What is a Land Patent?
A patent is a deed to an entity. In 1926, due to a strong need nationwide for parks and recreation, the Dept. of the Interior passed the Recreation and Public Purposes Act (RPPA) to authorize the sale or lease of public land to state and local governments and qualified non-profit organizations. The RPPA is administered by the BLM. Grand County was granted a 55.34-acre land patent south of Granby in 1984. The land sits south of Granby on the east side of Highway 40 directly east and south of the Grand Elk Ranch & Club administrative offices (the former Timberline Clinic). Can the County develop whatever it wants on the land? Each RPPA land patent has a management plan dictating how the land must be used. The BLM has a list of what type of development may take place under the RPPA. The list includes recreation, education, public health, law enforcement and fire station facilities, among others. If the land is no longer used for its original purpose, it reverts back to the U.S.
The governmental process by which Kentucky lands are appropriated. Land patenting consists of four steps: (1). a Warrant (or combination of Warrants) determines the total amount of acreage that may be patented; (2) an Entry is filed in the county surveyor’s book reserving land for patenting; (3) a field Survey depicts & describes the tract being patented; and (4) the Governor’s Grant finalizes the patent by conveying title. Warrants & Surveys are assignable during the patenting process; Entries may be withdrawn or amended. Title does not vest until the Governor’s Grant is issued.
A. Once land was acquired in the nation it was held by the United States until someone proved their claim to it. Once the land was properly claimed and filed, the General Land Office certified that the surveys were paid for. According to the various land acts of Congress, the land was then made patent under the signature and seal of the President of the United States of America. When a State enters the Union of the United States of America, an Enabling Act is agreed to. The Enabling Act requires that all of the un-appropriated (un-patented) lands be forever granted to the Union for its disposition.
A land patent is the first absolute title to land given by the United States of America to the bona fide purchaser or Homestead such titles are called Allodial. When the public lands were sold, land “patents” were issued. The patents are absolute title transferring land ownership from a sovereign (the United States of America Government) to a bona fide purchaser. Patents are the first records in a chain of title to a piece of the Public Domain. Therefore, they are extremely important in establishing private ownership of land. The United States of America acquired the land, by treaty or purchase nevertheless the acquired land had a treaty with the land in one form or another, and with any transaction of the land the treaty followed with it. When the territories where eligible for statehood, the condition for admission to the union was to surrender their land to the United States of America under an Enabling Act.
A. First and foremost your will need your Land Patent. It will tell you what has been set down as your rights to your land. These rights are carried from assignee to assignee (buyer to buyer, owner to owner, heir to heir, etc.) and cannot be changed. These rights are between you and the Federal Government and no other third party. It sounds too good to be true, but the background work for this is in any law library in the United States. Our Colonial Forefathers, who came from the English rule, developed Land Patents for every piece of land in America (excluding Hawaii). Land patents come from several different places. The original colonies land patents came from the corresponding country of control. (i.e. England, Spain, France etc.) The U. S. Government honors those patents because of the treaties. Those patents are still in force as are the patents issued by the U.S. Government today. All land patents are forever. The patents that were issued to the colonies can be found in the corre
