Section 67-7-3 - Fords; obstructions and damage; penalties; toll bridges prohibited. - New Mexico Statutes

67-7-3. [Fords; obstructions and damage; penalties; toll bridges prohibited.]

When any public road heretofore laid out or traveled as such or hereafter to be laid out or traveled, crosses any creek or stream of water, and such stream during any part of the year is usually fordable where such road passes the same, the said ford and the banks of the stream adjacent thereto, and the roadway or tract usually traveled leading thereto, from such highway, shall be deemed and be taken to be part of such highway, and any person who shall obstruct such ford, or the road leading thereto, or shall dig down the banks of such ford, or who shall erect any dam, or any embankment or other obstruction in such stream, or wingdam or other obstruction on the banks of such stream, for the purposes of raising the water of such stream upon the said ford, so as to render the said ford impassable, or more difficult of passage than heretofore, or who shall maintain any such dam, wingdam, embankment or obstruction heretofore erected, after being by the county road board of district notified to remove or abate the same, shall be liable to the penalties prescribed in the following section [67-7-4 NMSA 1978] for obstructing the public highway, and no person or corporation upon any pretense or authority, shall be permitted to erect a toll bridge over any stream at or upon a public ford, or road crossing, or so near thereto, as by the abutments, embankments or piers of such bridge, to obstruct or render impassable the said ford, or roadway leading thereto.