Aug. 10, 2004 - 21:54 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

High Hopes

Forty-four years ago a ruckus burst out in Northern New Mexico, on the old Taylor Ranch. At odds were the owner who disregarded the old Spanish Land Grants, tried to keep people off what he called exclusively his land and those very people who wanted what was fightfully theirs.

An article in today's Rocky Mountain News by Deborah Frazier is here in part:

Embattled San Luis ranch sold to Texans

"A Texas cattleman and his wife are the new owners of a storied San Luis Valley ranch that has been at the center of a 44-year legal battle."

"Bobby and Dottie Hill of Rose Glen, Texas, along with partners Richard and Kelly Welch, another Texas couple bought the 77,000 acre spread, known or years as the Taylor Ranch, from former Enron executive Lou Pai."

"The Hills own a 65,000 acre ranch near Trinidad, which abuts one edge of their new holding, according to Bob Greene of the Costilla County Conservancy District."

"The Hills, who did not return phone calls, spent part of last week meeting with local activists."

"They're very friendly," said Gloria Maestas of the Land Rights Council, which last year won access rights for grazing and logging. Those rights had been denied by the ranch's owners since 1960."

"The ranch dates to a Mexican land grant that gave the Spanish settlers the right to hunt, fish, graze livestock, gather wood and cut trees for homes and fences on the ranch."

"In 1960, a land war, complete with gunshots, erupted after lumber baron Jack Taylor closed the ranch off and ousted the descendents of the Spanish settlers. Many moved away because the small pastures that fringed the Taylor ranch were too small to support families. Others filed a lawsuit that spent decades in court."

"The case, argued by more than 100 volunteer attorneys was settled in 2002 when the Colorado Supreme Court upheld the traditional access rights. Pai appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Court declined to hear the case."

In June 2004, a district judge reopened the gates to about eight locals and set up a process for others to claim access."

"At the time of the court ruling, ranch real estate experts said that opening the ranch to other users significantly reduced the property's value."

"Arnold Valdez, the Land Rights Council's project and planning director for setting up land use plans for up to 1,000 descendants, also met with the Hills. "We'd anticipated that Pai would sell the ranch. And Hill was at the June court hearing on the access," said Valdez. "Hill is interested in putting aside the past." Valdez said Hill fired the ranch managers and cowboys that put up fences across land that didn't belong to Pai, threatened neighbors and had several people arrested."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My opinions: There is more in the article, but the gist is as given above. The, "Real estate experts who said that opening the ranch to other users significantly reduced the property's value." were kicking a dead horse as far as I am concerned. The rights were given the Hispanic settlers in perpetuity -- which in my book means forever. So their discussion in null and void I think.

Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado are among the poorest areas in our country, I have been through there and know people who have lived there for ages and realize that the people who were included in the land grant were poor and depended on access to the ranch. Most everyone in that area is poor -- still.

The only ones who stood a chance to make any money was a group who planned on pumping the underground water of the San Luis Valley and selling it to other places than the San Luis Valley. And on that matter I think that if the water is to be pumped and sold, the inhabitants should be assured adequate water to do what they need to do and more. Which to me means that enough water should be conserved underground to support life and welfare above it. Which would probably cut back on the amount of water the big guys wanted to pump and sell.

Always it is, that the big money bags try to push out, ignore, mistreat and harass the common man and his family.

But in this case, finally the land grant people who are there and maybe a thousand more descendants will once again be able to live according to their traditions and rights, if the Hills honor their stated intentions. For the folks in the San Luis Valley I do sincerely have High Hopes . . . . . . . . .

Blog