Baca Ranch

Baca Ranch House, circa 1920

Denver Public Library Collection

In 1823, Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca was awarded a large parcel of land by the Mexican government in what is now New Mexico. Eventually, due to complex litigation with the US government, Baca’s claim was swapped with a parcel in Colorado at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Ironically, no one in the Baca family ever even visited the Baca parcel in Colorado; it was simply an investment property. In 1862, it was sold by Baca heirs to Territorial Governor William Gilpin for 30 cents per acre. The Baca was leased to various cattle owners for grazing beginning in 1862, but George Adams was the first to fully develop the Baca with fencing, irrigation ditches, sheds and corrals in the 1870s.

In the 1980s and 1990s, water developers sought to extract huge quantities of water from the ranch for export to growing Colorado cities. This prompted a complex multi-year process involving local citizens, Congress, The Nature Conservancy, National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and US Forest Service. The result was the creation of Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve and the Baca National Wildlife Refuge, protecting the integrity of the Great Sand Dunes geological and hydrological system, and simultaneously preserving water for area agriculture.

Today, the north side of Great Sand Dunes National Park is former Baca Ranch land. Elk and pronghorn graze here in spacious grasslands with cottonwood-lined creeks at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.