Luis Maria Baca Grant No. 4

Maurice Strong, owner of a controlling interest in AZL and his fiancée Hanne Marstrand visited the development and "fell in love with it."

The application was vigorously opposed by the local community in the San Luis Valley and met defeat in the Colorado Supreme Court in 1991.

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 Alcalde of San Miguel del Vado was supposed to deliver legal possession of the grant to Baca and his sons, and after considerable delay, he did so in 1826 (U.S. Congress, House 1860).

Luis María Cabeza de Baca built a little house on the Gallinas River at the place called Loma Montosa, and ran sheep on the grant.

He died in 1827 after being fatally wounded by a soldier in an argument over 13 packs of contraband pelts that belonged to American trapper Ewing Young.

Because Indian hostilities simultaneously plagued the Gallinas River, Juan Antonio’s heirs did not reoccupy the grant given to Luis María Cabeza de Baca.

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 [sic] to select vacant lands in "square bodies, not exceeding five in number" (U.S. Public Law 167 1860).