The resent standoff with BLM at Bunkervile, Nev. Cliven Bundy claims to have grazing rights on public land based on his family settling there in the 1870's.  Land records and court records show that this is not true. 

Bundy repeated a similar claim Thursday when he told TheBlaze website: “My family has preemptive, adjudicated livestock water rights filed with the state of Nevada. They were established in 1877 when the first pioneers entered the valley. Among those first pioneers were my grandparents from my mother’s side. My father either bought or inherited his Nevada state livestock water rights and I, in turn, have done the same.”

Clark County Recorder documents show the 160-acre Bunkerville ranch Bundy calls home was purchased by his parents, David and Bodel Bundy, from Raoul and Ruth Leavitt on Jan. 5, 1948. The purchase included the transfer to the Bundys of certain water rights, including water from the nearby Virgin River. Cliven Bundy was born in 1946.

There was no grazing rights transferred.  The Bureau of Land Management was organized in 1946.  His ancestors lived some where else.