Chapter 1 - § 1.3 • GRANTS TO THE STATE OF COLORADO

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 1.3 • GRANTS TO THE STATE OF COLORADO

§ 1.3.1—Enabling Act Grants

School Lands

Section 14 of the Organic Act¹⁶⁶ provided:

That when the land in the said Territory shall be surveyed, under the direction of [the] Government of the United States, preparatory to bringing the same into market, sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six in each township in said Territory shall be and the same are hereby reserved for the purpose of being applied to schools in the States hereafter to be erected out of the same.

Section 7 of the Enabling Act¹⁶⁷ provided:

That sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six in every township, and where such sections have been sold or otherwise disposed of by any act of Congress, other lands, equivalent thereto, in legal subdivisions of not more than one quarter-section, and as contiguous as may be, are hereby granted to said State for the support of common schools.

The reservation in the Organic Act did not take effect until the survey was made, and the reservation and the subsequent grant were therefore subject to easements existing on the date of the survey.¹⁶⁸

Congress enacted certain statutes of general applicability, providing the mechanism by which states could select indemnity lands in lieu of any original school grant lands that had been disposed of or otherwise proved unavailable for any one of a number of reasons detailed in the statutes.¹⁶⁹ Federal lands containing known mineral resources could not be selected by the states as indemnity lands prior to 1958. In that year, Congress extended the indemnity grant to include the right to select mineral lands to the extent that indemnification was sought for mineral lands.¹⁷⁰ The Secretary of the Interior has broad but incompletely defined discretion under Section 7 of the Taylor Grazing Act¹⁷¹ to withhold federal lands from classification as lands available for indemnity selection by the states.¹⁷²

School lands may be disposed of only at public sale and at a price not less than $2.50 per acre, the proceeds to constitute a permanent school fund, the interest of which is to be expended in the support of common schools.¹⁷³ The legislature is not empowered to authorize the acceptance of canal certificates¹⁷⁴ in payment for state lands.¹⁷⁵

Lands for Public Buildings

Section 8 of the Enabling Act¹⁷⁶ provided:

That fifty entire sections of the unappropriated public lands within said State . . . shall be, and are hereby, granted, in legal subdivisions of not less than one quarter-section, to said State for the purpose of erecting public buildings at the capital of said state for legislative and judicial purposes, in such manner as the legislature shall prescribe.

The lands were to be selected and located by direction of the Colorado legislature and with the approval of the president, on or before January 1, 1878.¹⁷⁷ The Board of Land Commissioners has the duty to select and locate the lands that are granted to the State of Colorado by the United States.¹⁷⁸

Land for Penitentiary

Section 9 of the Enabling Act¹⁷⁹ provided:

That fifty other entire sections of land as aforesaid . . . in legal subdivisions as aforesaid, shall be, and they are hereby, granted to said State for the purpose of erecting a suitable building for a penitentiary or State prison . . . .

The lands were to be selected and located as in the case of lands for public buildings.

Land for University

Section 10 of the Enabling Act¹⁸⁰ provided, "That seventy-two other sections of land shall be set apart and reserved for the use and support of a State university . . . and for no other purpose." The lands...