Hiking in Ruby Ridge: trails, map and practical info

Ruby Ridge was the site of a deadly confrontation and siege in northern Idaho in 1992 between Randy Weaver, his family, his friend Kevin Harris, and agents of the United States Marshals Service (USMS) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The events resulted in the death of Weaver's son Sammy, his wife Vicki, and their dog (Striker) as well as Deputy U.S. Marshal William Francis Degan. At the subsequent federal criminal trial of Weaver and Harris, Weaver's attorney Gerry Spence made accusations of "criminal wrongdoing" against every agency involved in the incident: the FBI, the USMS, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), and the United States Attorney's Office (USAO) for Idaho. At the completion of the trial, the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility formed a Ruby Ridge Task Force to investigate Spence's charges. The 1994 task force report was released in redacted form by Lexis Counsel Connect, an information service for attorneys. It raised questions about the conduct and policy of all the agencies. The Ruby Ridge incident and the 1993 Waco siege, involving many of the same agencies and even the same personnel, caused public outcry and fueled the widening of the militia movement. The incident was similar in some ways to the 1985 MOVE conflagration, in which police dropped bombs on a West Philadelphia house. To answer public questions about Ruby Ridge, the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information held a total of 14 days of hearings between September 6 and October 19, 1995, and subsequently issued a report calling for reforms in federal law enforcement to prevent a repeat of Ruby Ridge and to restore public confidence in federal law enforcement. Likewise, it became a motive, along with the Waco siege, of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.