Group claims ownership over 1,400 acres of Colorado forest, sparking outrage | Western Colorado

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MANCOS — A group calling itself the Free Land Holders is building a fence around a swath of U.S. Forest Service land outside Mancos, claiming ownership of about 1,400 acres. And a group of local residents on Thursday started tearing it down.

“Our community’s not going to put up with a theft of our public lands,” said Tim Hunter, a Mancos resident since 1994 as he helped his neighbors remove the fence he called “outright theft” of public lands. “We utilize these public lands a lot. It’s just, it’s uncalled for.”

The Free Land Holder group this week began hanging signs around the Four Corners region that stakes their claim to the land under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war between Mexico and the United States with Mexico ceding about half of its territory — including present day California, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico and most of Arizona and Colorado — to the United States of America.

“We are claiming we have the rights to that land through being the habitants and the free land holder that we can show through paperwork and treaty law,” said Patrick Leroy Pipkin, who described himself as a Native American and ambassador to the Free Land Holder Committee. Pipkin also claimed a connection to William Hyde, a Mormon pioneer in the Mancos Valley in the late 1800s.

Pipkin also said their claims are supported by the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, deeds issued to the U.S. in 1927 in Montezuma County, the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and the Articles of Confederation.

“Go to the Library of Congress and look it up. We are here to educate. We are here for freedom,” Pipkin told The Colorado Sun. “Know that we come in peace. Sacred honor and exclusive equity of the land is who we are.”

Pipkin said the Free Land Holder group would not limit public access on the land, but added that any contracts with the Forest Service to graze cattle in the area would expire at the end of 2024.

LAND STILL OPEN TO PUBLIC The group met Wednesday with the Forest Service and the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office issued a statement informing residents that public hiking, biking, grazing and hunting was still open on the land. The Free Land Holder group agreed to pause installation of new fencing as the parties push the land dispute into federal court.

On Thursday, a line of more than 20 vehicles stretched along Chicken Creek Road — also known as Forest Service Road 385 and County Road 41 — adjacent to the barbed-wire fence the Free Land Holder Committee erected. Local residents, tools in hand, methodically dismantled the fencing, working in quiet solidarity to reclaim the land under dispute. Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin and deputies stood by as locals worked. In a press release the day before, Nowlin had asked residents to not gather and remove the fence.

“The only reason why we’re here is to document and keep the peace, that’s it,” Nowlin said Thursday.

Nowlin made it clear this was a civil matter, not a criminal one, emphasizing the courts would ultimately decide the legitimacy of the Free Land Holder claims.

“Let a judge decide who’s right and who’s wrong. Who’s to say who’s right, who’s wrong? What if they’re right? Let it happen in court,” he said, underscoring that his authority did not extend to enforcing or resolving the civil dispute on federal land.

The San Juan National Forest has previously had discussions with owners of a private parcel in the area addressing a property dispute, but that was over about 20 acres and did not involve the Free Land Holder group. The Forest Service learned about the new fencing Oct. 5. That was the Forest Service’s first contact with the Free Land Holder group and the first time anyone had contended the roughly 1,400 acres around Chicken Creek did not belong to the United States, San Juan National Forest Supervisor Dave Neely said.

The Chicken Creek network of trails north of Mancos and the Mancos State Park includes singletrack for mountain bikes, hikers and horses. It is popular in the winter with groomed trails for cross-country skiing. Ranchers graze cattle in the area as well.

“There is no closure of public access in any way, shape or form,” Neely said.

VARIETY OF DOCUMENTS Pipkin gave the Forest Service a list of documents the Free Land Holder group believes proves its ownership of the land. The Forest Service disagreed and said the agency considered the fencing a form of trespass and asked the group to remove the four-strand, barbed-wire fence immediately. The Forest Service told Pipkin that the courts would need to address the Free Land Holder argument that it has rights to the acreage.

“We are not in a position to fully address the nature of their land claim but we are looking into the documents they provided us and considering the next steps toward resolution of the land ownership dispute here,” Neely said. “We did ask them to remove the fence.”

Neely said he had no contact with the Free Land Holder group before the meeting Wednesday.

On Thursday, Nowlin reflected on how the situation, while contentious, had remained respectful on the ground, contrasting it with the angst seen in recent social media posts.

“The rhetoric that’s been on social media has to stop,” he told The Sun, “but on the ground, it’s been good.”

He acknowledged the community’s concerns and frustrations but urged everyone to let the legal process unfold. The Forest Service had asked for the fence materials to be preserved and removed without damage, and Nowlin was pleased to see the locals following this request.

“That’s great. That’s respectful. That’s all I ask,” he said.

PREVIOUS LAND DISPUTE Pipkin in 2015 was arrested in a land dispute with the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints in the polygamous sect’s hometown of Colorado City, Arizona. In 2016, Pipkin sued town officials and the cult’s leaders over civil rights violations connected to his 2015 arrest. Pipkin said he has no connection to FLDS, which once had a compound surrounded by Forest Service land north of Mancos. He said the Free Land Holder group has about 1,000 members across the West and is not connected to the FLDS sect. He said he is not a member of the FLDS. Pipkin declined to say whether the Free Land Holder Committee has laid claim to any other federally managed land.

Members of the Free Land Holder group were not on Chicken Creek Road on Thursday.

Danette Dillon was there, helping to remove the fence. She has lived in Mancos since 1993 and raised her children in the area. She spoke of her deep connection to the land and said she was frustrated by the Free Land Holder group. Her family homesteaded in northern Colorado in the 1860s. Her children are sixth-generation Coloradans. She acknowledged that while her family benefited from homesteading generations ago, she drew a line between that historical context and the Free Land Holder claims.

“You can’t just come in and fence off an area that is owned by the public and decide that it’s yours,” said the rancher who uses public lands for riding, hunting and grazing her livestock. “You can’t just come out here and … build a cabin and say I’m homesteading here. This is an important part of our community, and you can’t just fence it off and act like you can own it when you haven’t gone through the legal process.”

Tensions escalated later in the afternoon during a public gathering at Boyle Park in Mancos. More than 40 residents gathered around a picnic table displaying a map of the affected area as Nowlin spoke to the agitated crowd.

Some members of the community voiced fears for their safety at Chicken Creek, worried about potential confrontations with the Free Land Holder members. One woman said she felt unsafe riding her bike on the trails there. Nowlin acknowledged her concerns, but said he was more worried about disgruntled hunters in the area than the Free Land Holder group. He said his role was to remain neutral in the situation, and he encouraged residents to contact his department immediately with any reports of violence or assault.

The residents who removed portions of the fence on Thursday said they would be returning to tear out more sections. Neely said the Forest Service cannot support citizens taking action to remove the fence on federal land, even if the barrier is illegal.

“We told Mr. Pipkin and his group that we were more than willing to consider his claim to the land in the right venue and have the court system make a determination on the clear title to the lands in question,” Neely said. “That will require community understanding and patience. We are going to have to take this one step at a time.”

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Group claims ownership over 1,400 acres of Colorado forest, sparking outrage | Western Colorado

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