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damaging the roadway by driving "mudders" through the area and illegally dumping material along Dry Hollow Road. In response to the petition, the county classified most of the road through the McDermott and Peter and Laurie Simon properties as Class C. However, the county continued to provide gravel and standard maintenance to the rest of Dry Hollow Road, including the portion that crosses plaintiffs' property.

Plaintiffs acquired their property in September of 1998 with knowledge of the roadway and the public's use of Dry Hollow Road. Between 1999 and 2002, Leo Simon sought four right-of-way permits from the county to do work that would affect or disturb the roadway, such as digging a waterline or shaping ditches and culverts. Each permit was granted. In 2004, a land survey revealed that the actual path of Dry Hollow Road varies from its platted route and therefore, the county does not own the property containing the roadway. At some point after the survey, plaintiffs laid sod to narrow the road, began demanding the county cease maintenance of the road, and filed suit to establish their fee simple ownership of the road free of any easements or claims of right by defendants. The county and neighboring resident defendants contend that even if the county does not own the property, the road remains a public road because the county acquired a prescriptive easement to use the road. The district court held the county had acquired a prescriptive easement to twenty-two feet of the graveled roadway surface and five feet on each side of the road. The court concluded that rights to this easement included the county's right to perform regular maintenance on the roadway. The plaintiffs appeal the findings. We affirm as modified.

*2 SCOPE OF REVIEW. Actions to quiet title are equitable proceedings. Iowa Code § 649.6 (2005). Our scope of review of actions in equity is de novo. Iowa R.App. P. 6.4. We examine the law and facts anew although we give weight to the trial court's fact findings and deference to their credibility assessments. Johnson v. Kaster, 637 N.W.2d 174, 177-78 (Iowa 2001); Iowa R.App. P. 6.14(6)(g). We are not bound by the trial court's factual determinations on our de novo review. Id.

PRESCRIPTIVE EASEMENT. The plaintiff-appellants claim the district court erred in finding the county acquired an easement to use the road as a public thoroughfare through prescription. An easement by prescription is established "when a person uses another's land under a claim of right or color of title, openly, notoriously, continuously, and hostilely for ten years or more." Collins Trust v. Allamakee County Bd. of Supervisors, 599 N.W.2d 460, 463 (Iowa 1999). The fact the party used the land for the statutory period is not sufficient proof they had the requisite claim of right or color of title purpose behind their use. Iowa Code § 564.1; Collins Trust, 599 N.W.2d at 464 ("mere use of land does not, by lapse of time, ripen into an easement"). A party must provide independent evidence to establish his or her use was under a claim of right. Iowa Code § 564.1.

Proof that a party used the land under a claim of right also tends to prove the hostility element. Collins Trust, 599 N.W.2d at 464. "Hostility of possession does not imply ill will, but only an assertion of ownership by declarations or acts showing a claim of exclusive right to the land." Johnson, 637 N.W.2d at 178. Thus, "[a]lthough mere use does not constitute hostility or claim of right, some specific acts or conduct associated with the use will give rise to a claim of right." Collins Trust, 599 N.W.2d at 464. Acts of maintaining and improving the land may prove the claim of right and hostile elements. Id.

The open and notorious elements required to establish a prescriptive easement are designed to give the true owner notice that the claimant's use is adverse rather than permissive. Id. at 465. Iowa law requires express notice to the owner. Iowa Code § 564.1. Express notice is proved by evidence showing the claimant gave actual notice of the adverse use to the owner or by "known facts of such [a] nature as to impose a duty to make inquiry which would reveal [the] existence of an easement." Brede v. Koop, 706 N.W.2d 824, 828 (Iowa 2005). Buyers of property are expected to inspect for easements prior to purchase. "The law imputes to a purchaser such knowledge as he would have acquired by the exercise of ordinary diligence. Thus, where the easement is open and visible, the purchaser of the servient tenement will be charged with notice." Johnson, 637 N.W.2d at 180.

In applying these principles to the facts, we find the district court did not err in finding the county acquired a prescriptive easement to Dry Hollow Road. Dubuque County has maintained and the public has used the road for decades under claim of right and color of title. Residents along the road,