IRONTON — The sudden appearance in early March of a “Road Closed” sign on one of the few routes leading into the popular Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area caused confusion for those who use and maintain the park.
Taped to the bottom of the sign at the head of Overburden Road on the west end of the rec area was a notice from the Department of Natural Resources, stating the Galloping Goose mountain bike trail and surrounding areas — including the road — were temporarily closed to public use due to a private party’s actions.
“This private party, which has a leasehold interest, is asserting it has the right to close this area to the public,” the notice, which was also posted on the DNR’s website on March 6, stated. “We continue to work towards options to reopen the area.”
But in an email Friday, March 20, Ann Pierce, director of the DNR’s parks and trails division, said the temporary closure signs were put up due to spring thaw conditions, and the additional notice was placed in error.
“Upon learning of this, Minnesota DNR Parks and Trails division leadership acted to remove the sign immediately,” the email states. “We regret any confusion this erroneous signage may have created.”
On Thursday, the DNR updated its online notice to read, “Overburden Road is seasonally closed until further notice.”
An estimated 400,000 visitors flock to Cuyuna each year to bike the miles of trails and explore a dozen former mine pits. Tourism has grown into a cornerstone of the economy for the area’s mining towns.
But access to Overburden Road moving forward is not guaranteed.
The “private party” in the DNR’s original notice is June Lake LLC, a company owned by Minneapolis-based Dawn and Tim Prinsen. The couple has been coming to the Brainerd lakes area for years and, since 2024, has been working on plans to build rental cabins on landlocked parcels they lease in the rec area.
The Prinsens have been trying to get an easement to access the lots on the south shore of June Lake for months, but in December 2025, the DNR denied the easement request.
Immediately south of its landlocked property, June Lake LLC also controls 1/24th of a parcel, which Overburden Road runs through. The DNR owns the other 23/24ths.
In February, the Prinsens formally requested the DNR close Overburden Road and post no trespassing signs on the contested parcel by March 3.
The DNR denied the request, but the Prinsens held off on posting their own signage as they pursued other paths forward.
“We are as confused as everybody,” Tim Prinsen said of the notice in an interview Friday. “ ... We will let the local DNR, the CAC [Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area Citizens Advisory Council] and the [Cuyuna Lakes] Mountain Bike Crew know prior to posting no trespassing signs.”
'Nothing good that’s going to come of this’
Overburden Road is a key access point to multiple trails and popular mine pit lakes.
A notice posted online by the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Crew, a group of volunteers that helps the DNR maintain and manage the trails, said the temporary closure area included about 650 yards of Galloping Goose Trail. It also affected access to the Huntington Mine, Alstead Mine and June Lake public water accesses and seven other mountain bike trails.
“We are working actively with the DNR on temporary measures and signage to maintain safety and trail continuity where possible,” said Shae Rosetti, the crew’s only paid staff member, in an interview March 17. “Our focus is on keeping people informed and supporting safe trail operations while the DNR works through the situation. We are the trail stewards.”
Aubrey Koop, executive director of the Cuyuna Lakes Chamber of Commerce, said the community reaction to the closure was swift, and it was causing a bit of concern.
“I think in general, everyone’s got the same concerns on whether or not this can impact the tourist season,” she said March 17.
Darrell Dwire, a paramedic and nurse at Cuyuna Regional Medical Center, said he was told the closure would not impact emergency medical service access.
“It’s at the ideal time of year — that’s besides the late ice fishing that I would be doing back there — for this closure to happen, and hopefully they resolve it sooner rather than later,” Dwire said.
In 2025, he started Cuyuna Lakes Outdoors LLC, renting electric pontoons and offering guided fishing trips.
While some mountain bike trails were impacted by the closure, those who use the water accesses for boating, diving, swimming or kayaking would feel the loss of Overburden Road more, he said.
Jesse Williams, store manager at Oars-N-Mine in Crosby, said March 17, when the temporary closure was still thought to be in place, that he’d already begun to hear people complain.
“So, if they’re complaining now, there’s going to be a whole load of people between now and fishing opener or now and July 4th — every time you have a big event or weekend coming up, we’re going to hear about it,” he said.
Williams has helped run Oars-N-Mine, a dock, bait and tackle shop, for 20 years and has partnered with Dwire on fishing guiding.
It’s not the first time an access that was popular with locals closed. A few years ago, nearby Silkstone Road, another access to the remote part of the rec area, closed due to another land use disagreement, Dwire said.
As with all development, the community has mixed opinions about June Lake LLC’s plans for cabins, Koop with the chamber said.
Williams and Dwire said they’re both fairly neutral on the project. To them, it's the Prinsens’ property to do with what they wish.
But cutting off public access for everyone, as the Prinsens have threatened, is not a good way to gain allies, Williams said.
“Anytime there’s something taken away, it’s felt, and it’s heard,” he said. “And this [closure] is gonna have a big effect, I think. And it’s not positive. There’s nothing good that’s going to come out of this unless they get this resolved.”
Who owns the land?
Overburden Road and Galloping Goose Trail pass through an undivided interest parcel, meaning rather than being divided up between multiple titles, the property has one title with multiple owners.
In this case, the DNR owns 23/24ths of the parcel. June Lake LLC is leasing the other 1/24th — and the parcels it wants to develop — from the property owner.
In the Feb. 19 letter requesting a closure, the Prinsens asserted there is not a right-of-way for the road and trail through the parcel, as the DNR claims. So, the Prinsens exercised their ownership right and requested the DNR close all access points and post no trespassing signs.
Tim Prinsen said their surveyor discovered in December 2024 that the documents granting a pass-through easement had expired when the surveyor requested documents from the DNR proving ownership.
“They have as much right to that undivided interest parcel as we do,” Prinsen said. “But they don’t have exclusive right to Overburden Road and Galloping Goose, which is what they’ve been claiming.”
The Crow Wing County Examiner of Titles Jim Nelson initially agreed with Prinsen and deleted the former railroad easements after examining the record at Prinsen’s request. But in August 2025, the DNR informed Nelson that state law doesn’t allow him to update the documents at the request of someone who doesn’t own the property.
At the DNR’s request, Nelson again reviewed the record, considered the DNR’s argument and in October decided to restore the easements.
In a statement Friday, a DNR spokesperson said the agency responded to the letter on Feb. 27, saying it would not post no trespassing signs, “as we see them as inconsistent with historic use and DNR’s ownership rights.”
The DNR said June Lake LLC responded that it would notify the DNR when it posted signs.
Prinsen said he’s been working with legislators, including Rep. Josh Heintzeman of Nisswa, on a legislative fix to the access issue and was waiting to post signage at the legislators’ request.
“Ideally, we’d like the DNR to grant the easement in exchange for gifting them the 1/24th interest,” Prinsen said. “If they’re not able to do that, then we will continue on with our path of trying to seek a legislative solution and at the same time, review our options with regards to posting no trespassing.”
Easement denial ‘is baffling’
The ownership dispute over the Overburden Road parcel is only the latest move in over a year of emails, meetings, letters and resolutions.
The Prinsens put their plans for a series of small, overnight cabins geared toward mountain bikers into motion in 2024.
The project would include groups of three 1,000-square-foot cabins with a shared septic system scattered throughout the property, a 3,000-square-foot or less main cabin, a shared sauna and a caretaker cabin, according to a handout from the Prinsens. It calls for a project informed by nature, living lightly on the land, with materials drawn from nature.
“Some 400,000 people visit the rec area every year, but many of them are day trips,” Prinsen said. “There’s not a lot of opportunity for them to stay overnight. So, this is a much-needed amenity for the rec area.”
In April 2024, the couple entered a ground lease — which allows a tenant to develop the property — with an option to purchase for two landlocked parcels north of Overburden Road.
As part of the agreement with the landowner, the Prinsens would try to get an easement to nearby County Road 128, which would allow them to access the parcels.
In exchange for an 875-square-foot easement, the Prinsens would enter a public-private partnership with the DNR, where the agency could weigh in on the size, number and location of cabins, Prinsen said. June Lake LLC would also give the DNR the first right of purchase to the property if it ever sold it.
Additionally, June Lake LLC would gift the DNR its 1/24th interest — which it is also leasing — in the parcel that Overburden Road crosses, so the DNR would have full ownership.
The Prinsens aren’t the first to try to get an easement for the property, but no past attempts have succeeded. After a monthslong application process, the DNR denied their easement request in December 2025.
In a five-page letter, the Parks and Trails Director Pierce acknowledged an easement is the only reasonable way to access the property but denied the application “because the easement would cause significant adverse natural resource management impacts.”
“More specifically, the easement would interfere with management of the SRA [state recreation area] to meet the goals set forth in statute and in the management plan, including providing the opportunity for mountain biking and other recreational uses in a non-commercial atmosphere, and would interfere with possible future mineral development,” Pierce stated.
The requested easement was over Overburden Road and to use the land for camping and cabins — something the DNR states it wants to use land for in the rec area’s planning documents, Prinsen said. The possibility of campsites on June Lake has existed since at least 1995.
“How they determined that our use was somehow detrimental to the DNR’s property when it’s being used for that [a road] right now and their master plan specifically states that they would like to have camping and cabins on this private property is baffling,” Prinsen said.
The DNR’s denial focused on the need to preserve a “non-commercial atmosphere.”
“A DNR-managed campground, managed in a manner that meets the SRA purposes, is consistent with this vision and objective; a commercial lodging enterprise is not,” Pierce stated.
In its application, June Lake LLC noted the project had “overwhelming local support,” pointing to support from the Ironton City Council, three Crow Wing County commissioners and the rec area’s Citizens Advisory Council.
The application also outlined the 1/24th interest exchange, and that “it is critical for the decision makers at the DNR to understand that the ‘loss’ of Overburden Road means that Galloping Goose Trail will no longer exist as a continuous single-track trail.”
But Pierce notes that local support, a land exchange and the possible shutdown of a trail are not factors that the DNR can consider when deciding on an easement.
“DNR will continue to work to find a resolution that is consistent with the management goals for the Cuyuna Country SRA and consistent with well-established state law that directs how the DNR manages state parks and SRAs across the state and law specific to this SRA (with respect to potential future mining operations),” the DNR said in a statement.
