Synopsis of Findings
Regarding Reports on State Lands within
New Mexico’s Community Land Grants
Malcolm Ebright
President, Center for Land Grant Studies
Submitted to the Commission for Public Records
Pursuant to Contract #09-36099-008720
6/15/2009
Table of Contents
1.
Introduction .....................................................................................................3
2.
Synopsis of Findings.........................................................................................4
A.
Coyote Creek State Park .................................................................4
B.
El Vado Lake State Park .................................................................7
C.
The Humphries Wildlife Management Area .....................................8
D.
Villanueva State Park ...................................................................10
E.
Storrie Lake State Park .................................................................11
F.
New Mexico State Hospital ............................................................13
G.
Manzano Mountain State Park .....................................................14
3.
Federal and State Laws Regarding Transfer of New Mexico State Park Lands to
Political Subdivisions ..................................................................................................15
4.
A.
Public lands .................................................................................15
B.
Classification of lands...................................................................15
C.
Transfer of state lands..................................................................15
D.
Transfer of state park lands: ........................................................16
Conclusion .....................................................................................................17
Appendix A -Acquisition of State Park Lands by Name of Park in Order Submitted......18
Appendix B -Chronological Summary by Date of Deed Transferring Land to State Park
or other Body..............................................................................................................20
2
1. Introduction
This report on a Synopsis of Findings is rendered pursuant to a contract
amendment between the Center for Land Grant Studies (the contractor) and the
Commission of Public Records (the Agency). The contract amendment provides for “a
synopsis of the major findings for the deliverables 1.A.1 through 1.A.7 to include
identification of any pertinent federal and state laws that would apply to the transfer of
New Mexico State Parks to political subdivisions.”
This report is divided into three additional sections in addition to this
introduction. Section 2 provides a synopsis of findings for each of the seven abstracts
studied: Coyote Creek State Park, Humphries Wildlife Management Area, El Vado Lake
State Park, Villanueva State Park, Storrie Lake State Park, New Mexico State Hospital,
and Manzano Mountain State Park. Section three provides a listing of laws that may
apply to the transfer of New Mexico State Park lands to political subdivisions. Finally,
the report concludes with a brief analysis that attempts to find common pattern as well
as differences in the land grants and state parks and other institutions studied.
I wish to thank my research assistant Carisa Williams Joseph, former State
archivist Richard Salazar, surveyor and map-maker Steve Hardin, and Director of the
State Records Center and Archives, Sandra Jaramillo for their assistance. In addition,
Melinda Benavidez of the Department of Game and Fish and Christy Tafoya, Rebecca
Proctor and Dave Gatterman of the State Parks Division were quite helpful. Finally, I
wish to acknowledge members of the of Commissioners of the Manzano Land Grant:
Orlando Lopez, president and especially Daniel Antonio Herrera, who provided
important documents as well as his perspective on the operation of the land grant both
currently and when his grandfather Antonio Herrera was president of the Manzano
Grant.
3
2. Synopsis of Findings
A.
Coyote Creek State Park
The lands of the Coyote Creek State Park fall within the common lands of the
Guadalupita grant which was overlapped by the Mora grant.
Both the Mora and
Guadalupita grants were made by the Mexican government in the mid 1830s. When
the Guadalupita grant was made, the petitioners for the grant approached the principal
settlers on the Mora grant and received their approval for a new grant within the
boundaries of the Mora grant. After the Guadalupita grant was made, the history of the
two grants and of their common lands proceeded in a parallel fashion.
On the Mora grant new settlements were formed as allotments were made to the
new settlers in the form of deeds called hijuelas.
The communities of Golondrinas
(1838), La Junta (1842), La Cueva (1844), Agua Negra (Holman, 1856), Cañada del
Carro (1868), Chupaderos (1868), La Jara/ Laguna (1867-68), Ojo Feliz (1869), and
Ciruela (1869) were settled in this way.
In places such as Ocaté and Golondrinas,
additional partitions of the common lands adjacent to those settlements took place. For
example in 1869, thirty-three settlers at Golondrinas divided approximately 30,000
acres of mostly common lands for their own use, approved by Probate Judge Vicente
Romero.
In 1851 the Guadalupita settlers returned after a brief abandonment, and eighty
settlers were placed in possession of land at Guadalupita. They received house lots and
garden plots from 60 varas to 900 varas wide. Then in 1966 the lawsuit of Gold v.
Tafoya revealed that the common lands in the Guadalupita Canyon (within which the
Coyote Creek State Park is located), were being contested. The plaintiffs, led by George
Gold, claimed that everyone had agreed that these common lands should remain open
as common pasture lands, while the defendants were settling on and privatizing those
common lands, constructing dams and taking out new acequias. After the court issued
an injunction prohibiting settlement on the Guadalupita grant common lands, the
lawsuit was finally settled in 1867 when the defendants agreed to accept the injunction
and allow the common lands in the Guadalupita Canyon to remain open.
Presumably the common lands in Guadalupita Canyon remained open until
October of 1889 when eighty-five Guadalupita settlers agreed to partition those
common lands among themselves into tracts of land 130 yards wide. This was the first
privatization of common lands within the Guadalupita grant, which may have taken
place because of developments on the Mora grant.
4
The Mora grant was submitted to the Surveyor General for confirmation in 1858,
and after a favorable recommendation, was confirmed by Congress in 1860.
It was
surveyed at about 890,000 acres, excluding the overlapping John Scolly grant. Since
the Guadalupita grant was not submitted to the Court of Private Land Claims until the
1890s the Mora confirmation took precedence. By the late 1860s to the 1870s, Stephen
Elkins and Thomas Catron had acquired the interests of the seventy-six individuals to
whom the Mora grant was confirmed and at this point they owned the common lands of
the Mora grant. In 1877, in order to segregate the common lands from the privatized
land within the Mora grant, Elkins and Vicente Romero filed suit to partition the Mora
grant.
The case was not finally resolved until 1916 when the common lands of the
Mora grant were sold at public auction. In the mean time, the privatized lands within
the Guadalupita Canyon were divided among those in possession, leading to the first
deeds in the abstract of Coyote Creek State Park.
The procedure of the Mora grant partition suit was to appoint three trustees or
commissioners to apportion the privatized commons among the settlers in possession or
with deeds. The result was memorialized in the map by Claude Miller that shows three
tracts of land owned by Abran Archuleta that contain the land out of which Coyote
Creek State Park was carved out.
The Miller survey and the 1914 and 1922 deeds from Emijidio Silva and Jesus
Pacheco tie the first deed in the abstract to the partition of the Mora grant and the
division of lands in the Guadalupita Canyon. The remaining three parts of the abstract
cover the Abran Archuleta deeds for the 1,155 acres from which Coyote Creek State
Park was carved out and numerous transactions within the Archuleta family and the
family of Eusebio Romero (Part 2) the acquisition of the large (1,155 acre) tract by Peter
McAtee and the various corporations through which he operated (Part 3), and the
acquisition in two transactions (80 acres in 1969 and 382 acres in 2004) by the New
Mexico State Park Division of the current acreage of Coyote Creek State Park.
The operation of Coyote Creek State Park is generally supported by the
community and most of the Park Managers have been from the Guadalupita-Mora area.
5
Figure 1. Portion of 1912 survey by Claude Miller showing tracts from which Coyote Creek State
Park was carved out.
6
Figure 2. Current boundaries of Coyote Creek State Park.
B.
El Vado Lake State Park
The Tierra Amarilla grant embraced the land that became the El Vado Lake
State Park, so a considerable part of the report covered the history of the Tierra
Amarilla grant. When Charles Catron deeded the entire Tierra Amarilla grant to the
Chama Valley Land Company in 1909, that deed contained an exception or Catron
Exclusion for El Vado containing 754.55 acres, as shown on the Kenneth Heron map.
Other Catron exclusions contained in the 1909 deed covered the Hispanic communities
of Cañones, Brazos, Park View, Ensenada, Nutritas (Tierra Amarilla), and in addition
the railroad town of Chama. Land within the Hispanic communities was owned by the
individuals who received hijuelas, and Thomas B. Catron had sold house lots to
individuals in Chama and land for a railroad deport to the Denver and Rio Grande
Railroad. But in the case of the El Vado exclusion there is no record of land sales to the
railroad. The Town of El Vado was an ephemeral company town operated by Edgar
Biggs.
The employees of the sawmill operated by Biggs at El Vado lived in wooden
shacks and when the mill ceased operations in 1923 and the operation moved to
McPhee, Colorado, the employees who wanted to moved to McPhee and the shacks they
had been living in were loaded on the flatbed cars of the railroad that Biggs owned and
moved to McPhee. Neither the railroad nor Edgar Biggs owned the land where the town
of El Vado was located, so it is almost as if this was a no-mans-land.
The final chapter in the El Vado story is the construction of the El Vado Dam as
part of the San Juan Chama Project. The project was started by the Middle Rio Grande
Conservancy District and is managed by the Bureau of Reclamation. El Vado Dam is
what created the El Vado Reservoir, a lake used for recreation that contains water
7
stored for the use of Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy
District. The importance of this project was graphically illustrated at the time of the
Tierra Amarilla Land Grant conflict in 1964 when armed guards were placed around all
the components of “multi-million-dollar San Juan-Chama Diversion Project designed to
divert water into the Rio Grande Valley.”
Most of the land within El Vado State Park is operated under a lease agreement
between the New Mexico State Park Commission and the U.S. Department of the
Interior, Bureau of Reclamation.
C.
The Humphries Wildlife Management Area
The Humphries Wildlife Area was established through the consolidation of five
tracts of land acquired by the New Mexico State Game Commission at different times as
discussed more fully in the full report dealing with the chain of title to the Wildlife Area.
While the abstract provided for the Humphries WMA was more complete than other
abstracts, there were some gaps that required additional research to fill in. The files of
probates, partition suits and other litigation were not included in the abstract.
Copies
of some of these extensive court files from the Department of Game and Fish are
provided in the full report.
The history of the land that comprised the Humphries Wildlife area has had its
share of controversy, from the land grant activists in 1964 to the actions of Ganados del
Valle in moving their sheep on the Humphries Wildlife Management Area in 1989. The
land was part of the common lands of the Tierra Amarilla grant that was conveyed to
Emmet Wirt and Tomas Gonzales as shown on the 1920 Kenneth Heron map.
The Humphries Wildlife Management Area began with acquisition of parcels of
land in 1966, 1967 and 1968 totaling about 10,950 acres. Initially referred to as the
Roque Wildlife Area it was renamed the Bill Humphries Wildlife Area and dedicated on
June 27, 1976 to the memory of W. A. Bill Humphries, Assistant Director of the
Department of Game and Fish, who died December 28, 1973.
8
Figure 1. A portion of Kenneth A. Heron’s 1920 map of Central Rio Arriba County.
In 1983 the Department of Game and Fish entered into negotiations with
Ganados del Valle, a community non-profit organization in Tierra Amarilla regarding a
proposed cooperative grazing program allowing owners of small flocks of sheep to graze
on state wildlife areas. Ganados del Valle proposed “responsible management measures
to insure that there will be no overgrazing or undue disturbance of game.” As
negotiations continued the Department of Game and Fish raised the argument that
“sheep and elk were incompatible; the sheep would compete with the elk for forage. The
conflict escalated, when the night of August 17, 1989 Ganados del Valle moved roughly
1,000 ewes and lambs across ten miles of rugged country onto the W. H. Humphries
Wildlife Management Area. Governor Garrey Carruthers appointed a ten-member task
force representing various viewpoints, chaired by agricultural economist John Fowler of
New Mexico State University, to conduct a study to find out whether livestock could
enhance habitat for wildlife. The main problem was whether sheep would be allowed on
the wildlife lands for purposes of research. The state land managers, supported by the
environmentalists on the panel, said no. Ganados and Fowler, arguing that any other
plan made no sense, said yes.”1 The issue was never resolved.
After the grazing controversy calmed down, there was little activity for the next
two decades on the Humphries Wildlife Management Area. In 2006 a draft five-year
Donald Dale Jackson, “Around Los Ojos, Sheep and Land are Fighting Words,” Smithsonian,
April 1991, 42.
1
9
plan for the Humphries Wildlife Management Area was promulgated suggesting many of
the same management programs put forth in the 1984 management plan. The three
highest priorities addressed were water availability, erosion, and forage problems.
The management of the Humphries Wildlife Management Area has fluctuated
from fairly active in the 1960s to relatively light at the present-time. Because of budget
constraints, the proposed projects in the management plans have been put on hold.
Possibly because of the grazing controversy with Ganados del Valle and the protest of
any grazing by the Sierra Club, livestock grazing is not contemplated at the present.
Elk, deer and turkey are the only wildlife hunted on the Humphries Wildlife
Management Area and that is relatively light based on current estimates.
The story of the land making up the Humphries Wildlife Management Area is the
story of the Ute and Jicarilla Apache, the Old Spanish Trail, the Tierra Amarilla land
grant, the Wirt, Garcia, Gonzales, Sanchez, Maestas, Pino and other families who
owned part of the tract, and the New Mexico Game and Fish Department that presently
manages the land.
D.
Villanueva State Park
Villanueva State Park is one of thirty-four state parks managed by the New
Mexico State Parks Division of the Energy Minerals and Natural Resources Department.
The land comprising the 1725.95 acres contained in Villanueva State Park is made up
of seven parcels acquired between February 14, 1967 and October 4, 1996. A review of
the initial deeds establishing the Villanueva State Park, all dated February 14, 1967,
shows that the core of the park was established by two deeds from the Board of
Trustees of the San Miguel del Bado Grant. These deeds cover land within the private
land surveyed as tract 2 of the San Miguel del Bado Grant by Wendell V. Hall in 1903.
This land was part of the allotted, occupied lands totaling 5,207 acres that were
confirmed to the San Miguel del Bado Grant.
The story of the creation of the Villanueva State Park from both the common
lands (controlled by the Bureau of Land Management), and the private lands (controlled
by the San Miguel del Bado Grant Board of Trustees), of the San Miguel del Bado Grant
is one of the most complicated of those told in this series of reports.
The San Miguel del Bado grant was made to a group of Genízaros, mixed-blood
Spaniards and some Indians.
It was clearly a community grant with private lands
allotted to the settlers at San Miguel del Bado, and to the settlers at San José del Bado,
and the remaining lands to be held as common lands. When the grant was adjudicated
the first petition filed was on behalf of the villages of La Cuesta (Villanueva), San
10
Miguel, Las Mulas, El Pueblo, Puertecito, San José, Guzano, and Bernal for
confirmation as a community grant. The village of Villanueva was initially called La
Cuesta named after the land mark describing the eastern boundary of the San Miguel
del Bado grant: “on the east La Cuesta and Los Cerritos de Bernal.”
The Court of
Private Land Claims confirmed the entire San Miguel del Bado grant as a community
grant, but that decision was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the famous
Sandoval case.
When the occupied allotted lands were surveyed in 1903, the San Miguel del
Bado grant was reduced to 5,207 acres made up of ten tracts. Tract No. 2 was the
largest and it is from this tract and the Bureau of Land Management lands adjacent to
the tract that the Villanueva State Park was created. This is apparently the only state
park initially created by a Land Grant Board of Trustees, and the only one where the
land grant board, the Bureau of Land Management and adjacent private owners
cooperated to create what we know today as Villanueva State Park. Ironically, after the
loss of its common lands, the Board of Trustees of the San Miguel del Bado grant has
helped establish a state park with over 50,000 visitors per year that provides economic
benefits to the community of Villanueva and surrounding communities.
E.
Storrie Lake State Park
Storrie Lake State Park is one of thirty-four state parks managed by the New
Mexico State Parks Division of the Energy Minerals and Natural Resources Department.
Storrie Lake is similar to other state parks established near lakes such as Heron Lake
State Park, El Vado Lake State Park, and Elephant Butte State Park, but different in
that the Bureau of Reclamation established those dams and lakes, while the Storrie
Lake project was established as a private irrigation project.
The history of Storrie Lake State Park and its connection to the Town of Las
Vegas Land Grant is somewhat convoluted partly due to the nature of the Town of Las
Vegas Land Grant. The Las Vegas grant was confirmed by the U.S. Congress to the
town of Las Vegas on 21 June 1860. But for the next forty years, a conflict raged on the
grant over who owned the common lands. A survey of the Las Vegas grant during the
months prior to December 1860 showed that the grant contained 496,446 acres, and
that it conflicted with the Town of Tecolote grant, the Antonio Ortiz grant, and the John
Scolly grant. It took some forty years before the Las Vegas grant was finally resurveyed
to adjust its southern boundary for the Tecolote and Antonio Ortiz overlaps, reducing
its size by almost 65,000 acres.
11
The Board of Trustees of the Las Vegas Grant was finally established by the
legislature in 1903, the Board began investigating under the leadership of Judge Elisha
V. Long the possibility of developing an irrigation project on the grant that would
impound waters of the Gallinas River behind a dam, and use the water to irrigate
thousands of acres of adjacent land through a network of irrigation canals and sell land
and water to farmer/investors who would pay off their investment through the sale of
crops grown on this newly irrigated land.
The Irrigation Project began in 1909 with the hiring of D. A. Camfield to build
the dam that would irrigate approximately 17,000 acres. Camfield ran out of money in
1912 and the grant board repossessed the project by assuming liability for the $60,000
Camfield owed his creditors. In 1916, the grant board contracted with R. C. Storrie to
complete construction of the dam, conveyed almost 17,000 acres with water rights to
him, and made him a $200,000 loan to be paid back in installments. Storrie completed
the construction of an earthen dam with a concrete core and eighteen miles of main
canals with their laterals in 1921. Storrie sold the project to F. A. Reid who continued
to operate the project throughout the 1920s when farmers tried to make enough money
from their crops to meet their payments to the Storrie Project, which was then called
the Las Vegas Water Users Association. Finally the farmers had fallen so far behind in
their land and water payments that the land grant board filed a foreclosure suit against
Reid, and all the farmers involved. In February, 1929 the court appointed receiver sold
the Storrie Project, auctioned off at the courthouse door. Two-thirds of the project went
to the Board of Trustees of the Las Vegas Land Grant in payment of debt to the board
and the other one-third went to debtors represented by banker A. H. Gerdeman. The
portion of Storrie Lake State Park acquired by the State Park Commission from Ben and
Hazel Lingnau came from the Gerdeman one-third of the Storrie Project and the portion
of the park leased from the Storrie Project Water Users’ Association came from the twothirds acquired by the Board of Trustees of the Las Vegas Land Grant.
The farmers lost their land and the grant made very little profit. All that is left of
that investment is the Storrie Project Water Users’ Association and Storrie Lake State
Park.
12
Figure 2. Map showing location of land comprising Storrie Lake State Park. State Parks
Division.
Ironically, the park is one of the most successful in the state and some of the
income realized goes to the Storrie Project Water Users’ Association under the lease
agreement discussed earlier. Storrie Lake is one of the most popular state parks in New
Mexico.
The latest figures available in 2004 show that Storrie Lake State Park
generates average annual revenue of $92,470.
F.
New Mexico State Hospital
The New Mexico State Hospital was established in 1889 by an act of the New
Mexico Legislature and property acquired for the first building in 1891. The property
was acquired from Benigno Romero for $500 but this deed is not in the abstract. While
Benigno Romero was the brother of Eugenio Romero, a member of the Board of Trustees
of the Las Vegas Grant, there is no connection between the Las Vegas Grant and the
New Mexico State Hospital.
13
All the tracts of land shown in the abstract as being deeded to the New Mexico
State Hospital were private tracts within the Las Vegas grant, not common lands. While
the lands upon which the New Mexico State Hospital is built are private lands, the Las
Vegas Grant does own common lands a little north of the State Hospital adjacent to
Luna Community College. In 1912 the Hospital owned 372.48 acres of land. In a 1981
quiet title suit the state hospital was declared the owner of 358.892 acres of land.
Today the State Hospital’s land is about 300 acres.
G.
Manzano Mountain State Park
Manzano Mountains State Park was established in 1973 after a period of
negotiation, preparation, and planning that lasted ten years.
The park is located
eighteen miles northwest of Mountainair and south of the village of Manzano,
As early as 1703, the pastures in the Estancia Valley at the foot of Manzano
Peak had been used for grazing by shepherds and stock-raisers as far away as Santa
Cruz. Well before the petition for the Manzano Grant in 1829, the town of Manzano
began to be formed around a lake that still exists near the community. It is said that
Governor Alberto Maynez started to form the settlement in 1815 with settlers in the
Tomé area, including Miguel and Juan Lucero who were interested in forming a new
community. The Manzano settlement was mentioned in the 1823 petition for the Casa
Colorado Grant since forty-one persons from Manzano formed the nucleus of that grant,
and by 1829 there were over 170 families in the settlement of Manzano.
The Manzano Land grant was a community land grant made in 1829 by the
Territorial Deputation of New Mexico. Although it may have been reduced in acreage
from the amount of land originally claimed, it was confirmed for over 17,000 acres and
a patent was delivered to a commissioner of the Manzano Land grant on February 8,
1907. According to the current president and vice-president of the grant, only about
200 acres of common lands remain in the Manzano Land grant. While loss of lands for
non-payment of taxes accounts for some of that lost land, it would appear that much of
the common lands of the Manzano grant were privatized by earlier land grant
commissioners. It appears also appears that some land was lost to pay lawyers fees.
When the Quiet Title Suit was filed against the grant by Desiderio and Rosenda
Candelaria in 1961 the grant commissioners tried to contact a lawyer to represent the
grant but were unsuccessful.
As a result, the lands that form the central core of
Manzano Mountain State Park were acquired as a result of a default judgment in the
quiet title suit.
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3. Federal and State Laws Regarding Transfer of New Mexico State
Park Lands to Political Subdivisions
The following is a list of some of the laws that might affect the transfer of New
Mexico state park lands to political subdivisions. These laws would probably apply to
lands of wildlife management areas, like the Humphries Wildlife Management Area, as
well. If and when a specific transfer is contemplated it would be advisable to obtain
legal counsel, as the following constitutes historical research and not a legal opinion
A.
Public lands
Chapter 19 of New Mexico Statutes Annotated (NMSA) deals with public lands.
Article 2 deals with United States lands (19-2-1 to 19-2-12 NMSA 1978) and Article 7
deals with sale and lease of lands (19-7-1 to 19-7-69 NMSA 1978).
B.
Classification of lands
The legality of a transfer of state trust lands to a political subdivision is governed
by the New Mexico Enabling Act (Act of June 20, 1910, 36 Statutes at Large 557,
Chapter 310), the terms and conditions of which were adopted into the New Mexico
Constitution. N.M. Const. Art. XIII.
The New Mexico Enabling Act granted nearly 13
million acres in trust to the state.
Under this authority the management and
disposition of state lands is entrusted to the Commissioner of Public Lands and the
PLRB, who owe a fiduciary duty to the public to manage the lands for the benefit of the
public school system. 36 Stat. 557, ch. 310 §10 ¶1.
“Lieu lands” were indemnity to take the place of such of sections 2, 16, 32, and
36 as might be lost to the state by reason of being mineral, or having been sold,
reserved, or otherwise appropriated or reserved by or under the authority of any act of
Congress, or where they were wanting or fractional in quantity, or where settlements
thereon with a view to pre-emption or homestead or improvement thereof. Id §6
C.
Transfer of state lands
State transfer of lands for other than a fair market appraisal value, or an
exchange for other lands of equal or greater value, would be strictly prohibited if the
lands are state trust lands or lieu lands. Gifts of state-owned lands are governed by the
New Mexico constitution, which reads in relevant part:
Section 14. Neither the state nor any county, school district or municipality,
except as otherwise provided in this constitution, shall directly or indirectly lend or
pledge its credit or make any donation to or in aid of any person, association or public
15
or private corporation or in aid of any private enterprise for the construction of any
railroad except as provided in Subsections A through F of this section.
N.M. Const. art. IX, § 14 (2008)
However, according to the Attorney General, gifts to political subdivisions are
exempted from this prohibition. The "subordinate unit of government" exception is the
only exception to the applicability of N.M. Const., art. IX, § 14, unless the action can be
characterized as something other than a gift or donation. 1983-1986 Op. Atty. Gen. No.
126. Support for this proposition can be found in New Mexico case law: See generally,
City of Gallup v. N.M. State Park and Recreation Comm'n, 86 N.M. 745, 527 P.2d 878
(1974); Wiggs v. City of Albuquerque, 56 N.M. 214, 242 P.2d 865 (1952); White v. Board
of Education of Silver City, 42 N.M. 94, 75 P.2d 712 (1938). The underlying rationale in
the City of Gallup series of cases was that the State has ultimate control over its
agencies and subordinate units of government and that a donation from one to another
is essentially only a donation to itself.
D.
Transfer of state park lands
The Director of the State Parks Division serves as Executive Secretary to the
State Parks Advisory Board. The Secretary has the power to authorize transfer of park
lands.
"The secretary has the right to authorize the Commissioner of Public Lands to
quitclaim to any state educational institution or other state agency, department or
public body having authority to hold, and a use therefore, any lands acquired for state
park or state recreational purposes for such nominal consideration and upon such
conditions and subject to such reservations as in each case may be prescribed by the
secretary; provided, however, that disposition of any such lands shall, in any case,
relate only to lands held in excess of the reasonable needs of the state park and
recreation division [state parks division] of the energy, minerals and natural resources
department for public parks and recreational purposes." 16-2-15 NMSA 1978.
"Upon
receipt
of
written
notification
from
the
secretary
containing
a
recommendation for transfer to a named grantee, a recitation of the nominal
consideration and such reservations and conditions of transfer of specifically described
lands as may be required, the commissioner of public lands, in conformity with the
notification, shall execute and deliver to the named state educational institution or
other state governmental agency, as grantee, a good and sufficient quitclaim deed
conveying all the right, title and interest of the state in and to the lands described in the
notification. The commissioner of public lands shall, in due course, transfer any
16
receipts derived as consideration actually paid in the transaction to the state treasurer
for credit to the proper fund." 16-2-16 NMSA 1978.
Some deeds transferring land to state parks such as the Villanueva State Park,
contained clauses providing that the land was intended to be used as a state park and
if used for other purposes the land would revert to the grantor. The presence of such
reversionary clauses indicates that all deeds transferring land into a state park should
be examined when making an analysis of the transfer of New Mexico State Park lands.
4. Conclusion
A review of Appendix B, Chronological summary of the establishment of the
state parks studied for this project, shows that the parks studied were established
between 1959 (Storrie Lake) and 1973 (Manzano Mountains). Leaving aside the State
Hospital which was established in 1891 and does not fit the state park model, four of
the six state parks were established between 1961 (El Vado) and 1969 (Coyote Creek).
This period coincides with the period of greatest land grant protest activity, particularly
on the Tierra Amarilla grant. In September 1964, officials of the Tierra Amarilla grant
posted the sign depicted on the cover of this report, serving a notice of eviction on all
residents of the Tierra Amarilla grant who were not land grant heirs. The well-known
Courthouse Raid took place on June 5, 1967. Since it appears that the transfers to the
state parks took place during this period of land grant activity, one wonders if there is
any connection between the two phenomena.
The records do not provide any definitive answers, but a pattern does emerge
that might suggest further study.
The Humphries Wildlife Management Area, the
Villanueva State Park and the Coyote Creek State Park were all established between
1966 and 1969 during the peak of the land grant protest movement.
It is possible that land owners transferring property to these parks were
encouraged by the prospect of receiving payment of fair market value for property that
had a cloud on its title (in several of the abstracts land grant boards of trustees
recorded claims asserting that transfers of land within the grant were invalid). There is
no indication that the State of New Mexico was involved in encouraging transfer of land
grant common lands to the state parks, but this is a possibility for further study. It is
noteworthy that the Villanueva State park and Coyote Creek State Park were
established during the term of Governor David Cargo (1967-1971), who served during
the Courthouse Raid and was responsible for organizing the states response to that
action.
17
Appendix A: Acquisition of State Park Lands by Name of Park in Order Submitted
No.
Name of Park
or other entity
Current
acreage
Date of
Primary
Acquisition
Grantor
Purchase price/
acreage
Date of
Secondary
Acquisition[s]
Grantor[s]
Purchase
price[s]/
acreage
1.
Coyote Creek
State Park
462
1969
Coyote Creek
Investment
Corp.
80acres for $200
per acre=$16,000
2004
10.15
Trust for
Public
Lands
Probably a
donation
Humphries
Wildlife
Management
Area
10,950
Consuelo B.
Gonzales
(Tract 3)
4227.08 acres
1968
11.26
Cecilia Wirt
Simms
(Tract 1)
4903.8
acres
Joe and
Juanita
Pino (Tract
2)
522.6 acres
2.
4.24
1966
10.10
1977
7.18
1977
12.28
Tract 1 – Nolan
or Wirt and
Garcia Tract
(Simms Tract)
1978
7.17
1978
7.17
Tract 2 –
Sanchez Tract
1978
7.18
Tract 3 – Tomás
Gonzales Tract
1980
12.11
Gonzalo
Gonzales
(Tract 3)
Miguelita S.
Maestas
(Tract 2)
Matias
Sanchez
(Tract 2)
980.9 acres
105.5 acres
105.5 acres
105.5 acres
23.8 acres
Oriola S.
Garcia
(Tract 2)
Gonzalo
Gonzales
(Tract 3)
3.
4.
El Vado Lake
State Park
4949
acres
(Park created by
State
Legislature in
1962).
Lake –
3220
acres
Villanueva State
Park
1725.95
acres
1961
United States
through the
General
Services
Administratio
n
96.54 (Tract 3)
+ 207 acres (Tract
4) + easement
(Tract 4E)
NA
NA
NA
1967
Board of
Trustees of
the San
Miguel del
Bado Grant
2.4 +7.0 +6.066
+1.9 = 17.366 acres
1968
4.1
1572.74
acres
14, 960 square feet
1975
7.21
BLM –
Patent #3068-0088
Crisostomo
and
Adelaide
Vigil
67.19 acres
Northwe
stern
shore –
1729
acres
2.14 - 8.8
Pete Gallegos
and
Josephine
Gallegos
1996
10.4
BLM Patent #3097-0001
18
60.82 acres
No.
Name of Park
or other entity
Current
acreage
Date of
Primary
Acquisition
Grantor
Purchase price/
acreage
Date of
Secondary
Acquisition[s]
Grantor[s]
Purchase
price[s]/
acreage
5.
Storrie Lake
83.96
acres +
land
leased
from
Storrie
Lake
Water
Users
Associat
ion
(16.6
acres)
1959
Ben and
Hazel Lingnau
42.48 + 40.00 =
82.48 acres
1960
San Miguel
County
Game
Protective
Association
1.96 acres
6.30
6.
New Mexico
State Hospital
358.892
acres
1891
Benigno
Romero
$500 for 5 acres =
$100 per acre
Many
Many
7.
Manzano
Mountains State
Park
255.998
acres
1973
Eleno
Candelaria, et
al
$200 per acre for
160 acres =
$32,000
2005
12
Steven
Jennings
and wife
20.878
acres
James and
Veronica
Lopez
20.878
acres
8.8
after 2005
after 2005
54.25 acres
19
Appendix B Chronological Summary by Date of Deed Transferring
Land to State Park or other Body
No.
Name of Park or
other entity
Current
acreage
Date of
Primary
Acquisition
Grantor
Purchase price/
acreage
Date of
Secondary
Acquisition[
s]
Grantor[s]
6.
New Mexico State
Hospital
358.892
acres
1891
Benigno
Romero
$500 for 5 acres =
$100 per acre
Many
Many
5.
Storrie Lake
83.96 acres
+ land
leased from
Storrie Lake
Water
Users
Association
(16.6 acres)
1959
Ben and
Hazel
Lingnau
42.48 + 40.00 = 82.48
acres
1960
San Miguel
County
Game
Protective
Association
1.96 acres
4949 acres
1961
United
States
through the
General
Services
Administrat
ion
96.54 (Tract 3)
+ 207 acres (Tract 4) +
easement (Tract 4E)
NA
NA
NA
1966
Consuelo B.
Gonzales
(Tract 3)
4227.08 acres
1968
11.26
Cecilia Wirt
Simms
(Tract 1)
4903.8
acres
Joe and
Juanita
Pino (Tract
2)
522.6
acres
3.
El Vado Lake
State Park
(Park created by
State Legislature
in 1962).
2.
Humphries
Wildlife
Management
Area
6.30
Lake – 3220
acres
Northwester
n shore –
1729 acres
10,950
10.10
1977
7.18
1977
12.28
Tract 1 – Nolan
or Wirt and
Garcia Tract
(Simms Tract)
1978
7.17
1978
7.17
Tract 2 – Sanchez
Tract
1978
7.18
Tract 3 – Tomás
Gonzales Tract
1980
12.11
Gonzalo
Gonzales
(Tract 3)
Miguelita S.
Maestas
(Tract 2)
Matias
Sanchez
(Tract 2)
Oriola S.
Garcia
(Tract 2)
Purchase
price[s]/
acreage
980.9
acres
105.5
acres
105.5
acres
105.5
acres
23.8 acres
Gonzalo
Gonzales
(Tract 3)
4.
Villanueva State
Park
1725.95
acres
1967
2.14 - 8.8
Board of
Trustees of
the San
Miguel del
Bado Grant
Pete
Gallegos
and
Josephine
Gallegos
2.4 +7.0 +6.066 +1.9
= 17.366 acres
1968
4.1
14, 960 square feet
1975
7.21
1996
10.4
BLM –
Patent #3068-0088
1572.74
acres
Crisostomo
and
Adelaide
Vigil
67.19
acres
BLM Patent #3097-0001
20
60.82
acres
No.
Name of Park or
other entity
Current
acreage
Date of
Primary
Acquisition
Grantor
Purchase price/
acreage
Date of
Secondary
Acquisition[
s]
Grantor[s]
Purchase
price[s]/
acreage
1.
Coyote Creek
State Park
462
1969
Coyote
Creek
Investment
Corp.
80 acres for $200 per
acre = $16,000
2004
10.15
Trust for
Public
Lands
Probably a
donation
Manzano
Mountains State
Park
255.998
acres
Eleno
Candelaria,
et al
$200 per acre for 160
acres = $32,000
2005
12
Steven
Jennings
and wife
20.878
acres
James and
Veronica
Lopez
20.878
acres
7.
4.24
1973
8.8
after 2005
after 2005
54.25
acres
21