ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, Colo. – Surrounded by moose, elk, and the crisp air of the Rocky Mountain National Park (search), Betty Dick's home is a mountain paradise.
"This place means, to me, peace and contentment," Betty Dick told FOX News.
But for over 25 years Dick has been living on land that isn't completely hers and the National Park Service (search) wants to take ownership of all of it.
Fred Dick bought 66 acres of land with Betty Dick decades ago, before their divorce. Upon their split, Fred Dick's ex-wife sold the land to the Park Service, but this act violated the divorce agreement. After a long legal battle, the Park Service agreed to allow Fred and Betty Dick to keep a third of the land on which to live, but only for 15 years.
Twenty-five years later Betty Dick has outlived the bargain. But she says she's not going to leave.
"I'm 83 years old and I'm not going to be around too much longer. And I don't want to have to move all my possessions out of my home, and it is my home," she said.
The National Park Service says Dick can't go back on the deal made years ago and it will take an act of Congress to allow her to stay longer. Allowing Betty to stay could also be a dangerous precedent.
The Interior Department (search) is opposed to congressional action because it could open the door to exceptions in parkland disputes across the board. But Democratic Rep. Mark Udall (search) of Colorado has introduced a private bill to help out Dick.
"It would be the right thing to do to allow her to spend the rest of her life on this property," Udall said.
Click in the box near the top of the story to watch a report by FOX News' Carol McKinley.
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