BALLARAT, Calif. -- Whoever named Surprise Canyon got it right. Mere miles from bone-dry Death Valley, the canyon cradles two unexpected jewels within its soaring, whitewashed walls: a gushing mountain stream and what's left of a once-bustling silver mining town.

These treasures have attracted visitors for decades -- and now they're at the heart of a legal battle between two modern foes, off-road drivers and environmentalists.

Five years ago environmentalists successfully sued to get the narrow canyon and its spring-fed waterfalls closed to vehicles. In response, more than 80 off-roaders purchased tiny pockets of private property at the top of the federally owned canyon and are suing for access to the land.

To buttress their case, the off-roaders have dusted off a Civil War-era mining law that places the public access rights of local governments and private individuals above the rights of the federal government. The tussle in this remote California corner is one of several recent cases that, if successful, could unlock thousands of miles of roads in federally protected parks around the West that are off-limits to motorized vehicles.

The fight over Surprise Canyon boils down to a central question: What is more important, the rights of private property owners or the protection of a fragile desert oasisfi

A coalition of environmental groups allege that before 2001, off-roaders destroyed the canyon by cutting trees, stacking boulders in the water and using steel winches to haul their Jeeps up a series of near-vertical waterfalls. They are now seeking to intervene in the off-roaders' lawsuit.

"It's almost unbelievable what's up there. It's precious, it's pristine," said Tom Budlong, an environmental activist who regularly hikes the canyon about 200 miles northeast of his Los Angeles home. "I shudder to think of the extreme four-wheelers getting back into the canyon and making a road where there is now no road."

There once was a road -- a 130-year-old gravel tollway that was washed away by flash floods nearly two decades ago. Undeterred, off-roaders continued to drive up the canyon to reach the ghost town, which includes easily explorable mine shafts, the remains of a smelter, some mine carts and a few cabins.

Kicked out by the settlement in 2001, they bought several acres of privately owned land -- some with cabins -- in an attempt to gain access. The canyon grows from an arid plain just north of the one-house desert outpost of Ballarat and climbs 3,700 feet over five miles to Panamint City, now a crumbling ghost town inside Death Valley National Park.

The narrow gorge's gurgling stream pours over seven waterfalls and winds its way between quartz cliffs. Thick stands of willows and cottonwood trees, their leaves golden yellow as winter approaches, cluster around the stream as flycatchers flit from branch to branch.

Less common birds have been spotted since the area was closed to off-roaders, notably the endangered Inyo California towhee, said Chris Kassar, an Arizona-based biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. Other sensitive species such as the Panamint daisy and the Panamint alligator lizard are also flourishing, she said.

Kassar and others believe the canyon's ecosystem could crumble if the off-roaders prevail in the current lawsuit, filed in August in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The off-roaders believe that under an 1866 mining law, the public right-of-way in the canyon remains although the road is long gone.

"The issue is not off-roading and environmental issues. The legal issue is access," said plaintiffs' attorney Karen Budd-Falen. "If the road was once there and it's eroded out it's still a public access. The fact that it has been flooded out doesn't make the legal issue go away."

Similar arguments are also being used in right-of-way lawsuits brought by states, counties and private citizens elsewhere in the West.

In 2004, San Juan County in Utah sued the National Park Service, claiming that a creek in Canyonlands National Park had once been a county road dating back to the 1890s. Environmental groups have also sought to intervene in that case, which is now before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Inyo County recently sued the same agency over four unmaintained dirt roads in Death Valley National Park and San Bernardino County sued over 14 roads in the Mojave National Preserve. Both suits allege the roads were county property before the federal government closed them.

Other states and counties from Alaska to Montana have surveyed and identified thousands of miles of roads currently on federal land that might be subject of similar claims.

The off-roaders, however, say they aren't trying to set a legal precedent -- they just want to visit their property and explore the old mining ruins.

"I respect what was there and I want it to be there for my kids to see," said Dale Walton, a member of the Bakersfield Trailblazers off-roading club and a property owner.

"I resent people who go in and destroy things, but I resent more people that say, 'You just can't go in there because we don't want you to go in there."'

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C2.