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Re: Copy of lease between U.S. and Crit Indians, Morman church. It is a 50 year free lease. Coord are 2s 24e meridian San Bernardino section 30 in California.
Alan Walker
Aug 16, 2018 12:45 PM
3 people found this helpfulDear Mr. Badder,
A colleague at the National Archives at San Francisco offers this response:
"Is this a case of tribal land being leased to the LDS? Would then the BIA be involved and not the BLM?
I took a look at the General Land Office Records website, but I didn't see anything at all for that section.
I guess a lot depends on when the Tribes (http://www.crit-nsn.gov/crit_contents/about/) and the LDS applied for the lease - a year ago or 100 years ago. If we had the township tract books for the Riverside Land Office I would go take a look, but those are at The National Archives at Riverside: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/581775. We have tract books for CA and NV public lands measured from the Mount Diablo and Humboldt Meridians.
You could also look at the headquarters tract books for California at Archives 1: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/5837631 since you have the meridian, township, range, and section.
Land office and headquarters tract books have the same basic information. The differences are in the arrangement, the cut-off dates, and the marginalia.
If the lease application was made less than 50 or 60 years ago, NARA might not have a record of it yet (or ever if whatever type of land transaction they made is not scheduled as permanent - like a mineral application made after 1976).
Assuming the land isn't or wasn't part of a National Monument or Forest (hard to tell on our giant CA map), I would suggest contacting cadastral survey technician Dave Conklin at the BLM California State Office Public Room.
BLM California State Office
Sacramento, CA 95825
State Office Public Room
Hours: 8:30am-4:30pm PT M-F
Phone: 916-978-4400
Fax: 916-978-4419
Email: BLM_CA_Web_SO@blm.gov
https://www.blm.gov/contact/california
We hope this information is helpful. Best of luck in your research!
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Re: Copy of lease between U.S. and Crit Indians, Morman church. It is a 50 year free lease. Coord are 2s 24e meridian San Bernardino section 30 in California.
Research Services at the National Archives
Aug 16, 2018 4:28 PM
1 person found this helpfulMr. Badder sent this reply:
"The story goes like this. There was a flood in the mid 60’s that changed the position of the Colorado river. The Mormon Church owned the land from hwy 95 to the rivers edge. When the flood subsided the Crit Indian tribe claimed that the river was now on their land. There was a 10 year (approx) legal battle. It was settled by the U.S., negotiating a partnership agreement with a 50 year lease (free). The agreement was signed at or around 1976. The partnership formed a trust by the name of deseret, then leased the property to Cal Wyo Ventures West Inc. Cal Wyo holds the master lease and developed 102 lots (approximately) for which I lease one lot. That lease ends in 2026. There has been numerous litigation involving the Crit Indians in surrounding areas with no clear resolution of land ownership. We pay a yearly property tax ( unsecured property tax ) to the county of Riverside. The coordinates that I researched are from BLM maps. I would like to see if I could get a copy of that lease ( between the U.S., Mormon Church and Crit Indians) to help determine true ownership. At this time, that I know of, there is no actual instrument that installs the Crit Indian tribe as owners in 2026. If there is an instrument then why wait until 2026 to establish ownership. That brings me to the conclusion that there is a lease and the Crit and Mormans have to wait until 2026 for determination of ownership, or renegotiate lease or maybe even the possibility of a Homestead.??... ya never know
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