HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 64

47th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2006

INTRODUCED BY

Kathy A. McCoy

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE GOVERNOR TO DESIGNATE THE RANCHITO GRANT AS PART OF CORONADO STATE MONUMENT AND THAT THE MUSEUM OF NEW MEXICO BE GRANTED AN INTEREST IN THE PROPERTY IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE GRANT'S ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESOURCES.

     WHEREAS, earlier negotiations between the university of New Mexico and the Pueblo of Santa Ana to exchange lands and permit the continuance of excavations received the necessary congressional approvals; and

     WHEREAS, the exchange proposal was eventually dropped for reasons unknown; and

     WHEREAS, on May 19, 1940, Coronado state monument was officially dedicated as part of the statewide celebration of the Coronado Cuarto Centenario, the four hundredth anniversary of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's expedition into the southwest; and

     WHEREAS, on October 1, 1943, the university of New Mexico granted a ninety-nine-year undivided half-interest lease to the museum of New Mexico, which administered Coronado state monument; and

     WHEREAS, on February 24, 1971, the museum of New Mexico, the university of New Mexico and the state parks commission entered into an agreement to permit the establishment of a state park on the southeastern part of the Coronado state monument property adjacent to the Rio Grande; and

     WHEREAS, on April 8, 1982, the Pueblo of Santa Ana sued the university of New Mexico over the state park development that had extended onto its Ranchito grant property; and

     WHEREAS, on November 12, 1985, the university of New Mexico and the Pueblo of Santa Ana settled the trespass dispute by agreeing to an exchange of lands; namely, the pueblo exchanged twenty-six and fifty-seven hundredths acres of its Ranchito grant for one hundred nineteen and eighty-six hundredths acres of university of New Mexico and monument land on the western edge of Coronado state monument; and

     WHEREAS, the twenty-six and fifty-seven hundredths acres received in the exchange were not added to the boundary of Coronado state monument and the university of New Mexico did not grant to the museum of New Mexico an undivided half-interest in the twenty-six and fifty-seven hundredths acres, despite the museum of New Mexico's collaboration in giving up its undivided half-interest in the one hundred nineteen and eighty-six hundredths acres exchanged with the Pueblo of Santa Ana; and

     WHEREAS, beginning in 1996, the Pueblo of Santa Ana has repeatedly proposed the acquisition of additional Coronado state monument land for additional development to add to the golf course it has already developed on the one hundred nineteen and eighty-six hundredths acres of monument land acquired in 1985; and

     WHEREAS, the Pueblo of Santa Ana's interest in additional lands includes land that had been exchanged with the university of New Mexico, namely, the Ranchito grant along the Rio Grande in which the museum of New Mexico has not received any interest from the university of New Mexico, and which land is an integral part of the monument operation whose commercial development would adversely impact the historic integrity of Coronado state monument;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the university of New Mexico be requested to refrain from divesting itself of the Ranchito grant property for any commercial uses and that the governor be requested to designate the Ranchito grant as part of Coronado state monument; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the university of New Mexico grant to the museum of New Mexico an undivided half-interest in the property in order to protect and preserve its archaeological resources; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the governor, the board of regents of the university of New Mexico, the cultural affairs department, the New Mexico congressional delegation, the secretary of the interior and the bureau of land management.

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