Resolution of a 120-year-old land dispute could mean more access to the Salinas River.

A land title dispute along the Salinas River, one that stretches back more than 100 years, finally came to an end July 15 in Monterey County Superior Court. For the public, that means a lush section of river just east of Highway 1 might become accessible for the first time in over a century.

The settlement occurred between the California State Lands Commission and a group of landowners who collectively own an agricultural field called Jefferson Ranch. At issue were property boundaries surveyed in the late 19th century that were the result of two separate Mexican land grants: Rancho Rincon, which was south of the Salinas River, and Rancho Bolsas, which comprised land to its north.

At the heart of the dispute was the Salinas River which, roughly speaking, was named as the border of the two ranchos. Problem is, the river’s course shifted sometime in the late 1800s, and issues clouding the titles of the two properties have been in question ever since. It even reached the state Supreme Court in 1890, but remained unresolved.

The lands within the ranchos have been bought and sold many times over, and a 520-acre parcel south of river called Jefferson Ranch was purchased decades ago by farmer Martin Jefferson. He tried, and failed, to resolve the title issue in the 1960s. Jefferson has since passed, and his family decided to try to resolve the issue again in 2012.

“It was a comedy of errors how things got so out of whack,” says real estate broker Claude Hoover, who helped the Jeffersons reach a deal with the state.

They were out of whack like this: The State Lands Commission technically had title to about 40 acres on the Jeffersons’ farm that comprised the old path of the river. Meanwhile, the Jeffersons held title to about 40 acres of river and shore north of that plot.

Hoover approached the state with the land swap idea in 2013. “I never expected to get involved in a bureaucracy and get such an enthusiastic response,” he says.

Within a year, a deal was struck: In exchange for title to the 40-acre slice, the Jeffersons paid the state $300,000 and gave SLC title to about 40 acres of river and shore that includes an area that could be used as a park.

“I think it’s pretty amazing riparian habitat,” says SLC attorney Jessica Rader, who worked on the case. “That beach park is pretty great.”

Rader says the next step for the easement to be open to the public is for the commission to find a park management agency that wants to take over the property and control access.

“It’s a slow process,” she says.