Bartolomé Baca (c. 1767 – 30 April 1834) was Governor of the territory of Santa Fe de Nuevo México (New Mexico) from August 1823 until September 1825.

[3][4] Bartolomé Baca established himself at Torreon, overlooking the Estancia Valley, where he obtained a grant of land from the Spanish Governor Facundo Melgares.

[6] When Captain Baca became géfe político, equivalent to Governor, in 1823, the Mexican inhabitants of the territory suffered from constant Apache raids.

[10] Baca issued licenses to U.S. citizens to trap beaver on condition that they hired Mexicans and taught them the skills required.

In the spring of 1824 Baca sent a courier to Council Bluffs, announcing that New Mexico planned to march 1,500 men to the Missouri River to pacify the Indian trobes and open the route for trade, arriving on or before 10 June 1824.

[11] In 1825 he commissioned Don Manuel Escudéro, the first Mexican to take a caravan along the Santa Fe Trail, to visit the United States to discuss commerce.

This was to lead to long-running legal disputes over ownership, eventually going to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1897, which found that there was no proof Baca had ever owned the land.