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Director of the Office of State Lands & Investments v. Merbanco6/6/2003
the grants "for educational purposes," arguably a less restrictive limitation. Throughout the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, neither the state constitutions nor the federal enabling statutes explicitly addressed the states' authority to exchange school lands for other lands of equal value.
While the general historical context is informative, our task is to interpret the Wyoming Constitution and the Act of Admission; therefore, we must focus our analysis on the unique history of those particular provisions. Unlike most states, Wyoming's constitutional convention was called before Congress enacted any enabling legislation. Robert B. Keiter & Tim Newcomb, The Wyoming State Constitution, A Reference Guide at 5 (1993), citing T. A. Larson, History of Wyoming at 244 (2d ed. 1978). Consequently, the delegates had to assume Congress would grant Wyoming federal lands when it authorized statehood. They did not have the benefit of a specific grant with which they could conform their acceptance. See generally Keiter & Newcomb, supra at Foreword. Ultimately, Congress passed Wyoming's Act of Admission on July 10, 1890, eight months after the constitution was adopted, and, as expected, that act granted Wyoming various lands, some of which were dedicated for "support of common schools" and to be "disposed of only at public sale." Act of Admission at §§ 4, 5.
The record of the debates during the constitutional convention sheds some light on the concerns of the delegates regarding the lands they anticipated would be granted by the federal government. These records "may very properly be resorted to as indicating somewhat the intent and object which caused the incorporation of disputed clauses into the fundamental law." Grand Island & N. W. R. Co. v. Baker, 6 Wyo. 369, 45 P. 494, 500 (1896); see also Chicago & N. W. Ry. Co. v. Hall, 46 Wyo. 380, 26 P.2d 1071 (1933). We learn from these debates the delegates used the terms "sale" and "disposal" interchangeably and did not address the concept of exchange of lands. 1889 Journal and Debates of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Wyoming at 749-52. They rejected a proposal to withhold the lands from sale to preserve their value for future generations. The discussion discloses a belief by some that the lands were not likely to garner the minimum $10 per acre price and, if they did, the state should act quickly to sell them. Id. at 752. We also learn from these records that, while the delegates agreed to require a public auction before these lands could be sold, some believed auctions could be manipulated and the further protection of an appraisal by the land commissioner should be required. Id. at 755-56. In what must be interpreted as a desire for flexibility and a willingness to rely on the land commissioner to assure a fair sales price, the delegates agreed to allow sales to occur so long as at least seventy-five percent of the appraised value was obtained. Id. at 753. Throughout the debates, the concern of the delegates was focused on how and when state lands could be sold. When those concerns were translated into the actual language of the relevant constitutional provisions, the terms "sale" and "disposal" seem to be used interchangeably. Article 18, Section 1, in which the State of Wyoming accepted the grant of lands by the federal government for "educational purposes," provided that such lands "shall be disposed of only at public auction" (emphasis added) at a minimum of $10 per acre, clearly a "sales price," and seventy-five percent of the appraised value. At the same time, delegates also adopted Article 7, Section 13, which required an auction before the "sale" of school lands. Reading the language of these two provisions toge
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