Maxwell Land Grant
Encyclopedia
The Maxwell Land Grant, also known as the Beaubien-Miranda Land Grant, was a 1714765 acres (6,939.41 km²) Mexican land grant in Colfax County, New Mexico
and part of adjoining Las Animas County, Colorado
. This land grant was one of the largest contiguous private landholdings in the history of the United States. The New Mexico towns of Cimarron
, Colfax, Dawson
, Elizabethtown
, French, Lynn, Maxwell
, Miami
, Raton
, Rayado
, Springer
, Ute Park
and Vermejo Park, came to be located within the grant, as well as numerous other towns that are now ghost town
s.
Indians.
The region of northern New Mexico was claimed by Spain in 1524, but there were few settlements east of the Sangre de Cristo Range
. In 1821, the government of Mexico
was established, and the new government retained the Spanish policy of encouraging settlement by making land grants. Under Spanish rule, the laws governing land grants were vague and complicated. Mexico inherited this problem, and caused more complications by amending and repealing rules and regulations dealing with land grants. Since the policies were not consistent, there were many problems in confirming these grants
was the secretary to Governor Manuel Armijo
in Santa Fe
. On January 8, 1841, Beaubien and Miranda petitioned Armijo for a land grant. They had to swear that they would colonize and cultivate the land. Three days later, Armijo granted them the land on the condition that they put it to good use. However, Beaubien and Miranda failed to prove up the grant for the next two years. On February 13, 1843, they asked the Justice of the Peace
in Taos
to sign an order promising them possession of the land. The justice affirmed that he had marked the boundaries of the grant and that Beaubien and Miranda were in full possession of the land grant.
in 1849. In 1860, Maxwell built a large home in Cimarron
, a stop on the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail
.
There seems to be a discrepancy as to Lucien's middle name. A 1945 book lists it as Benjamin rather than Bonaparte.
Guadalupe Miranda, who was living in Mexico, sold his interest in the Grant to Maxwell. Carlos Beaubien died in 1864, and Maxwell bought out the other heirs to the property. By 1865, Maxwell and his wife were the sole owners of the entire land grant, and it was renamed the Maxwell Land Grant. In 1866, gold was discovered on Willow Creek in the Grant. There was a gold rush the following year, and many mining camps were established including Elizabethtown, New Mexico
.
, and then to Fort Sumner
, where he died in 1875.
The new owners formed the Maxwell Land Grant and Railway Company. They attempted to remove the squatters from the Grant. Some of the squatters felt that they had Maxwell's unwritten permission to live on the Grant. Many people left, but some stayed and fought. This struggle between owners and squatters came to be called the Colfax County War. F.J. Tolby, a minister sympathetic to the squatters was murdered on September 14, 1875.
as president. In 1885, the new owners convinced the Territorial Governor Lionel Allen Sheldon
to use the National Guard to suppress the squatters. The proposed leader of the government forces was Jim Masterson, the brother of Bat Masterson
. However, the governor disbanded the militia before it could go into action.
Thanks to a variety of financial problems, and the Dutch company went bankrupt in 1888. In the early 1880s, the United States sued the company for making claims of lands in the Public Domain
in Colorado
. In 1887, this case reached the US Supreme Court, and was decided as United States v. Maxwell Land Grant Company. The court decision affirmed the company's ownership of the land. At this point, the settlers and squatters realized that they could not obtain good title to the land, and most of them left.
bought the Dawson homestead and underlying coal in 1906. The company named the town Dawson, New Mexico
and it grew to have about 2000 people. There were famous mine disasters in Dawson in 1913 and 1923, resulting in a historic cemetery. Phelps Dodge closed the mine in 1950, and today Dawson is a ghost town
.
had taken place. On August 25, 1888, there was a violent incident at Stonewall, Colorado, in which several people were killed. The Maxwell Land Grant Company company continued to sue homesteaders, and in many cases made them pay for their homesteads a second time. In 1894, the US Supreme Court decided Russell v. Maxwell Land Grant Company, which completely rejected the homesteaders claims in favor of the company.
In 1901, the company sold the Colorado portion of the Grant to Colorado Fuel and Iron
, a company owned by John Rockefeller. CF&I paid $50,000 in cash and $750,000 in bonds. CF&I also inherited the issues involved with the homesteaders, who were mostly in the Colorado portion of the grant.
In 1902, William Bartlett, a wealthy grain operator from Chicago bought 205000 acres (829.6 km²) of the grant along the drainage of the Vermejo River. Under the agreement, he withheld part of the last payment until the Maxwell Land Grant Company evicted the last of the squatters. In his words, "They are given two years to get the Mexicans off and I hold back $10,000." Bartlett's Vermejo Park portion of the Grant has passed through several owners during the Twentieth Century. Pennzoil
bought the Vermejo Park Ranch in 1973, and expanded its size. In 1982, Pennzoil donated a 100000 acres (404.7 km²) portion of the ranch known as Valle Vidal
to the US Government. This area is managed as a wilderness by the US Forest Service. In 1992, Ted Turner
bought Vermejo Park Ranch (590823 acres (2,391 km²) from Pennzoil. Ted Turner
did not buy the mineral rights, so El Paso Corporation produces oil and gas on the Vermejo Park Ranch
, while Ted Turner raises buffalo.
In 1905, the St. Louis, Rocky Mountain, and Pacific Company acquired 500000 acres (2,023.4 km²) of Grant land that it used mainly for coal production. Raton, New Mexico
went through a boom as a coal town from about 1910 to 1920. Kaiser Steel
took over the coal mining in 1955. The Kaiser Steel properties at York Canyon eventually became part of the Vermejo Park Ranch
.
, an oilman from Tulsa, Oklahoma
also assembled a block of land on the Maxwell Land Grant. Phillips bought over 300000 acres (1,214.1 km²), and named his ranch Philmont. In two separate gifts in 1938 and 1941, Phillips donated 127395 acres (515.55 km²) as a wilderness camping area for the Boy Scouts of America
.
In 1963, Norton Clapp, an officer of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America, donated another piece of the Maxwell Land Grant to Philmont. This was the Baldy Mountain mining area consisting of 10098 acres (40.87 km²).
extends along Cimarron Canyon from Eagle Nest Lake to Ute Park and along US Route 64. The park is part of the Colin Neblett State Wildlife Area, which consists of 33116 acres (134.02 km²) acres of former Grant land. This area was purchased by the State of New Mexico in the early 1950s.
The Whittington Center, founded in 1973, is the largest shooting and hunting complex in the world. It is owned by the National Rifle Association, and covers 33000 acres (133.5 km²) of the Maxwell Land Grant.
Colfax County, New Mexico
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*83.8% White*0.5% Black*1.5% Native American*0.4% Asian*0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*3.6% Two or more races*10.1% Other races*47.2% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
and part of adjoining Las Animas County, Colorado
Las Animas County, Colorado
Las Animas County has the largest area of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. Las Animas County takes its name from the Mexican Spanish name of the Purgatoire River, originally called El Río de las Ánimas Perdidas en Purgatorio, which means "River of the Lost Souls in...
. This land grant was one of the largest contiguous private landholdings in the history of the United States. The New Mexico towns of Cimarron
Cimarron, New Mexico
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 917 people, 382 households, and 255 families residing in the village. The population density was 479.5 people per square mile . There were 449 housing units at an average density of 234.8 per square mile...
, Colfax, Dawson
Dawson, New Mexico
Dawson is a ghost town in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States and was the site of two separate coal mining disasters in 1913 and 1923. Dawson is located about 17 miles northeast of Cimarron, New Mexico. Dawson was a coal mining company town founded in 1901 when rancher John Barkley Dawson...
, Elizabethtown
Elizabethtown, New Mexico
Elizabethtown is a small unincorporated community in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. It is located just off New Mexico State Road 38, between the communities of Eagle Nest and Red River. It is just east of the Carson National Forest...
, French, Lynn, Maxwell
Maxwell, New Mexico
Maxwell is a village in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 274 at the 2000 census. Unlike nearby Springer, the village has been losing population due to the rural exodus. Maxwell was established in 1879 as a railroad town on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe...
, Miami
Miami, New Mexico
Miami is an unincorporated community in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States.Miami lies on State Road 21 and is in between Springer and Sunny Side...
, Raton
Raton, New Mexico
Raton is a city in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 7,282 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Colfax County. The city is located just south of Raton Pass.-Name:...
, Rayado
Rayado, New Mexico
Rayado or Reyado was the first permanent settlement in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States and an important stop on the Santa Fe Trail.- Overview :...
, Springer
Springer, New Mexico
Springer is a town in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,285 at the 2000 census. It was the Colfax County county seat from 1882—1897. Springer was part of the Lucien B. Maxwell land grant. It is near the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail...
, Ute Park
Ute Park, New Mexico
Ute Park is an unincorporated community in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. It was formerly part of the Maxwell Land Grant.Ute Park lies on U.S. Route 64 between Cimarron and Eagle Nest, New Mexico, just east of Cimarron Canyon State Park....
and Vermejo Park, came to be located within the grant, as well as numerous other towns that are now ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
s.
Early days
The lands covered in the Maxwell Land Grant were originally tribal lands belonging to Jicarilla ApacheJicarilla Apache
Jicarilla Apache refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Athabaskan language...
Indians.
The region of northern New Mexico was claimed by Spain in 1524, but there were few settlements east of the Sangre de Cristo Range
Sangre de Cristo Range
The Sangre de Cristo Range, called the East Range locally in the San Luis Valley, is a narrow mountain range of the Rocky Mountains running north and south along the east side of the Rio Grande Rift in southern Colorado in the United States...
. In 1821, the government of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
was established, and the new government retained the Spanish policy of encouraging settlement by making land grants. Under Spanish rule, the laws governing land grants were vague and complicated. Mexico inherited this problem, and caused more complications by amending and repealing rules and regulations dealing with land grants. Since the policies were not consistent, there were many problems in confirming these grants
Beaubien and Miranda
Carlos Beaubien was a French-Canadian trapper who became a Mexican citizen. His partner, Guadalupe MirandaGuadalupe Miranda
Guadalupe Miranda was a Mexican public official who was mayor of Ciudad Juárez and recipient of the Beaubien-Miranda Land Grant.-Early life:...
was the secretary to Governor Manuel Armijo
Manuel Armijo
Manuel Armijo was a New Mexican soldier and statesman who served three times as governor of New Mexico. He was instrumental in putting down the Revolt of 1837, he led the force that captured the Texan Santa Fe Expedition and he surrendered to the United States in the Mexican-American War.-Early...
in Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
. On January 8, 1841, Beaubien and Miranda petitioned Armijo for a land grant. They had to swear that they would colonize and cultivate the land. Three days later, Armijo granted them the land on the condition that they put it to good use. However, Beaubien and Miranda failed to prove up the grant for the next two years. On February 13, 1843, they asked the Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
in Taos
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico, incorporated in 1934. As of the 2000 census, its population was 4,700. Other nearby communities include Ranchos de Taos, Cañon, Taos Canyon, Ranchitos, and El Prado. The town is close to Taos Pueblo, the Native American...
to sign an order promising them possession of the land. The justice affirmed that he had marked the boundaries of the grant and that Beaubien and Miranda were in full possession of the land grant.
Lucien B. Maxwell
Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell was a pioneer, explorer and adventurer who married Luz Beaubien, the daughter of Carlos Beaubien. Beaubien hired Maxwell to manage his interests, and Maxwell and his wife settled in Rayado, New MexicoRayado, New Mexico
Rayado or Reyado was the first permanent settlement in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States and an important stop on the Santa Fe Trail.- Overview :...
in 1849. In 1860, Maxwell built a large home in Cimarron
Cimarron, New Mexico
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 917 people, 382 households, and 255 families residing in the village. The population density was 479.5 people per square mile . There were 449 housing units at an average density of 234.8 per square mile...
, a stop on the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880...
.
There seems to be a discrepancy as to Lucien's middle name. A 1945 book lists it as Benjamin rather than Bonaparte.
Guadalupe Miranda, who was living in Mexico, sold his interest in the Grant to Maxwell. Carlos Beaubien died in 1864, and Maxwell bought out the other heirs to the property. By 1865, Maxwell and his wife were the sole owners of the entire land grant, and it was renamed the Maxwell Land Grant. In 1866, gold was discovered on Willow Creek in the Grant. There was a gold rush the following year, and many mining camps were established including Elizabethtown, New Mexico
Elizabethtown, New Mexico
Elizabethtown is a small unincorporated community in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. It is located just off New Mexico State Road 38, between the communities of Eagle Nest and Red River. It is just east of the Carson National Forest...
.
English Control
In 1870, for reasons that are not clear, Maxwell decided to sell the Grant. A group of financiers, representing an English syndicate, purchased the Grant for a reported price of $1,350,000. Maxwell moved to Santa FeSanta Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
, and then to Fort Sumner
Fort Sumner
Fort Sumner was a military fort in De Baca County in southeastern New Mexico charged with the internment of Navajo and Mescalero Apache populations from 1863-1868 at nearby Bosque Redondo.-History:...
, where he died in 1875.
The new owners formed the Maxwell Land Grant and Railway Company. They attempted to remove the squatters from the Grant. Some of the squatters felt that they had Maxwell's unwritten permission to live on the Grant. Many people left, but some stayed and fought. This struggle between owners and squatters came to be called the Colfax County War. F.J. Tolby, a minister sympathetic to the squatters was murdered on September 14, 1875.
Dutch Control
The English company was bankrupt by 1874, and it went into foreclosure in 1879. A new group of owners from the Netherlands formed the Maxwell Land Grant Company installing future Senator and Secretary of War Stephen Benton ElkinsStephen Benton Elkins
Stephen Benton Elkins was an American industrialist and political figure. He served as the Secretary of War between 1891 and 1893...
as president. In 1885, the new owners convinced the Territorial Governor Lionel Allen Sheldon
Lionel Allen Sheldon
Lionel Allen Sheldon was a U.S. Representative from Louisiana. He was Governor of New Mexico Territory from 1881 to 1885.-Early life:Born in Worcester, New York, Sheldon moved with his parents to Lagrange, Ohio...
to use the National Guard to suppress the squatters. The proposed leader of the government forces was Jim Masterson, the brother of Bat Masterson
Bat Masterson
William Barclay "Bat" Masterson was a figure of the American Old West known as a buffalo hunter, U.S. Marshal and Army scout, avid fisherman, gambler, frontier lawman, and sports editor and columnist for the New York Morning Telegraph...
. However, the governor disbanded the militia before it could go into action.
Thanks to a variety of financial problems, and the Dutch company went bankrupt in 1888. In the early 1880s, the United States sued the company for making claims of lands in the Public Domain
Public domain (land)
Public domain is a term used to describe lands that were not under private or state ownership during the 18th and 19th centuries in the United States, as the country was expanding. These lands were obtained from the 13 original colonies, from Native American tribes, or from purchase from other...
in Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
. In 1887, this case reached the US Supreme Court, and was decided as United States v. Maxwell Land Grant Company. The court decision affirmed the company's ownership of the land. At this point, the settlers and squatters realized that they could not obtain good title to the land, and most of them left.
Early land sales
In 1867, Lucien Maxwell sold what he thought was a 1000 acres (404.7 ha) homestead to J.B. Dawson. When Dawson had the land surveyed it turned out to be 20000 acres (8,093.7 ha) underlain by coal. Phelps DodgePhelps Dodge
Phelps Dodge Corporation was an American mining company founded in 1834 by Anson Greene Phelps and William Earle Dodge, Sr.. On March 19, 2007, it was acquired by Freeport-McMoRan and now operates under the name Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.-History:...
bought the Dawson homestead and underlying coal in 1906. The company named the town Dawson, New Mexico
Dawson, New Mexico
Dawson is a ghost town in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States and was the site of two separate coal mining disasters in 1913 and 1923. Dawson is located about 17 miles northeast of Cimarron, New Mexico. Dawson was a coal mining company town founded in 1901 when rancher John Barkley Dawson...
and it grew to have about 2000 people. There were famous mine disasters in Dawson in 1913 and 1923, resulting in a historic cemetery. Phelps Dodge closed the mine in 1950, and today Dawson is a ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
.
Colorado struggle and sale
The struggles over the grant continued, especially in the Colorado portion of the grant, where quite a bit of homesteadingHomesteading
Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of simple self-sufficiency.-Current practice:The term may apply to anyone who follows the back-to-the-land movement by adopting a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle. While land is no longer freely available in most areas of the world, homesteading...
had taken place. On August 25, 1888, there was a violent incident at Stonewall, Colorado, in which several people were killed. The Maxwell Land Grant Company company continued to sue homesteaders, and in many cases made them pay for their homesteads a second time. In 1894, the US Supreme Court decided Russell v. Maxwell Land Grant Company, which completely rejected the homesteaders claims in favor of the company.
In 1901, the company sold the Colorado portion of the Grant to Colorado Fuel and Iron
Colorado Fuel and Iron
The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company was a large steel concern. By 1903, it was largely owned and controlled by John D. Rockefeller and Jay Gould's financial heirs. While it came to control many plants throughout the country, its main plant was a steel mill on the south side of Pueblo, Colorado...
, a company owned by John Rockefeller. CF&I paid $50,000 in cash and $750,000 in bonds. CF&I also inherited the issues involved with the homesteaders, who were mostly in the Colorado portion of the grant.
Vermejo Park and Valle Vidal
Many other sales of lands in the Grant took place in the early 1900s.In 1902, William Bartlett, a wealthy grain operator from Chicago bought 205000 acres (829.6 km²) of the grant along the drainage of the Vermejo River. Under the agreement, he withheld part of the last payment until the Maxwell Land Grant Company evicted the last of the squatters. In his words, "They are given two years to get the Mexicans off and I hold back $10,000." Bartlett's Vermejo Park portion of the Grant has passed through several owners during the Twentieth Century. Pennzoil
Pennzoil
Pennzoil is an American oil company founded in Los Angeles, California in 1913. In 1955, it was acquired by Oil City, Pennsylvania company South Penn Oil, a former branch of Standard Oil. In 1963, South Penn Oil merged with Zapata Petroleum; the merged company took the Pennzoil name. During the...
bought the Vermejo Park Ranch in 1973, and expanded its size. In 1982, Pennzoil donated a 100000 acres (404.7 km²) portion of the ranch known as Valle Vidal
Valle Vidal
The Valle Vidal is a 100,000-acre area in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains within the Carson National Forest, northwest of Cimarron, New Mexico. Pennzoil donated the Valle Vidal to the American public in 1982. Valle Vidal hosts a number of species of animals including elk, black bear, turkey,...
to the US Government. This area is managed as a wilderness by the US Forest Service. In 1992, Ted Turner
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...
bought Vermejo Park Ranch (590823 acres (2,391 km²) from Pennzoil. Ted Turner
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...
did not buy the mineral rights, so El Paso Corporation produces oil and gas on the Vermejo Park Ranch
Vermejo Park Ranch
The Vermejo Park Ranch is a ranch owned by Ted Turner in northeastern New Mexico and southern Colorado that is said to be the largest privately owned, contiguous tract of land in the United States....
, while Ted Turner raises buffalo.
In 1905, the St. Louis, Rocky Mountain, and Pacific Company acquired 500000 acres (2,023.4 km²) of Grant land that it used mainly for coal production. Raton, New Mexico
Raton, New Mexico
Raton is a city in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 7,282 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Colfax County. The city is located just south of Raton Pass.-Name:...
went through a boom as a coal town from about 1910 to 1920. Kaiser Steel
Kaiser Steel
Kaiser Ventures is an American corporation, headquartered in Ontario, California. It was founded by Henry J. Kaiser to provide steel plate for the Pacific Coast shipbuilding industry, which expanded during World War II, then shrank, then expanded again during the Korean War...
took over the coal mining in 1955. The Kaiser Steel properties at York Canyon eventually became part of the Vermejo Park Ranch
Vermejo Park Ranch
The Vermejo Park Ranch is a ranch owned by Ted Turner in northeastern New Mexico and southern Colorado that is said to be the largest privately owned, contiguous tract of land in the United States....
.
Philmont
Beginning in 1922, Waite PhillipsWaite Phillips
Waite Phillips was an American petroleum businessman who created a fully integrated operation that combined petroleum producing, refining and marketing. With headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he also developed several office complexes and engaged in banking and ranching...
, an oilman from Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
also assembled a block of land on the Maxwell Land Grant. Phillips bought over 300000 acres (1,214.1 km²), and named his ranch Philmont. In two separate gifts in 1938 and 1941, Phillips donated 127395 acres (515.55 km²) as a wilderness camping area for the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
.
In 1963, Norton Clapp, an officer of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America, donated another piece of the Maxwell Land Grant to Philmont. This was the Baldy Mountain mining area consisting of 10098 acres (40.87 km²).
Other important parcels
The Cimarron Canyon State ParkCimarron Canyon State Park
Cimarron Canyon State Park is a state park of New Mexico, USA, located east of Eagle Nest in the Colin Neblett Wildlife Area. The park is popular for trout fishing in the Cimarron River and its tributaries, Clear Creek and Tolby Creek.. The park also has numerous trails, which are used for hiking...
extends along Cimarron Canyon from Eagle Nest Lake to Ute Park and along US Route 64. The park is part of the Colin Neblett State Wildlife Area, which consists of 33116 acres (134.02 km²) acres of former Grant land. This area was purchased by the State of New Mexico in the early 1950s.
The Whittington Center, founded in 1973, is the largest shooting and hunting complex in the world. It is owned by the National Rifle Association, and covers 33000 acres (133.5 km²) of the Maxwell Land Grant.
Supreme Court cases
Five cases involving the land grant went to the United States Supreme Court:- Maxwell Land-Grant Case, 121 U.S. 325 (1887)
- Maxwell Land-Grant Case, 122 U.S. 365 (1887)
- Interstate Land Co. v. Maxwell Land Grant Co., 139 U.S. 569 (1891)
- Maxwell Land Grant Co. v. Dawson, 151 U.S. 586 (1894)
- Russell v. Maxwell Land Grant Co., 158 U.S. 253 (1895)
- Thompson v. Maxwell Land Grant & R. Co., 168 U.S. 451 (1897)