Free Land Holders started fencing off an estimated 1,460 acres near Chicken Creek outside Mancos that they say belongs to them, not the U.S. Forest Service.
Wednesday afternoon during a meeting with Montezuma County Sheriff Steven Nowlin, they agreed to stop fence construction until the matter is settled in light of community concern.
Sometime last week, they began putting up a fence around the area to claim it as theirs as Free Land Holders and members of the Republic under treaties and agreements dating to the late 1800s.
Patrick-Leroy:Pipkin, an ambassador and Free Land Holder, said his great-grandfather is William Hyde.
“I’m not a new person here in this county,” said Patrick-Leroy:Pipkin. “We started Mancos.”
To alert the public of what they were doing, they posted notices around Mancos and at the Cortez Post Office.
“No existing easements, pre-existing mining claims, rights of way, walking paths, bicycle and horse trails, snowmobile trails, waterways, ditches, ditch water easements, ponds or any other surface water rights, shall be blocked, disabled, or otherwise obstructed,” the notice says.
Simply put, what’s going on is a private property rights dispute between members of the group and a U.S. Forest Service boundary line.
Nick Mustoe, the District Ranger in the San Juan National Forest, said they are working through what options they have right now.
To clear the air, Patrick-Leroy Pipkin and 14 other Free Land Holders met with Nowlin, Patrol Lt. Allen Phelps and Undersheriff Tyson Cox at 1 p.m. on Wednesday at the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office.
“Public land is important, just as important as it is for private landowners,” said Nowlin. “I want to see the public has access to the area until this is resolved.”
They have not restricted public access to the area, and said they don’t plan to, either.
“We come in peace,” said Patrick-Leroy:Pipkin, an ambassador and Free Land Holder. “We are here to be in equity and honor.”
“Public perception of the past has sounded some alarms,” said Cox. “We’re trying to put those fires out.”
On social media, there have been several posts expressing concern about the fence and the people putting it up because of stigma of the FLDS from the past and the recreation in the area.
“It’s not you – you are not those people,” said Nowlin. “People need to stop.”
To be clear, the group is not associated with FLDS or the Mormon Church.
Nowlin said the group is not dangerous or violent, and they have been cooperative with him and his officers when they went to see what they were doing.
He said people can still recreate in the area as there will be no restricted access to trails or water on that land. To be sure, it’s not at all dangerous to go up there.
“I had someone say to me point-blank ‘We’re concerned you guys might shoot us,’” said Bryan-Hammon, Free Land Holder.
He said they talked for over an hour and ended the conversation with a handshake.
“We want to build friendship with all our neighbors here,” Hammon said.
They went on to say that they are more than willing to meet with the community and answer any questions they may have about the Free Land Holders Committee.
Kelleen Koppenhafter-Ramsey made a post on Facebook about a plan to “remove fencing tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon at 1pm” with “large equipment and hopefully lots of volunteers”.
The Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office will be there and Nowlin said, “I just hope it doesn’t happen” and said people out to leave it up to the two property owners in dispute.
Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Fenceline Cider in Mancos, there will be a meeting to “discuss facts” and “be on the same page” about the issue.
This article was updated Wednesday to identity leaders of the group as Free Land Holders.
