Editor's note: This is the third and final story in a series about Taralyn Romero's property rights battle in Kittredge, Colorado. Read part 1 and part 2.
Dozens of angry residents filed into a community church for a town hall-style meeting, demanding to know when they would once again be able to swim and play in Bear Creek.
Taralyn Romero, who had strung a rope across her property line to block access to the beloved creek, was the most hated person in the room.
"Public outcry was at an absolute high," Romero said of the May 2022 meeting. "I could sense that trouble was brewing."
Two months later, the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners sued Romero, alleging the government, not Romero, owned the sandy beach on the north side of Bear Creek.
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"I was just like any other homebuyer, right? I was lucky enough to buy a property, to raise a family, to be in an area that I wanted to be in. And here they were trying to take it from me," she said.
Romero's battle with her neighbors and, ultimately, her local government, began in early 2021 when she bought a house in the small town of Kittredge, Colorado. Her backyard included a steep hill and, below, a creek ran through the edge of the property. A community park sat on the other side.
Locals had played in the creek for decades, but Romero said a survey of the property showed the land on either side of the water belonged to her.
"I bought a house with a creek running through the backyard. That's what was advertised to me," she said. "And on principle alone, I wasn't going to let them rip it from my hands."
As hostilities between the townsfolk and Romero boiled over into in-person confrontations, Romero said she tried to negotiate with the county to lease the portion of her land in question, or come to some other solution that would have allowed the community to access the creek while also respecting her rights.
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Instead, Jefferson County asked a judge to grant the government rights over the land.
The county first argued that the creek itself was the boundary between the park, created in 1986, and the property next to it. The park included everything to the north of the creek and Romero owned the land to the south, they alleged.
"Bear Creek has slowly meandered south from its course over time and lies south of where it was when the legal descriptions were originally created," the lawsuit reads.
Romero and her attorneys argued that the current location of Bear Creek was not intended to be the property, and that the deed ties the boundary to a map, not the water.
Regardless of true property lines, the July 2022 lawsuit argued the land should go to the county based on the doctrine of adverse possession. Since the community had enjoyed access to the property for more than 35 years without any complaint from previous owners, the county said public access should be allowed to continue.
Romero said in some ways the lawsuit was "such a relief."
"Now we can just go to war, and I don't have to pretend anymore," she said. "I said, 'We're gonna fight for this, because owning property in this country is synonymous with the pursuit of happiness.'"
And Romero had an army of TikTok followers on her side. Her handle, "Wicked Witch of the West," poked fun at the way Kittredge residents viewed her. Her short videos about the property dispute racked up millions of views.
People from all over the world wrote emails to the county commissioners and flooded the comments section of the local parks department's Facebook page, Romero said.
Hundreds logged in to virtual town hall meetings to show their support for the woman who had so often found herself without any allies.
"That public pressure absolutely influenced the government," Romero said.
Romero ultimately settled with the county last year, selling a portion of her backyard with the creek and beach for $250,000. The county put up a fence and signage along the new property line.
A rope stretches over the water, clearly separating the side families are free to play in from the side that runs through private land.
Jefferson County's attorney declined to comment on the suit or its outcome.
Romero's experience changed her "entire view of our justice system and of our government," she said.
"I never thought for a second that was all the facts on my side, I would still be at risk of losing everything," she said, adding that she was shocked by the hypocrisy of many residents.
"When it came to my property, they're like, ‘You should share,’" Romero said. "'And if you don't want to share, the government should force you to share through prescriptive easement.' … But when it comes to their property, you know they're going to freak out if you're an inch over on their fence line."
With her own battle behind her, Romero now uses TikTok to advocate for other people's property rights and freedoms. Recently, she posted several teary videos about the New York raid that ended in the euthanasia of a pet squirrel, calling it "outrageous" and a prime example of "how wildly out of balance the powers of control are" in America.
She still hasn't forgiven all of her neighbors though.
"If I could say anything to the people who lied through their teeth and who conspired against me to take what I bought fair and square … I would say, ‘Shame on you,’" Romero said. "'What you put out into the world, you get back. And good luck, because it was hell.'"
