Page 20 of A Veteran's Desire

A middle-aged man ambles onto the stage, sets a folder on the lectern, and coughs to clear his throat.

“At the request of some interested parties, I’ve been going through the deed records for Hope and out along Wild Heart Mountain, going back a hundred and fifty years.” He looks up. “A lot of the land around here has what’s called a split estate.”

“This doesn’t sound good,” I mutter.

“It means one party owns the surface. Somebody else owns everything underneath it. It’s also known as a severed mineral estate.”

He waits like that ought to mean something, but the entire room is silent, waiting for an explanation.

“It means you can own your farm and not own what’s in the ground beneath it.”

“What?” Pops squawks, and the whole room goes up at once.

“They’re telling us we don’t own our own land,” Rachel says, her voice tight with indignation.

“Why would anybody do that?” Pops’s voice carries, and the room hushes to hear the answer.

“Speculation. Back then, folks sold the mineral rights off cheap on the chance there was something down there worth digging for. Then the sale rode quietly along through every surface sale after it.”

“So where does it leave us?” someone in the front row asks.

“Most folks don’t even know they have a split estate, and you’ll need to check your individual deeds, which I can help with.”

“So who owns the ground beneath us?” someone asks, and I recognize Lexi; her land has been targeted too.

“Up until recently, it was individual owners who held onto the mineral rights and never did anything with them.” Mark pushes his glasses up his nose. “But here’s the part you want to hear.”

Mark looks around, and all eyes are on him.

“Recently, the under surface split of a large tract of land that takes in most of the surrounding areas of Hope was bought up by one company.”

“What’s he saying?” Pops asks.

“He’s saying that someone bought the minerals under our land over a century ago, and they’ve just sold them to another company.”

“Who’s the company?” Pops’s voice carries across the room, and Mark’s gaze fixes on Pops.

“It’s being bought up by Ashton Holdings.”

There’s a murmur around the room.

“Why does that name sound familiar?” I turn to Rachel, and her expression is grim.

“Ashton Holdings is who the lawyers work for.”

“The ones Pops chased off the farm?”

Rachel nods. “And maybe the same people who vandalized the bakery.”

“Why would they be so aggressive if they already own the mineral rights?”

Rachel shrugs. “They still need access to the land. What use is owning the mineral rights if they can’t access them?”

“They still need the surface either way,” Mark adds, confirming what Rachel said. “Even a good mineral claim only gets you reasonable access. You can’t put an open pit on someone’s farm just because you own the rock under it. Not without agreements and permits and such. Cheaper to buy the top than argue with forty families about the bottom.”

“Cheaper to scare us off it,” Rachel says, loudly enough to attract indignant nods of agreement.

Mark doesn’t disagree.