The San Joaquín del Río de Chama land grant consists of 600,000 acres in New Mexico granted to Francisco Salazar and 31 other families on August 1, 1806, by King Charles IV of Spain. In 1854, Thomas B. Profit, appointed surveyor general by the House of Representatives, affirmed the right of the grantees to the land. But by the time he made his recommendation to the congressional committee in 1873, the land had already been granted to Thomas Catron. By the time the U.S. Court of Claims was created in 1891, furor over the dispute had calmed and no claim was filed. In 1945, Representative Antonio Fernández presented the case of the San Joaquín grant to the 78th Congress, which ignored the issue. By 1966 the heirs of the San Joaquín grant were ready to assert their rights to the land.