MANCOS, Colo. — A group identifying themselves as the Free Land Holders has built a fence across the national forest system lands in the San Juan National Forest in the Chicken Creek area, north of Mancos.
On Oct. 5, local officials with the USDA Forest Service were made aware that numerous individuals with the group were building a fence in the San Juan National Forest, according to the Forest Service.
The Free Land Holders are not directly associated with other Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints groups who owned property in the area previously, the Montezuma County Sheriff's office said in a media release.
The people building the fence, who own land adjacent to the national forest, asserted that they have ownership of 1,400 acres of national forest lands within the constructed fence line, the Forest Service said.
They claim the land belongs to them under the Homestead Act of 1862, according to the sheriff's office.
The act was passed under Abraham Lincoln and turned over large amounts of the public domain to private citizens. The Homestead Act remained in effect until 1976, with provisions for homesteading in Alaska until 1986, according to the National Park Service.
According to the Forest Service, records from the Forest Service and Montezuma County show that ownership of the land has been with the United States as part of the National Forest System since 1927.
Forest Service officials met with the Free Land Holders and the Montezuma County sheriff on Wednesday to inform them that the fence is trespassing and must be removed, the Forest Service said. The group agreed to stop building the fence to allow time for review of their claim and has said they won't restrict public access to roads or trails and does not have plans to do so, according to the sheriff's office.
Members of a Facebook group did meet on Thursday afternoon to remove the fencing at Chicken Creek. The sheriff's office asked Montezuma County residents to not gather in the area or attempt to remove the fencing.
The Forest Service and the sheriff asked for patience as they work through the dispute according to legal and administrative procedures.
