§ 6.5 - Mineral Title Determination

• Jurisdiction: Washington

§6.5 MINERAL TITLE DETERMINATION

In determining whether the apparent landowner in fact owns the minerals or mineral rights pertaining to the land, and in determining whether there has been a severance by grant or reservation, it is often necessary to review the entire history of the tract from the time the federal government, the common grantor, owned the land. Unfortunately, the sources of records are diverse, and are in some instances foreign to the sources used in making other title determinations.

(1) Federal patents

Although a federal patent or federal statutory grant may not be conclusive, the details of early federal patents, and certainly the details of statutory grants, do not appear in the county records. Barbee Mill Co. v. State, 43 Wn.2d 353, 261 P.2d 418 (1953). Later federal patents, including mineral reservations, generally have been recorded, but the details of many of the earlier federal patents, including mineral reservations, were not recorded in the county records. A determination of mineral ownership generally requires, at a minimum, determination of the federal statute under...