, they have effectively turned a public lake into a private lake and stolen something precious from us all.

[Marc Martyn]

A lot of the land around the lake was owned by the same family (Kaplan) for decades. After the old man died, the access changed. The new land owners may present a problem even if the lake has a new access. Time will tell.

DNR owns land on the south end and east side of the lake. They are probably going to have the access on DNR land.

http://maps.spokanecounty.org/?PID=48342.9026H