Right on! Let me know if it helps to have someone else inquire with them about it as well.
One of the biggest issues it seems is when the public does not refer the issue to the USFS, County, or other jurisdiction immediately (often it needs to be lodged as a formal complaint). Over a period of years, the gate prevents the public from using the road and therefor from being maintained by the county/USFS/etc. The property owners will often maintain it, document their expenditures, and then when a suit is finally brought they make claim to the roadway as they have established ownership via the maintaining and use of it for a period of time. This is the same argument that was brought into the mix by developers in Utah, Wyoming, and Montana - as well as private property owners who are well funded and will stand up to a suit from the gov.
Who knows, maybe this is all nothing and it truly is a private roadway - but it sure doesn't look that way.
Here is an example from the ADV riders forum of a guy confused in Colorado by private roadway signs on what are really public roadways, and a response by a guy in Wyoming who handles these issues in WY (later posts in the thread he sounds more like an attorney than a land manager, and seems to be well informed).
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"Yeah, but I can't tell what's a legit sign and what's not legit. How can you tell?"
"Unfortunately, there's no easy way to tell. In Wyoming, you can check the commissioners' records at the local courthouse to find out the surveyed route of all the county roads, and get copies of the easements (or orders) establishing the road. Even then, you can get into issues regarding whether the county road has been abandoned, and reverted to private.
The forest service roads are not so easy, because the forest service is so bad about either maintaining their roads, or keeping records regarding which ones are public and private. It is not uncommom for private inholders in the forest who block a road through their property, which was built and maintained by the public long before their property was private. The Forest Service (or the public) is left to file suit to enjoin the blockage, and they usually conclude it is not worth the money to bring suit.
I just finished working on a lawsuit where this precise issue was involved, and the forest service won the suit, but they had allowed the road to remain blocked for over a decade. If they hadn't convinced the U.S. Attorney to bring suit to establish a trail along the old railroad bed passing through the same property, they would never have sued just to reopen the road.
There are several theories under which the forest service, the local county commission or the public can sue to enjoin a landowner from blocking a public road. (prescriptive easements, R.S. 2477, implied easement, simple lack of right) Sadly, the amount of historical research necessary to prevail in those suits means that few ever get brought, due to the cost. The private landowners know this, so they routinely just block the roads, and dare anyone to do anything about it.
The worst abuse I've seen in Wyoming is where a private landowner (with buddies on the county commission) will grant an easement for a county road, get the county to pay to build the road, then convince the commissioners to abandon the road later. The landowner, in the process, just got the taxpayers to build him a nice long driveway, thank you very much. I can point to a couple of these in my county."