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Abstract
The land use history of the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP), as represented in the documentary record maintained in various archives and libraries, focuses primarily on the Hispanic and Anglo-American occupation of the locale subsequent to 1860. In an act of June 21, 1860, the U.S. Congress authorized the Baca Land Grant heirs to choose as many as five square tracts of “vacant land” (i.e., places where there was neither permanent residence nor formally claimed ownership) to replace the 496,447-acre (200,901-ha) grant to which they had agreed to extinguish their rights in favor of the town of Las Vegas (U.S. Congress, House 1860; U.S. Public Law 167 1860). Luis María Cabeza de Baca’s heirs selected 5 substitute tracts, each measuring 99,289 acres (40,180 ha). Each tract appears as a distinctive square on land grant maps. The first of their selections encompassed the Valle Grande, Valle San Antonio, Valle Santa Rosa, and Redondo Creek (chapter 4).
Parent Publication
Citation
Anschuetz, Kurt F. 2007. Chapter 9. The Valles Caldera National Preserve as a multi-layered ethnographic landscape. In: Anschuetz, Kurt F.; Merlan, Thomas. More than a scenic mountain landscape: Valles Caldera National Preserve land use history. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-196. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 129-162.
