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The RGSRR keep excellent records on how and where they acquired their rights of way for the railroad. In the San Miguel County Recorder's Office there aze the railroad records that show all the pertinent acquisition information. One is a typed list of acquisitions that goes with the RGSRR Railroad Map that was prepazed and signed by Arthur Ridgeway of the RGSRR in 1919. This is the official map of the RGSRR railroad right of way as it crosses San Miguel County. When the RGSRR was being; built in the late 1890's, the portion of the railroad right of way that crosses the mining claims described in the said SMC Quit Claim Deed to PDI were owned by the US Government. The minin;; claims that aze mentioned above were not "patented" at that point in time. They were at best wipatented mining claims and some of the claims described above were not even unpatented when the railroad was constructed in that area. For example, the Robert Peary, The Robert N. Steele & the Medore were not "patented" until October 27, 1927. In 1927 the RGSRR had been established for many yeazs and was 2 years from going into Receivership due to unpaid bills. One of which was the property taxes the RGSRR owed San Miguel County. On the Official Right of Way map that is in the Recorder's Office and in the records that the County has depicting the recording information of the rights of way in San Miguel County. It is easy to find the portion of the abandoned RGSRR right of way that is described above. According to the said right of way records that portion of the RGSRR abandoned right of way was acquired by a permit from the US Government, not by a deed from a private landowner. Therefore, a fee simple title is not conveyed in the permit just the right to use the US Government land for railroad purposes. When the RGSRR abandons that portion of the right of way it per the Receiver's Deed from Pierpont Fuller, Jr., Receiver of the R.G.S. R. R. Co. to Department of Highways, State of Colorado filed for record on Mazch 26`h 1953 in Book 220 at Page 32 in the Office of the :ian Miguel County Recorder's Office, it states in item labeled #3 in the said deed the following: "That with respect to all easements for rights of way or easements for railroad structures obtained by the Rio Grande Southern Railroad Company over United States Lands or public domain pursuant to the Federal statute on March 3, 1975 as Title 43, United States Code Annotated, Section 934, et seq., or other similar laws, it appearing that upon the entry of a decree of abandonment of said railroad said rights of way and easements will revest in the United States as• provided by Federal Laws". The reason given in the above deed from Pierpont Fuller, Jr., Receiver of the R.G.S.R.R. Co. to the Department of Highways, State of Colorado that the abandoned railroad right of way can not be sold is as follows: "...It finds that said interests (i.e., rights of way & easements granted by permit by the US Government on public lands to the Railroad) in real estate have no market value or appraisable value as much as they cannot be conveyed or disposed of by the Receiver except"....to the Department of Highways if they want to use the abandoned railroad rights of way and easements for highway purposes as is allowed in the Federal Aid highway projects of the time. This opinion that the rights of way and easements acquired by permit on US Government lands have no value because upon abandonment, they revest in the ownership of the US Government, is further discussed in the coi.u~t case that forced the sale of the assets of the RGSRR to pay its unpaid bills.