Compiled by ARG from the Bureau of Land Management’s searchable General Land Office website.

This project covers only a small part of Pitkin County. The objective was to provide information on how typical parcels of property in this area left Federal ownership and became privately owned.

Some areas on the accompanying map were avoided (along State Highway 82 east of Aspen for example) because the original private ownership pattern is too complicated for the project’s objective.

I did not attempt to illustrate and provide information on lode mining claims because the necessary detail of information would be difficult to illustrate and the properties would not be good example properties. Please see the inset enlargement of the ownership pattern in Sections 24 and 25, Township 10 South, Range 84 West, 6th Principal Meridian on the project map. Crazy huh. It is possible to sort out such ”jackstraws” of properties, but it frequently is necessary to go to court for a decision on who presently owns what.