Chain of title
The documented sequence of ownership transfers establishing who holds a water right or mineral interest today.
Water rights predate most land records in the West and have been conveyed by deed, decree, court order and occasionally by handshake. Reconstructing the chain is a large share of the work in any water transaction and the source of most title defects.
Owner-of-record search across all filings is the practical starting point: it reveals what a party holds today and often surfaces the related conveyances that explain how they came to hold it.
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