Work of The Court
The court heard over three hundred cases involving over thirty-six million acres (150,000 km²) of land. Only eighty-seven land grants were confirmed, for a total of three million acres (12,000 km²), or less than 10%. Many confirmed grants were reduced in size from that claimed. For example, the Cañon de Chama Grant was reduced from 200,000 to 1,500 acres (800 to 6 km²).
Among the many problems facing the court were the old Spanish system of metes and bounds. Century or two old landmarks were hard to find. The length of a vara (Spanish yard) might vary depending on the date of the grant. A grant might be to the faldas (Spanish skirt) of the mountains, which could be anywhere from the edge of the foothills to timberline.
Read more about this topic: United States Court Of Private Land Claims
Famous quotes containing the words work and/or court:
“They give us a pair of cloth shorts twice a year for all our clothing. When we work in the sugar mills and catch our finger in the millstone, they cut off our hand; when we try to run away, they cut off our leg: both things have happened to me. It is at this price that you eat sugar in Europe.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)
“If a walker is indeed an individualist there is nowhere he can’t go at dawn and not many places he can’t go at noon. But just as it demeans life to live alongside a great river you can no longer swim in or drink from, to be crowded into safer areas and hours takes much of the gloss off walking—one sport you shouldn’t have to reserve a time and a court for.”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)