U. S. Civil War Debt 7

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.