Colorado land sold for 30 cents an acre later helped create a vast national park

Photo: Baca Ranch House (clicked in 1920)Photo credit: Denver Public Library Collection via NPS A piece of land can begin as a forgotten investment and end as part of a national treasure. That is the remarkable story of Colorado’s Baca Ranch, a vast property at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. In 1862, heirs of Luis María Cabeza de Baca sold the land to Territorial Governor William Gilpin for only 30 cents an acre, according to the National Park Service. More than a century later, the ranch became entangled in one of the San Luis Valley’s biggest debates: whether its groundwater should be developed and exported. As documented by the Colorado Division of Water Resources in its StreamLines newsletter, the Nature Conservancy agreed in 2002 to purchase the ranch for $31.28 million. The deal ultimately helped expand protection around the Great Sand Dunes and establish a national park and preserve.A land grant becomes an investmentThe Baca Ranch’s history began in the early nineteenth century, when the region was still under Mexican rule.In 1823, Luis María Cabeza de Baca received a large land grant from the Mexican government in what is now New Mexico. After the United States...