Federal judge rules against southwest Colorado group's attempt to claim swath of federal land

Noelle Phillips, The Denver Post on Oct 1, 2026

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DENVER — A federal judge has ruled that a group in southwest Colorado that fenced off more than 1,400 acres of the San Juan National Forest in 2024 has no legal claim to the land.

In a 12-page order issued Wednesday, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Daniel D. Domenico wrote that the Free Land Holder Committee and its two identified representatives, Patrick Pipkin and Bryan Hammon, could not build another fence or obstruct public access to the land. The land at issue is outside the town of Mancos, about 30 miles northwest of Durango.

The ruling granting an injunction comes two years after a conflict over the land erupted between the little-known group and local residents.

In October 2024, the Free Land Holder Committee tacked notices inside the Mancos post office to claim the land. It then installed a barbed-wire fence around 1,460 acres of forest land that is popular among local residents for hiking, biking and cross-country skiing. The land is also used by ranchers for cattle grazing, and the fence was built just as they needed to move their cows off the national forest land for the winter.

The move angered local residents. A large group gathered a few days later to remove the barbed wire and fence posts despite pleas from the Montezuma County sheriff and U.S. Forest Service officials, who feared an escalating conflict.

But violence never happened.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in November 2024, asking a judge to block the Free Land Holder Committee’s attempts to fence off the land.

Pipkin and Hammon waged a legal campaign, flooding the federal court docket with dozens of rambling legal briefs, often changing the format of their names to unusual configurations — such as “Patrick-Leroy:Pipkin” or “:Bryan:” in filings. In Wednesday’s order, Domenico used traditional names, along with those various spellings, to identify both men.

Pipkin bought three 60-acre tracts of land that abut the San Juan National Forest in 2020 at a courthouse auction. The land had previously been owned by Warren Jeffs, the imprisoned leader of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also referred to as the FLDS. Jeffs and the FLDS lost the property once he was sent to a Texas prison on rape charges.

While Pipkin has said he was never a member of the FLDS because he was not baptized into the church, he told The Denver Post in an October 2024 interview that he had five mothers and 37 brothers and sisters.

He also successfully sued the FLDS and the cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, in U.S. District Court in Arizona for illegal arrest, excessive force, unlawful police practices and discrimination.

Pipkin and Hammon say the Free Land Holders have legal rights to the Colorado land and cite a series of historic documents to support what they call a “chain of title” on a section of land known as the Haller Deed Area. Those documents include the Articles of Confederation — the first U.S. constitution — and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the U.S.-Mexican war in 1848 and resulted in Mexico ceding significant territory to the United States, including parts of Colorado.

The Free Land Holders’ argument essentially comes down to whether or not the word “the” is capitalized when preceding “United States” on various historic documents. Pipkin believes the Founding Fathers established the country as “The United States of America” when they wrote the Articles of Confederation in 1777, creating a republic that he now belongs to.

But somewhere along the way, he has said, the king of England tricked the new country into signing documents as “the United States of America” — lowercase T — creating a separate entity from the original republic.

However, Domenico did not buy any of those arguments. He also noted that Pipkin and Hammon missed court-ordered deadlines in filing their responses to the U.S. government’s motion for an injunction and judgment.

“The United States’ properly supported facts, which are considered undisputed, demonstrate that the United States owns the Hallar Deed Area as a matter of law,” Domenico’s order states. “Mr. Pipkin’s and Mr. Hammon’s asserted chain of publicly posted notices, proclamations, and the like does not have legal force and does not establish that they or the Free Land Holder Committee have ‘title by nature’ … or any other right to fence, inclose, exclude others from, or obstruct the free passage of people or livestock over any part of the Hallar Deed Area..”

The Free Land Holder Committee does not accept Domienico’s order, Pipkin said.

“It’s causing a deprivation of rights for me and others,” he said.

Pipkin said he is reading the order and discussing his next steps with other members of the committee. But he did not want to discuss plans over the phone.

Meanwhile, Pipkin said the committee does not plan to erect another fence.

“We’ve always kept our word there and will maintain that until this is resolved,” he said. “We are at peace and have never been warring with them. We don’t intend to.”

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