Opinion ID: 2461173
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: State Engineer v. Cowles Bros., Inc.

Text: The first case in which we recognized concepts foundational to the public trust doctrine is a 1970 case, State Engineer v. Cowles Bros., Inc., 86 Nev. 872, 478 P.2d 159 (1970). Cowles involved an application with the State Engineer by the owner of lands adjoining the dry bed of Winnemucca Lake ... to drill a well on property located in the dry Winnemucca Lake bed. Id. at 873, 478 P.2d at 160. In determining whether the State Engineer could permissibly grant such an application, we noted that the state owns the waters and the beds beneath them, based on their navigable status at the time of statehood, providing that [w]hen a territory is endowed with statehood one of the many items its sovereignty includes is the grant from the federal government of all navigable bodies of water within the particular territory, whether they be rivers, lakes or streams. If the body of water is classified as non-navigable at the time of the creation of the state, the underlying land remains the property of the United States, but if it is navigable under the definition hereinafter stated, the water and the bed beneath it becomes the property of the state. Id. at 874, 478 P.2d at 160. Thus, Cowles set the foundation on which future cases involving public trust doctrine principles rest, by recognizing that navigable waterways are owned by the state.