It's oily. It's grassy. And thanks to a bungled land survey, it fell into the thieving hands of a bunch of Texans.
It's a narrow strip of land just across New Mexico's eastern border. State Sen. Shannon Robinson says it's time for Texas to give it back.
"It's pretty," the Albuquerque Democrat said of the land. "It's kind of vacant, but it's pretty."
Robinson has proposed giving the attorney general's office $100,000 to pursue the land claim, which he thinks the state can win.
In 1859, a surveyor established the nation's 103rd meridian as the border between Texas and New Mexico. But he then set the actual boundary too far west -- 2.29 miles in some places, 3.77 miles in others.
Today, the Texas towns of Farwell, Texline, Bledsoe and Bronco lie within the strip, along with a lot of grazing land with oil underneath it.
New Mexico's territorial officials protested the error in a 1910 draft constitution for statehood. Federal officials then redid the survey and ruled that the 1859 version had indeed botched it.
But Texas fought back. In 1911, the feds essentially told New Mexico to give up the land claim or forget about statehood.
New Mexico got the message. In 1912, it became a state -- minus 603,485 acres.
Robinson, a lawyer, calls that duress.
"And everyone knows that duress has a common-law remedy," he said.
To get the right remedy, he introduced Senate Bill 815, partly as an homage to the late state Sen. John Morrow, a Capulin Democrat who long sought the return of the disputed land. Morrow died in November.
"Everyone was up here saying, 'We miss Johnny,' and I said, 'OK, I'll show you Johnny,' " Robinson said. "We'll do a little nostalgia trip."
In 1991, Morrow introduced a land claim memorial that failed to pass.
Robinson still laughs at a letter of protest Morrow received from a woman in the disputed territory.
"She said she had always wanted to be buried in Texas and now, damn it, she was going to be buried in New Mexico," he said.
Robinson's bill won approval of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Saturday and headed for the Senate Finance Committee. If it advances to the floor, legislators will undoubtedly engage in one of their favorite sports, Texas-bashing.
Despite that, Robinson insists that the bill's revival is no joke.
"I'm very serious about this," he said. "I've always wanted a piece of Texas."
