Luis Felipe de Jesús Baca (1828–1874) was an American farmer, rancher, and politician. He founded the city of

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

in the state of

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

Baca County, Colorado Baca County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,506. The county seat is Springfield. Located at the southeast corner of Colorado, the county shares state borders with Kansas, New Mexi ...

is named for him.

Biography

He was born in

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Ch ...

in 1828. During the 29 years that he lived there, he became a prosperous farmer and rancher, dedicated mainly to raising sheep. In his hometown he married María Dolores Gonzáles, with whom he had nine children.

Founder of Trinidad

Baca used to travel to

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

and Santa Fe to sell his produce. In 1860, when he was transporting a shipment of flour, he came across a fertile valley beside the

Purgatoire River The Purgatoire River ( es, Río Purgatorio) is a river in southeastern Colorado, United States. The river is also known locally as the Purgatory River or the Picketwire River. ''Purgatoire'' means Purgatory in French. French trappers named the ri ...

. Back home, he examined the land's potential for farming and

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and ot ...

. In the fall of that year, he and his family moved to that valley, reclaiming a portion of the lowlands and waiting for spring to plant their first crops. Harvesting the first crops (mainly

melons A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit. Botanically, a melon is a kind of berry, specifically a "pepo". The ...

and

grains A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legumes ...

), he transported them back to Taos to show his neighbors, who quickly perked up. In 1862, 12 families from Taos made their way through

Raton Pass Ratón Pass is a 7,834 ft (2,388 m) elevation mountain pass on the Colorado–New Mexico border in the western United States. It is located on the eastern side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains between Trinidad, Colorado and Raton, New ...

to join the Baca family in the new settlement. Living in the heart of the town, Baca exercised leadership among all its inhabitants. In 1866, along with William Hoehne, he founded the Trinidad Town Company, the first general store in the area. That same year, the town would have a school and a catholic church, forged on land and with money donated by the Baca family.

Political career

After building Trinidad, he became involved in territorial politics. In 1870, he won a seat as a Republican representative in the territorial legislature, which he held for two years. He was against Colorado statehood, believing that the southern part of the state would be dwarfed by Denver. The Anglo majority in the legislature disagreed, and Colorado became a state in 1876.

Death

He died in 1874 at the age of 46 in the town he founded, Trinidad. His will, which was executed a few days later, noted him as a wealthy man in both possessions and money. The entire fortune was shared among his wife and nine children. He is buried in the Trinidad Catholic Cemetery.

Legacy

In 1889, the state legislature approved the establishment of a tract of land in the southeast corner of the state as Baca County, in honor of Trinidad's founder. In 1970, the house he and his wife occupied was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

as Baca House and Outbuilding, which has been in operation as a museum since that date. The property was purchased in 1873, a year before his death, in exchange for of

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baca, Felipe 1828 births 1874 deaths American businesspeople Members of the Colorado Territorial Legislature Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in Colorado People from Trinidad, Colorado