SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 33
48th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2007
INTRODUCED BY
Steve Komadina
A JOINT MEMORIAL
REQUESTING THE GOVERNOR TO DESIGNATE THE TWENTY-SIX-AND-FIFTY-SEVEN-HUNDREDTHS-ACRE PORTION OF THE "RANCHITO GRANT" AND THE EXISTING NINETY-SEVEN-AND-EIGHT-TENTHS-ACRE PARCEL AS THE CORONADO STATE MONUMENT AND TO GRANT TO THE MUSEUM OF NEW MEXICO FULL AND UNDIVIDED INTEREST IN THE PROPERTIES.
WHEREAS, on March 7, 1935, the commissioner of public lands designated by proclamation the Coronado state monument in Sandoval county; and
WHEREAS, on October 18, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt granted to the board of regents of the university of New Mexico, in accordance with the provisions of the act of congress of August 19, 1935 (Public Law No. 35-284), a patent issue for use for archaeological purposes of the land on which Coronado state monument was located: lots seven, eight and nine and the northwest quarter of Section 30, Township 13 north, Range 4 east of the New Mexico principal meridian containing two hundred eighteen and thirteen one-hundredths of an acre; and
WHEREAS, the patent was issued upon the express condition that if the university of New Mexico failed to use those lands for the purposes provided or attempted to alienate such lands, title to those lands shall revert to the United States; and
WHEREAS, in the mid-1930s, Dr. Edgar Lee Hewett began an extensive investigation and excavation of the Kuaua Pueblo ruins located on the site; and
WHEREAS, in 1938 the Pueblo of Santa Ana informed the state that the ongoing archaeological excavations were extending onto a portion of its lands located on the eastern side of the Coronado state monument and adjacent to the Rio Grande, an area known as El Ranchito grant; and
WHEREAS, negotiations ensued between the university of New Mexico and the Pueblo of Santa Ana to exchange lands and permit the excavations to continue, and those negotiations received the necessary congressional approvals; and
WHEREAS, the exchange proposal was eventually dropped for unknown reasons; and
WHEREAS, on May 19, 1940, the 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 an undivided half-interest of the two hundred eighteen and thirteen-hundredths acres through a ninety-nine-year lease to the museum of New Mexico that administered the 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, which had extended onto a portion of its El 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 in which the pueblo exchanged a twenty-six-and-fifty-seven-hundredths-acre portion of its El Ranchito grant for one hundred nineteen and eighty-six hundredths acres of land belonging to the university of New Mexico and the Coronado state monument on the western edge of the Coronado state monument; and
WHEREAS, the twenty-six and fifty-seven hundredths acres received in the exchange were not added to the boundary of the Coronado state monument, and the university of New Mexico did not grant to the museum of New Mexico an undivided half-interest on the twenty-six and fifty-seven hundredths acres despite the museum'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, the university of New Mexico has expressed interest in divesting itself of this twenty-six-and-fifty-seven-hundredths-acre parcel of land through a sale; and
WHEREAS, Coronado state monument and its principal archaeological resource, the Kuaua Pueblo, should be declared a state monument in its own right and not continue to exist as a state monument under the existing lease agreement with the university of New Mexico;
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 twenty-six-and-fifty-seven-hundredths-acre portion of El Ranchito grant property for any commercial uses and that the governor, through the authority vested in him, be requested to designate the twenty-six-and-fifty-seven-hundredths-acre portion of El Ranchito grant property and the existing parcel of ninety-seven and eight-tenths acres as the Coronado state monument and
further, that the university of New Mexico be requested to grant to the museum of New Mexico its undivided half-interest in the ninety-seven and eight-tenths acres 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 members of the New Mexico congressional delegation, the secretary of the interior, the director of the federal bureau of land management and the secretary of cultural affairs.
- 5 -