N.M. Stat. § 19-1-2 (2026)

The commissioner shall have a seal with an appropriate device thereon; and such
seal affixed to any contract, deed, lease or other instrument executed by the
commissioner shall be prima facie evidence of the due execution thereof. Said
commissioner shall receive and pass upon all applications for leasing or purchasing
state lands and timber; and shall execute and authenticate for the state all deeds,
leases, contracts or other instruments affecting such lands. All such leases, deeds,
contracts and grants heretofore or hereafter executed shall be entitled to record without
acknowledgment, and record thereof in the county in which the land described therein is
situated shall be constructive notice to all persons of the contents thereof. Said
commissioner shall have power to provide all necessary books, blanks, records,
property, equipment and appurtenances of every kind whatsoever for the proper
management of said state land office and the lands under his control; to deed by
quitclaim or otherwise to the United States any or all claims that the state may have in
and to lands within any private land grant or reservation made or confirmed in
pursuance of authority of congress, or to such of its lands as may be needed by the
United States or for reclamation of water power sites for the purpose of selecting
indemnity lands therefor; also to such of its lands as may be desired by the United
States for agricultural experiment purposes; to collect all moneys due to the state for the
lease, purchase or use of state lands; to receive all moneys due to the state derived
from any state lands and credit said moneys so received to the separate funds created
for the respective purposes named in grants by congress, or otherwise, and he shall
pay over to the state treasurer, on or before the tenth day of the next succeeding month,
all such moneys received during each month to be credited to the several funds
respectively entitled thereto. He shall keep a full and complete record of all his official
acts and shall submit to the governor each year a report bearing date the first day of
December, and at any other time on request, which shall contain a statement of the
business and expenses of said state land office and the amount of moneys received
and turned over by him to the state treasurer for each fund, together with such
recommendations as he may deem proper for the better management and control of
state lands. He shall cause to be printed biennially, for the use and information of the
legislature, the annual reports thus made to the governor for the two (2) years preceding
each regular session thereof, and he shall charge the cost of such printing to the state
lands maintenance fund hereinafter in this chapter created. He shall employ a person
qualified and experienced as a geologist or petroleum engineer who in turn is hereby
authorized to appoint, with the approval of the commissioner, such inspectors, clerks
and additional assistants as he may deem necessary to collect and compile information,
under the direction and supervision of the commissioner, relative to oil and gas leasing
development and production within the state which may affect state lands and prepare
maps and reports necessary and expedient for the proper supervision and leasing of
lands belonging to the state for oil and gas purposes. The salary of said geologist or
petroleum engineer and inspectors, clerks and additional assistants as provided shall be
fixed by the commissioner and said salaries and expenses to be paid out of the state
land office maintenance fund. He shall make rules and regulations for the control,
management, disposition, lease and sale of state lands and perform such other duties
as may be prescribed by law.

History: Laws 1912, ch. 82, § 2; Code 1915, § 5179; C.S. 1929, § 132-102; 1941
Comp., § 8-102; Laws 1953, ch. 75, § 1; 1953 Comp., § 7-1-2.

                                    ANNOTATIONS

Compiler’s notes. — The words "this chapter" evidently refers to chapter 102 of the
1915 Code, §§ 5178 to 5290, compiled herein as 19-1-1 to 19-1-6, 19-1-9 to 19-1-16,
19-1-21, 19-2-1, 19-5-3 to 19-5-10, 19-6-1 to 19-6-7, 19-7-1, 19-7-7, 19-7-8, 19-7-11,
19-7-13, 19-7-19 to 19-7-22, 19-7-25, 19-7-27 to 19-7-30, 19-7-34, 19-7-36, 19-7-50,
19-7-51, 19-7-52, 19-7-53, 19-7-57, 19-7-58, 19-7-64 to 19-7-67, 19-8-1 to 19-8-3, 19-8-
10, 19-8-12, 19-8-13, 19-9-1 to 19-9-8 and 19-11-10 NMSA 1978.

Cross references. — For classification of state lands, see 19-5-1 NMSA 1978.

For fire protection for state lands, see 19-5-3 NMSA 1978.

For care and protection of timberlands, see 19-11-1 NMSA 1978.

Temporary provisions. — Laws 2019, ch. 171, § 1, effective April 2, 2019, provided:

A.    The legislature finds that:

(1)   the transfer of land and buildings of the Mesilla Valley Bosque state park by the
commissioner of public lands by quitclaim deed to the state game commission in June
2018 was without required legislative approval;

(2)     the land and buildings of the Mesilla Valley Bosque state park are not in excess
of the reasonable needs of the state parks division of the energy, minerals and natural
resources department for use as a state park; and
(3)    the provisions of Section 13-6-3 and 17-4-3 NMSA 1978 shall not apply to the
transfer of property required by Subsection B of this section.

B.      The state game commission shall return to the energy, minerals and natural
resources department by quitclaim deed for use by the state parks division of the
department as a state park all land, buildings and interests in the following thirteen and
thirty-nine hundredths acres, more or less, situated in Dona Ana county, New Mexico,
and described as follows:

A tract of land situated within the Mesilla Civil Colony Grant in Sections 2 & 3, T.24S.,
R.1E., and Section 34, T.23S., R.1E., N.M.P.M. of the U.S.R.S. Surveys being
U.S.R.S. Tracts Map 12-12, 12-13, 12-14, 12-15, 12-16A, 12-16C, 12-16D, 12-16E &
12-34, and being more particularly described as follows, to wit:

Beginning at a 1/2" iron rod set on the East line of the Picacho Drain for a corner of the
tract herein described; whence meander corner No. 20 on the Mesilla Civil Colony Grant
bears N.46 deg. 43'29"W., 4155.14 feet;

Thence from the point of beginning and leaving said Picacho Drain, N.58 deg.30'00"E.,
597.65 feet to a 1/2" iron rod set for a corner of this tract;

Thence S.31.deg. 30'00"E., 424.07 feet to a 1/2" iron rod set on the West line of a 60
foot wide road for a corner of this tract and point of curvature;

Thence along the West line of said 60 foot wide road the following courses and
distances, around the arc of a curve to the left, having a radius of 1055.81 feet, through
a central angle of 42 deg. 21'00" and whose long cord bears N.20 deg. 00'18"E., 762.75
feet to a 1/2" iron rod set;

Thence N.01 deg. 08'54"W., 1184.93 feet to a 1/2" iron rod set a point of curvature;

Thence around the arc of a curve to the left, having a radius of 1819.90 feet, through a
central angle of 41 deg. 03'48" and whose long cord bears N.21 deg. 39'44"W., 1276.57
feet to a 1/2" iron rod set;

Thence N.42 deg. 11'36"W., 1248.73 feet to a 1/2" iron rod set for a corner of this tract;

Thence N.19 deg. 05'52"W., 152.96 feet to a 1/2" iron rod set on the West line of the
Rio Grande for the most Northerly corner of this tract;

Thence along the West line of the Rio Grande the following courses and distances, S.42
deg. 11'36"E., 1389.48 feet to an I.B.C. Pipe found and point of curvature;

Thence around the arc of a curve to the right, having a radius of 1879.90 feet, an arc
length of 1347.26 feet, through a central angle of 41 deg. 03'43" and whose long chord
bears S.21 deg. 39'42"E., 1318.61 feet to an I.B.C. Pipe found;
Thence S.01 deg. 08'54"E., 1184.91 feet to an I.B.C. Pipe found and point of curvature;

Thence around the arc of a curve to the right, having a radius of 1115.81 feet, an arc
length 1237.36 feet, through a central angle of 63 deg. 32'14" and whose long chord
bears S.30 deg. 35'57"W., 1174.93 feet to an I.B.C. Pipe found;

Thence S.62 deg. 21'12"W., 161.86 feet to a 1/2" iron rod set at the Southwest
intersection of the Rio Grande and Picacho Drain for Southwest corner of this tract;

Thence along East line of the Picacho Drain the following courses and distances, N.41
deg. 30'00"W., 161.24 feet to a 1/2" iron rod found and point of curvature;

Thence around the arc of a curve to the right, having a radius of 1095.90 feet, an arc
length of 202.02 feet, through a central angle of 10 deg. 33'44" and whose long chord
bears N.36 deg. 46'52"W., 201.74 feet to a 1/2" iron rod set;

Thence N.31 deg. 30'00"W., 158.85 feet to the point of beginning, containing 13.392
acres of land, more or less.

C.     The real property transferred pursuant to Subsection B of this section shall be
used to reestablish Mesilla Valley Bosque state park as that park existed prior to the
transfer of the property by quitclaim deed of the commissioner of public lands on June
18, 2018.

Reservation of minerals. — The commissioner of public lands had power to reserve
the minerals in the land to the fund or institution to which the land belongs, when
making sale thereof. State ex rel. Otto v. Field, 1925-NMSC-019, 31 N.M. 120, 241 P.
1027.

Mandamus will not lie to compel commissioner to issue deed conveying public
lands free from reservation of the minerals therein, which reservation was contained in
the contract of sale, because it is, in effect, an action against the state. State ex rel.
Evans v. Field, 1921-NMSC-082, 27 N.M. 384, 201 P. 1059, explained in Gamble v.
Velarde, 1932-NMSC-048, 36 N.M. 262, 13 P.2d 559, distinguished in Swayze v.
Bartlett, 1954-NMSC-019, 58 N.M. 504, 273 P.2d 367.

Effect of reservation. — The right to remove sand and gravel did not pass under a
grant issued by the commissioner of public lands authorizing the highway commission
to use certain lands as a source of surfacing materials which contained a general clause
reserving minerals. 1961 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 61-12.

No power to sell highway commission lands. — Neither by the constitution nor by
statute has the commissioner of public lands been given power to sell lands held by the
highway commission and acquired for its purposes. 1953 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 53-5831.
Effect of timberlands lease. — A lease of timberlands made by the territorial
commissioner, with the right to cut certain timber, passed title to the timber subject to
defeasance as to timber remaining at the end of the term, and a renewal of such lease
was properly made before its expiration, but after the territory had become a state,
without advertisement for bids. The timber remaining uncut at the expiration of the lease
reverts to the grantor, but where the land itself was sold to the lessee, no title remained
in the grantor. 1923 Op. Att'y Gen. 23-3728.

No authority over departments' buildings. — There is no statute specifically giving
the commissioner of lands authority to lease surface rights and buildings owned by state
departments. 1953 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 53-5831.

Without commissioner's consent, use of school section for cemetery is
unauthorized. 1920 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 20-2603.

Transfer to United States. — Statute authorizes state land commissioner to make
conveyance to United States of lands within the exterior boundaries of Alamo National
Forest. 1915 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 15-1641.

Administration of funds. — The commissioner of public lands is the sole person
entrusted with the administration of the funds of which he is trustee, as provided in the
Enabling Act, the New Mexico constitution and the laws of the state of New Mexico,
subject to the expenditure being a reasonable one, and the legislature is not
empowered, nor is the governor authorized, to restrict the commissioner in the
expenditure of these funds. 1953 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 53-5781, overruled by 1959 Op.
Att'y Gen. No. 59-195 and 1959 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 59-151.

Commissioner of public lands may employ forest guards in order to protect and
care for public lands. 1915 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 15-1414.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 73A C.J.S. Public Lands § 180.