The Carlin Bay public boat launch hasn't been as public as everyone thought.

A recent analysis of property by Carlin Bay revealed a decades-old snafu, that the launch has technically been under private ownership all along and not legally under Kootenai County authority.

"A county surveyor discovered a claim that had not been signed long ago," said Nick Snyder, executive director of county Parks and Waterways.

Let's back up.

Since the '50s, Kootenai County has been operating the Harrison launch under a handshake agreement with the property owner, Eastside Highway District.

"Everything in our file said that Eastside Highway District was the legal owner that allowed us to operate on that (launch)," Snyder said.

Turns out, that wasn't quite right.

A county surveyor, studying a waterfront lot by Carlin Bay that Kootenai County purchased two years ago, discovered that the original owners, the Stott family, had never signed a quit claim deed giving up ownership to the highway district.

Snyder said he isn't surprised this wasn't discovered earlier.

So many government agreements around the '50s, like the boat launch arrangement between the highway district and county, were just verbal agreements without much attention paid to paper records.

"That's how they operated," Snyder said.

Easy fix.

The county surveyor, Bruce Anderson, tracked down the descendant of the parcel's original owners, Snyder said.

"Bruce Anderson really deserves an 'atta boy' for all his hard work," Snyder said.

The descendant, Kootenai County resident Joyce Dougall, was willing to sign a quit claim deed giving the county ownership of the launch.

The county commissioners unanimously approved the deed this week.

"This is a very critical housekeeping item," Snyder said.

Dougall and Anderson could not be reached on Wednesday.

The original deed dates back to 1917, Snyder said.

"There's a lot of history there," he said.