pg_0001

SJM 33

Page 1

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

pg_0002

SJM 33

Page 2

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

pg_0003

SJM 33

Page 3

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

pg_0004

SJM 33

Page 4

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

pg_0005

SJM 33

Page 5

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.