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HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 28

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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