Landowners along the proposed tourist railroad from Whitewood to Deadwood, North Dakota, want to know how they will be treated if the project ever gets on track.

About 20 people attended Friday's Northern Hills Railroad Authority meeting in Deadwood, primarily to express their frustration with the authority and its land acquisition plans for the project. One said he has been unable to build a house on land in the railroad right of way, despite county approval.

But land ownership questions probably will not be answered until the project is financed, something the authority has been waiting for since 1992.

Black Hills Transportation Co. spokesman Terry Kranz said his company plans to build a passenger railroad from Whitewood to Deadwood. The railroad authority would own the track, but Black Hills Transportation would lease the system and run a train on it.

This is nearly identical to a plan pitched in 1992 by a Kevin Costner-owned company called Dunrail. However, that plan never materialized, and Costner ended his contract with the railroad authority in November 2003.

Kranz, who was the planner for Dunrail, organized Black Hills Transportation and still lists Costner as a partner in the project.

The Railroad Authority is composed of representatives from the cities of Lead, Deadwood, Belle Fourche, Spearfish, Sturgis and Whitewood. It has the power to enter into contracts with railroad companies and commandeer land to build railroads if necessary.

The authority met in March and announced that the state had given the railroad right of way to the authority through a quitclaim deed. Landowners along the abandoned rail bed are concerned because they believe land ownership questions haven't been fully investigated.

Many local landowners believe the land reverted to their ownership after the railroad ceased operations there.

Kranz said Friday that property deeds along the proposed route don't clearly state exactly who owns the land. "Each one is a special, unique case," Kranz said.

Kranz said only six of 24 property deeds along the route revert the property back to landowners, and two of the six were nullified when the railroad was completed many years ago.

Jim Swaby is building a house in the right of way. "I believe I've done everything in my power to get a home built there," Swaby said.

He said he received approval from county authorities when he platted the land and built an access road to the property.

However, railroad authority attorney Tom Brady asked Swaby to stop construction activities earlier this year because there is a railroad project planned for that area.

"It has created a very significant problem," Brady said.

"The papers I feel are required have been filed in an appropriate manner," Swaby said.

Although the rail bed is about 18 feet wide, the right of way is 100 feet wide. Some landowners said they haven't been invited to participate in right-of-way issues.

"It would make me feel a whole lot better if someone would come talk to us," Whitewood rancher Jim Willson said. "We don't know what to do next."

Landowners raised questions regarding pasture and homestead access, environmental issues, livestock protection, public safety and fire hazards.

Railroad authority chairman LaVern Bills of Belle Fourche asked landowners to wait until the project is financed before bringing land acquisition matters to the organization.

"We can talk about this until hell freezes over," Bills said. "We really have no basis to talk to landowners about purchasing until the money is there."

Charles Brown, who lives adjacent to the proposed railroad, accused the Authority of putting the interests of Black Hills Transportation ahead of the landowners.

"The funding to deal with landowners is controlled by commercial interests," Brown said. "They (Black Hills Transportation) want to take the land for nothing."

Brown said that most of the landowners along the route are not opposed to the project.

Bills said the motive behind the authority is to build a railroad for economic development purposes.

"Our mission is to build a railroad," Bills said. "We have discussed keeping the right of way intact even if the railroad isn't built. It could be an economic corridor for other uses. We don't want to just walk away."