SAN LUIS, Colo.—A Costilla County judge says he hopes that after four decades of litigation area residents will soon have their historic access to the Taylor Ranch again.
“I’m anxious to conclude this matter,” Senior Judge Gaspar Perricone told the Pueblo Chieftain.
The residents won the battle in 2003 but so far only 600 have been given access. Colorado’s Supreme Court granted access to the heirs of an 1844 Mexican land grand in the mountains east of here.
Those who qualify will have the right to graze livestock, gather firewood, hunt and use other resources on the sprawling 77,500-acre ranch.
Perricone may have narrowed the group that will qualify by limiting it to ancestors of people who lived in the area between 1864-69 when then territorial Gov. William Gilpin should have granted access. A motion to extend access to those who settled after 1871 was rejected.
Settlers who lived in San Pedro, San Pablo and Chama during the appropriate time periods may have produced heirs to the land grant, according to earlier rulings while the towns of San Francisco, San Luis, Viejo San Acacio and Los Vallejos are still under consideration.
Perricone also wants to make sure everyone who qualifies is notified.
“I’m fearful of an attempt to deny access to people who do not respond,” he said. “This is not a quiet title decision and I want to make sure we don’t get ourselves in that bind.”
The next scheduled hearing in the case will come in September, but the lawyer for the ranch’s owners, Ron Fano said grazing guidelines developed by his client for the property will not likely be ready until January.
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Information from: The Pueblo Chieftain,
