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HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 28
48
TH LEGISLATURE
- STATE OF NEW MEXICO -
FIRST SESSION
, 2007
INTRODUCED BY
James Roger Madalena
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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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