A $3 per person per day land use fee is included in each racer’s entry fee. The course includes rocks, tight woods, open areas, creeks and steep hills.

The permit-and-map process might be the best compromise, Ward said.

“We want to restrict them into just certain areas where we know we want them to go because the damage has already been done and they can’t hurt it anymore,” he said. “We don’t mind all the four-wheel-drive guys going out there, it’s just that it’s gotten out of control; they’re just going everywhere.”

Bill Stimmel, an off-road enthusiast and owner of Mud Bug Motor Sports, said the solution is to make more room for tourists and regulars.

“I know of a lot of four-wheel-drive guys who go out there, some of them go every weekend, and I’ve been four-wheeling out there for 20 years,” Stimmel said. “I believe it should be opened up for people coming down here. I even think they ought to have some events like they do out at Disney (another ORV park) near Grand Lake. When we hold our run up at Disney, we bring 250 rigs in, and every one of them spends the night, That would be pretty big income to Muskogee if you bring in 250 rigs and each one of them brings four people with them. We have one in the spring and one in the fall. We usually ‘wheel’ Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. That can be a lot of money to the area.”

As for people deliberately damaging the area, Stimmel said he thinks most off-roaders are not that irresponsible.

“I’ve never taken a chain saw to a tree, and my rig is 8 feet wide,” he said. “I know there are some guys from Fort Gibson who have done it, but they told me they had permission from an official in Oklahoma City.”

Muskogee County Commissioner Gene Wallace said there has been a change in traffic which has created some new problems.

“It was historically used by two-wheel off-road motorcycles,” he said. “We haven’t had a lot of competition in the park with other vehicles until probably the last three or four years. And then you’ve had other interests that have found the park: four-wheelers have found it, mountain bikes have found it, off-the-road rock climbers have found it, that sort of thing. The only competition that I’m aware of at this point is between four-wheel drive and some of the other interests. Until we get into some major conflicts, I would hope that they could work it out among themselves.”

Wallace said Ward has spoken to the county commission about speed limit signage, an idea he doesn’t think will have much effect.

“First of all, there isn’t a tremendous amount of traffic, so it isn’t realistic to think that law enforcement is going to stay out there and enforce a speed limit to any great extent,” he said. “We might have to get signs in there designating certain activities in certain areas. But it would take a visual survey of the topography to see where certain vehicles could or could not go.”

Wallace was adamant that, although the park is open to the public, no one can re-design it.

“The one thing we cannot allow anyone to do is alter, change, cut trees, move dirt, things like that,” he said. “The park will and needs to stay in the original state as when it was actually transferred to the county. If anybody thinks they can cut trees out of that area, if they get caught, it’s going to be a very expensive tree-cutting for them.”