Iron County (Utah). County Recorder Land patents, 1905-1964.

A patent is a deed transferring land from the federal or state government to an individual. During the nineteenth century federal policy supported transferring land in the public domain into private ownership. Individuals could purchase this land outright or they could obtain it in exchange for some kind of labor or development under such programs as the Homestead Act, the Timber Culture Act or the Desert Lands Act. Federal mining laws were also set up to encourage the development of mineral resources by offering ownership to individuals who discovered and developed the same. Additionally, the federal government granted many acres of land to the state of Utah, some of which the state in turn sold to individuals.

The patents in these books are primarily for land, but also include mining rights. Information in the documents includes the names of grantee and grantor (grantor being a government), a legal description of the land, and application and certificate numbers. Each patentexplains the laws and requirements which had been fulfilled in order to obtain the land or mining claim, and that a certificate for the same had been filed in the Salt Lake Land Office. Where water rights were involved, they were specified. The President of the United States signed federal patents and the governor signed state patents.