Court battle begins over access to beloved East Texas fishing spot

For years now, there’s been a fight in Henderson County over who gets to use a much-loved fishing hole. 

Henderson County is a rural area southeast of Dallas, stippled with lakes, ponds and streambeds. In its southwest corner, a body of water called the Cutoff has been a spot to fish, hunt and just hang out for generations. 

But in 2022, a local landowner put up a fence to prevent people from accessing the Cutoff. Ever since, a group of hunters and anglers has fought to try and re-gain access, a battle that continued on Tuesday at the 173rd District Court in Athens, the county seat. 

There, Judge Dan Moore held a hearing between the group working to regain access to the water, Save the Cutoff, and the Henderson County Commissioners Court. The lawsuit, one of two filed by Save the Cutoff on the matter, is over the maintenance of a county road that could provide entry to the Cutoff.

The Texas Standard’s Michael Marks talked about the stakes and significance of the lawsuits. 

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: I know this is a story you’ve been following since the start. Before we get into what happened in the courtroom. Can you tell us a little bit more about the Cutoff itself? 

Michael Marks: Yes. This is a body of water that used to be part of the Trinity River. But in the last century, flood control projects cut it off from the river, so now it’s kind of a standalone oxbow lake.

Like we said, there’s a lot of stuff to do out there. Outside of the Henderson County courthouse, I talked to a man named Bud Morton who’s spent his life in the area. Now he’s part of the group called Save the Cutoff. They’re trying to regain access to the area. 

“Crappie fish. Duck hunt. Catfish. Just hang out, find a shade tree, you know, and enjoy the water,” Morton said. “I mean, it’s beautiful. It’s peaceful out there. It’s quiet.” 

It was also a free place to go hunt and fish, which in Texas are in short supply if you are not a person of means.

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So what is it that the plaintiffs are trying to achieve here? 

They want access to the Cutoff itself. The way you used to get in there is by a boat ramp next to a farm to market road that runs right by the water.

The property around the water was purchased at the end of 2021 by a company called Iron River Ranch, which is owned by a local man named Phillip Surls. He’s not responded to requests for comments about any of this, but Surls had a fence put up between the road and the boat ramp that Save the Cutoff wants removed.

They want that fence gone, and they want to have full, unimpeded access to the Cutoff, the way it used to be. 

What about the main legal questions that are driving this lawsuit?

There are a few of them. Save the Cutoff actually brought two lawsuits in Henderson County regarding this situation.

One is against Iron River Ranch and it concerns the fence itself. The Texas Department of Transportation has sent notices saying that the fence is in their right of way, but it still hasn’t been removed. So Save the Cutoff is seeking a decree that the Cutoff is a public waterway, and so the public has to have access to it and the fence has to come down.

The other lawsuit, the one that got its first hearing on Tuesday, this is actually brought against Henderson County itself, the Commissioners Court. It’s about a county road which runs kind of parallel to the Cutoff. And it used to be a way for people to access the water, but it hasn’t been maintained in some time.

“The case involving County Road 9495, we’re asking for that road to be restored to the public,” said Save the Cutoff’s attorney, Eric Allmon from Austin. “Access to which public deserves, and for the county to maintain that roadway and that access all the way to the Cutoff.”

One of the reasons they say that the county’s responsible to keep this open and maintained is because the county has been accepting money from TxDOT to maintain this road.

» MORE: East Texans file lawsuits to access beloved body of water

This litigation can’t be cheap, I would imagine. How is Save the Cutoff financing this?

One way is by spending a lot of their time. This has basically become a second job for Dustin Baker, who is one of the leaders of Save the Cutoff.

“You know, I can’t tell you how many basketball games I’ve missed or camping trips or, you know, just all of the stuff with my family, my kids, because I’m tied up doing fundraisers or I’m tied up looking for documents,” Baker said. “Or the times that I have to work late at home because I had to miss a little bit of time early in the morning for work.”

As far as dollars and cents go, they’ve held several fundraisers and they’ve received some grants from some national conservation nonprofits. But the legal bills are becoming more and more overwhelming as time goes on.

What happens next?

Judge Dan Moore of the 173rd District Court is going to decide this week whether to proceed with the lawsuit with the county, or wait until the other case, the one about the fence, is resolved. The defendants – the county – they want to wait; Save the Cutoff wants to move forward.

We are months away from the fence case moving through the courts, however, so a lot of watching and waiting right at this moment. Judge Moore ended the hearing yesterday by noting that it had been an interesting morning, and I imagine there will be more of those before it’s all said and done.

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