Join Me At The Festival of the Book on Saturday, March 23 in Charlottesville
Look for me at the Virginia Writers Club's table where I'll be volunteering, then selling my book, YANKEE GOLD.
Time: 9 - 5.
Virginia Festival of the Book brings together writers and readers to promote and celebrate books, reading, literacy, and literary culture.
As the largest gathering of authors, writers, and readers in the Commonwealth, and, indeed, the Mid-Atlantic region, the Book Festival has become an integral part of the community and is presented in a unique partnership of contributors that includes the VFH, foundations, corporations, bookstores, schools, libraries, area businesses and organizations, and committed individuals. This partnership results in programs in a wide range of topics set among a variety of venues throughout the City of Charlottesville, County of Albemarle, and the University of Virginia.
Along with the staff, almost every aspect of the Festival is organized and generated by Festival Committees consisting of community volunteers who generously contribute their time and energy. Programs range from traditional author readings and book signings to a StoryFest day of children's authors and storybook characters; from a panel on how to publish a novel to a discussion on running a book club; from a workshop on book-binding to a discussion on freelancer's rights. All programs are open to the public;
with the exception of a few ticketed events, programs are free of charge.
U. S. Civil War Debt 7
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| Lucien B. Maxwell, courtesy Philmont Museum |
Immediately prior to Carlos Beaubien’s 1864 death, former Colorado Governor Gilpin paid the balance of the amount he owed Beaubien and signed papers which made him the new owner of the Sangre de Cristo Grant. The ownership came with a price: he would owe the U. S. a tidy sum of money which represented taxes that had accrued over some years. He must pay the lien within five years or lose the land to the government. Taxes were also due on the Beaubien-Miranda Grant, it was though an even larger tract than the Sangre de Cristo. There had been an uprising over the prior claim of Charles Bent, New Mexico’s first governor, when he made a claim for the Beaubien-Miranda. The governor, his son, his son’s friend, and two other men were killed when Pueblo Indians and local residents resisted the land claim.
Eventually, Lucien Maxwell, another of the early trapper-traders of the area, a well known guide and scout for American survey and mineral searching parties, married Luz Beaubien, bought out the claims of other Beaubien family members and assumed control of the grant. The grant was generally thought to encompass nearly two million acres. Maxwell’s family and his friend, Kit Carson, had occupied the grant for about five years when Beaubien died. Although at least another dozen land grants existed in New Mexico, this one was known to be the largest. It was not in the vicinity of the Rio Grande River, like most of the productive farm lands, but in eastern New Mexico along the Vermejo and Cimarron Creeks.
These two land grants, the Sangre de Cristo and the Maxwell Grants, would soon become the objects of interest to wealthy British investors. However, the land, or at least most of it, was valued at only about 35 cents per acre due to their isolation and lack of water. Irrigation was still in a primitive state and transportation was limited to wagon trains. One gauge by which the value of land can be understood is that a good living was considered to be $500 a year for a professional person. There was a great deal of uncertainty about how soon railroads could be constructed at the end of the Civil War.
U. S. Civil War Debt 6
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| Denver and Rio Grande Railroad in Colorado, 1898. |
When Lucien Maxwell solidified his claims to the former Beaubien-Miranda grant and opened several successful mines, Wertheim & Gompertz, a large Dutch bank, agreed to finance the sale and further development of the grant under English ownership. Shortly thereafter, the transcontinental railroad route changed and the mines’ successes became complicated. The problems included Homestead Act settlers’ claims, confirmation of the grant’s survey, and lack of adequate water for current mining operations. The European bank began to look for a better prospect.
At the same time the Maxwell Grant was sold (1870) to an English syndicate brokered by Colorado banker, Jerome Chaffee, the Denver Pacific Railroad was contracted to William Palmer to complete the Kansas Pacific (as the Denver Pacific) and join the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads.
General Palmer, in order to fulfill the promise of a railroad to the southwest, secretly proposed the construction of a route from Denver through the Arkansas Valley and New Mexico, eventually to El Paso and southern California. Investors had to be found and he was contracted to complete the Kansas Pacific. Others were dedicated to making the southwestern route a reality: one of them ex-Colorado Governor John Evans. Evans set about making land purchases along a proposed route for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad.
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