State v. Arizona Navigable Stream Adjudication Commission

OPINION

WINTHROP, Presiding Judge.

¶ 1 This appeal involves the long-standing battle to determine who owns the beds of rivers (“bedlands”) within the State of Arizona. At specific issue are the bedlands of the Lower Salt River (a/k/a “the River”), which runs from Granite Reef Dam above Phoenix through the highly populated Salt River Valley to the confluence with the Gila River. The crucial question to be resolved is whether the River was navigable in its ordinary and natural condition. 1 If it was navigable, title to the bedlands passed to the State from the federal government at statehood on…