Alaskan Moose Hunter Wins in Supreme Court – But It Was Expensive

What do moose hunting, hovercraft and the U.S. Supreme Court have in common? This story:

According to the Washington Post and MustReadAlaska, John Sturgeon is an Alaskan hunter, who just wanted to get back to his favorite moose hunting spot. In 2007, John was using his small hovercraft on the Nation River, within the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, to get back to his hunting spot near the Canadian border. He had a problem with the hovercraft, so he beached it on a sandbar to fix it. That's when Park Rangers approached him and told him using the hovercraft was illegal on all federal park grounds. They told him he couldn't even use it to get home. John knew he was in the right - the Park Service had no jurisdiction over Alaska's navigable waterways - and that made him mad enough to sue the federal government.

Long story short. John spent 12 years fighting the federal government over this. It was expensive - he spent $1.5 million to get it done. He's not rich, but much of that came in from unsolicited donors who just wanted to help in the fight. The case finally ended up in the Supreme Court, where the court ruled for him this year. Yesterday, the Washington Post did a full story about how it all unfolded and where that $1.5 million all went.

This story is a great lesson in standing up for what you believe in and the power of people helping other like-minded people. My hope is John's been moose hunting again in his favorite spot, thanks to getting back there in his hovercraft.

Here's the whole story.