what is a Land Patent, and how (if at all) is it related to Allodial title?
A Land Patent is a document that purports to establish the Government’s title to property, in order to legitimize future conveyances of same. The Government is claiming dominion over an unowned resource, and then selling that resource for a profit, without generally having done anything to the property other than survey it and draw it on a map. Once the illusion of ownership has been established, the Federal Government then deeds the property to a State or Territory, which deeds the property to an individual or a developer, and so on. Technically, a Land Patent is part of the chain of title for all property within the United States, because of indemnification (an insured Warranty Deed or two, is generally sufficient), for underwriting purposes it is rarely necessary to look far enough back in time to find the original Land Patent. What does this all have to do with allodial title? Unfortunately, not much, since you can’t buy allodial title to real estate (or anything else, for that mat
