The April 11, 2009 issue of “The American Surveyor” has a detailed account by Fred Roeder of the saga of Don Luis María Cabeza de Baca, and his actions that led to the creation of the Baca Ranch (Baca Location No. 1) and in 2000, the Valles Caldera National Preserve.
Don Luis was a descendent of the original Cabeza de Baca, who was awarded his name by King Sancho VII of Navarre (a kingdom that includes what is now Pamplona, Spain) in 1212. This royal title was conferred upon him due to his key role in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa on July 12, 1212, a decisive battle of the Reconquista, the long period in the Middle Ages in which various European kingdoms gradually expelled the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula.
In 1212, the Moorish army was situated to the south of the Sierra Morena mountains in Andalucia (southern Spain). The Moors had blocked the Despeñaperros Pass through the mountains, and consequently the Sierra Morenas served as a seemingly impenetrable fortress defending the Moors from the Spanish army to the north. However, a local shepherd named Martin de Alhaja knew of a pass through the Sierra Morenas unknown to the Moors, through which the Spanish army might penetrate the mountains and surprise the Moorish army on the other side. Alhaja informed the Spanish of this route, and said he would place a cow’s skull in the pass to mark the secret route for the Spanish army. The Spanish did find this marker, and pierced the mountains through this hidden pass, defeating the Moors in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. King Sancho VII subsequently awarded Martin de Alhaja the title “Cabeza de Baca,” which means “Cow’s Head” in Spanish.
Six centuries after this turning point in Spanish history, Cabeza de Baca’s descendent, Don Luis María Cabeza de Baca, petitioned the Spanish government in Durango, Mexico, for a land grant in 1821. The Spanish crown acceded to this request and awarded Cabeza de Baca a large tract of land currently occupied by the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico.
The Cabeza de Baca family eventually ended up losing this land grant. After legal wrangling, murder, an act of Congress, and a signature by President James Buchanan, the descendents of Don Luis María Cabeza de Baca were allowed to choose five separate 100,000 acre floats of land in the New Mexico Territory (which at the time consisted of present-day New Mexico, Arizona, and southern Colorado) to compensate them for the loss of their original grant. The first location they chose, the “Baca Location No. 1,” encompassed most of the Valles Caldera of the Jemez Mountains of Northern New Mexico, and ultimately became the Valles Caldera National Preserve.
Read more about Don Luis María Cabeza de Baca’s saga, and how his actions ultimately led to the creation of the Baca Ranch (Baca Location No. 1), most of which in 2000 ultimately became the Valles Caldera National Preserve, here in “The American Surveyor.”
