The Luis Maria Baca Grant No. 4, south of

Crestone, Colorado Description The Town of Crestone is a Statutory Town in Saguache County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 141 at the 2020 United States Census. Crestone is a small village at the foot of the western slope of the Sangre de Cri ...

, was a large land grant made in 1860 by the United States to the heirs of the original Vegas Grandes Grant to

Baca family of New Mexico The progenitors of the Baca family of New Mexico were Cristóbal Baca (Vaca) and his wife Ana Ortiz. Cristóbal was a military captain from Mexico City, who arrived in 1600 with his family to help reinforce the Spanish colonial Santa Fe de Nuevo ...

Las Vegas, New Mexico Las Vegas is a city in and the county seat of San Miguel County, New Mexico, United States. Once two separate municipalities (one a city and the other a town), both were named Las Vegas—West Las Vegas ("Old Town") and East Las Vegas ("New Town" ...

. Title to the grant at Las Vegas was clouded by a second grant of the same land. The Baca heirs were offered alternative lands from the public lands of the United States. The largest of the tracts selected, near what is now Crestone, was on a side and was located to the south of what is now Saguache County Road T, about south of the 38th parallel. The Bacas deeded the land to their attorney,

John Sebrie Watts John Sebrie Watts (January 19, 1816 – June 11, 1876) was an American attorney, jurist, and politician who held office in the state of Indiana and in the territory of New Mexico. Early life and education Watts was born in Boone County, Kentucky ...

, but it soon passed by tax sale to a third party. The ranch headquarters was on Crestone Creek to the southwest of Crestone. The Baca Grant was one of the first large tracts of land to be fenced in the West and in its heyday was the home of prize

Hereford cattle The Hereford is a British breed of beef cattle originally from Herefordshire in the West Midlands of England. It has spread to many countries – there are more than five million purebred Hereford cattle in over fifty nations worldwide. The bre ...

. In addition to ranching there was some mining in the area to the east and south of Crestone, some on the lands of the grant, but no big strikes. In 1880 the town of Crestone was platted by George Adams, the owner of the Baca Grant. In 1900, with the help of Eastern investors, George Adams ignited a minor boom, reopening one of the more promising mines and building a railroad spur to the town and the mines along the

Sangre de Cristo Range , country= United States , subdivision1= Colorado , subdivision2_type= Counties , subdivision2= , parent= Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Rocky Mountains , borders_on= , geology= , age= , orogeny= Fault-block mountains , area_mi2= 1 ...

south of town. However, lacking good ore, the boom was short-lived. A long period of decline followed. By 1948 Crestone had declined to its post-war population of 40 souls, mostly retired folks and cowboys who worked on The Grant, as the Baca Grant was called locally. In 1950 the last private owner of the Grant, Alfred Collins, died. In 1951 the property was sold to the

Newhall Land and Farming Company

Arizona-Colorado Land and Cattle Company, immediately south of Crestone, was subdivided, creating the Baca Grande, a

subdivision Subdivision may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Subdivision (metre), in music * ''Subdivision'' (film), 2009 * "Subdivision", an episode of ''Prison Break'' (season 2) * ''Subdivisions'' (EP), by Sinch, 2005 * "Subdivisions" (song), by Rus ...

originally platted for about 10,000 lots. At great expense, underground utilities were installed and roads built. However, sales lagged and by 1979 the development was considered a liability by the corporation, then renamed AZL.

Maurice Strong Maurice Frederick Strong, (April 29, 1929 – November 27, 2015) was a Canadian oil and mineral businessman and a diplomat who served as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.E Masood (2015) Maurice Strong, Nature 528(7583), 480. Strong ...

, owner of a controlling interest in AZL and his fiancée Hanne Marstrand visited the development and "fell in love with it." The Strongs were inspired to create a world spiritual center and began granting parcels of land to traditional spiritual organizations. In the late eighties, the remaining lands and waters of the ranch, now termed the "Baca Ranch" or "Baca", were used as a base by the corporate ownership of the ranch, reorganized as "American Water Development, Inc" (AWDI), to make an application in the Colorado Water Courts to develop and export deep underground water to the

front range The Front Range is a mountain range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America located in the central portion of the U.S. State of Colorado, and southeastern portion of the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is the first mountain range encountere ...

cities of Colorado. This application was vigorously opposed by the local community in the

San Luis Valley The San Luis Valley is a region in south-central Colorado with a small portion overlapping into New Mexico. The valley is approximately long and wide, extending from the Continental Divide on the northwest rim into New Mexico on the south. It co ...

and met defeat in the Colorado Supreme Court in 1991. In 1995, with the Baca under new ownership, a new group of investors initiated another water exportation plan. The Stockman's Water plan, as it was known, was the creation of San Luis Valley native Gary Boyce and his Cabeza de Baca company. The Stockman's Water plan was defeated in the Colorado legislature in 1998. Bankrupt, the lands of the corporation, after sustained litigation, were purchased by the

Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Natu ...

and subsequently incorporated into the public lands of the United States, the southern and eastern portions as national forest and the

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is an American national park that conserves an area of large sand dunes up to tall on the eastern edge of the San Luis Valley, and an adjacent national preserve in the Sangre de Cristo Range, in south- ...

and the northern and western portions as the

Baca National Wildlife Refuge The Baca National Wildlife Refuge is a United States National Wildlife Refuge located in southern Colorado. It is within the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area. Fauna Many bird species such as the kestrel, great horned owl, northern flicker ...

."97,000 Acres Protected for New National Park"
article by Cat Lazaroff,

Environmental News Service A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

(ENS), January 30, 2002 The original ranch headquarters and other buildings are on the wildlife refuge. As is usual on federal wildlife refuges, grazing and hay production continue on a limited basis.

History of the original Las Vegas Grant

The following is copied from a US Forest Service document: Action under the

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ( es, Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo), officially the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, is the peace treaty that was signed on 2 ...

: {{quote, New Mexico Surveyor General Pelham conducted a hearing on the Baca and Town of Las Vegas Grant applications. He recommended to Congress in 1860 that both grants be confirmed, leaving it to the courts to try to determine the rights of two parties (U.S. Congress, House 1860). To avoid litigation, the Baca heirs offered to give up their claim, provided they got an equivalent amount of land somewhere else in the New Mexican Territory. Congress approved an act on June 21, 1860, confirming the Town of Las Vegas Grant and authorizing the heirs of Luis María Cabeza de Vaca icto select vacant lands in "square bodies, not exceeding five in number" (U.S. Public Law 167 1860). MapSurveyGrant4

Notes

External links

Baca Grande Property Owners Association
San Luis Valley of Colorado Geography of Saguache County, Colorado Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve