EAST END, Idaho — A man at the center of a bizarre legal battle over a patch of land along the Boise River says it’s not just his home, it’s his mission.
Last week, Idaho News 6 reported on a lawsuit over a strip of land known as Sawmill Island, a narrow, undeveloped section between the Boise River and an irrigation canal. This week, Chris Burdge offered a tour of the land he says he’s lived on, periodically, since 2017.
WATCH: Go inside Sawmill Island with the man who says he owns it
“When I found this site in 2017, I knew they were going to come after it,” Burdge said. “They did real quick, too.”
According to Burdge’s federal lawsuit, he believes the island was once home to the original Boise sawmill. Today, only overgrown brush and slabs of concrete remain, but Burdge says he is working to preserve what’s left and eventually rebuild a functioning replica sawmill on the site.
“My intention is to eventually rebuild the sawmill, a functioning sawmill, as a historic site,” he said.
Burdge claims he uncovered an old deed in county records and argues that he qualifies for adverse possession, a rarely used legal doctrine that allows someone to gain ownership of land they’ve visibly and continuously occupied.
“This law goes back to 1881,” Burdge said. “I fulfilled all this stuff in there.”
Burdge’s method of accessing the land is unconventional. With water levels still high, he says he floats across a canal in a tube to reach the island.
“Right now, because the water's still high, I just float across a little tube... directly across the canal,” he said.
While the lawsuits aim to secure legal ownership of the land, Burdge insists that was never the goal.
“I don’t even want this piece of land. I never did,” Burdge said. “But I didn’t want them to get it... and I always finish a mission.”
Burdge is suing both the City of Boise and the Boise City Canal Company in separate federal and state cases. In the federal complaint, he accuses the city of violating his constitutional rights by allegedly assigning a tax parcel to the land without notice, something he claims led to his arrest in June 2025 after burning brush on the island.
The City of Boise declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.
