Spanish Land Grant History of Santa Teresa and Sunland Park Abridged by Dr. Paul Maxwell Taken from the NM Office of the State Historian

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1 Spanish Land Grant History of Santa Teresa and Sunland Park Abridged by Dr. Paul Maxwell Taken from the NM Office of the State Historian Introduction: Ownership of what now encompasses the Sunland Park and Santa Teresa regions of Southeast New Mexico can be formally traced back several hundred years to the time of the Spanish conquest and settlement of New Mexico begun by Juan de Onate in No doubt the regional indigenous tribes would argue their own rights to the land going back many thousands of years based on archeological evidence of early inhabitants at the Keystone Heritage site near El Paso, TX dating back as early as 2400 BC. That said Spanish land grant claims along with a rich history of actions occurring in the Paso del Norte region provide a strong basis for the independent communities of Sunland Park and Santa Teresa. Santa Teresa in particular could be considered as a candidate as an official "Historical" region within the state. The following is a short history of these two regions involving land grants. Rancho de Santa Teresa: Sometime prior to the year 1790, a four league tract of land situated on the west bank of the Rio Grande River, the southeast corner of which was located about seven miles northwest of El Paso del Norte, Mexico, was granted to Francisco Garcia, the military commandant of El Paso del Norte (now Ciudad Juarez), by the Lieutenant Governor of Nueva Viscaya. The tract be- came known as Rancho de Santa Teresa. Garcia used the tract primarily as a pasturage for his extensive herds of cattle and sheep- - estimated as high as twenty thousand sheep and a thousand cows- - from the time he acquired it until the summer of During the summer of 1822, Garcia was forced to temporarily abandon the grant when Apache war parties commenced crossing the Rio Grande River at Muleros Ford, which was located just south of Garcia s ranch house, while on their frequent raids into the interior of the present state of Chihuahua. From 1822 until the time of his death in 1840, Garcia pastured livestock on the grant whenever the Indian disturbances subsided. Under the Mexican Community Property Laws, Garcia s undivided one- half interest in the grant was owned by Francisco Garcia s widow, Josefa Horcasitas Garcia. Her eldest son, Jose Maria Garcia, permanently reoccupied the Santa Teresa Grant in He repaired the ruined buildings and corrals and stocked the grant with cattle, sheep, goats and horses. A portion of the grant was also placed under cultivation. In 1846 during the Mexican American War, American troops under Colonel Alexander Doniphan defeated a significantly larger Mexican force in what in now called the Battle of Bracito, near what is now Anthony, New Mexico. The victorious American forces were quartered in the public buildings and certain private homes in the city of El Paso del Norte. A portion of Doniphan s troops occupied Jose Maria Garcia s home, and after their departure, it was discovered that Garcia s copy of the title papers to the Santa Teresa Grant were missing. The expedient to the Santa Teresa Grant, which had been filed in the Archives of the Ayuntamiento of El Paso del Norte was also missing after the invading forces left the city. It is a notorious fact that the soldiers quartered in the Municipal Building destroyed a large portion of the public records by using them to kindle fires and to light candles. It was, therefore, presumed that both copies of the grant papers were either lost or destroyed by the American occupation forces.

2 Josefa Horcasitas Garcia died in about the year Due to the loss or destruction of all of the copies of the title papers pertaining to the grant, it became necessary for the heirs of Francisco and Josefa Horcasitas Garcia to institute a judicial inquiry to prove the validity of the Santa Teresa Grant and define its boundaries. Bentura Lopez, Second Judge of the First Instance of the Canton of El Paso del Norte, issued a decree on January 16, 1853, which reaffirmed the title to the grant to the heirs of Francisco Garcia and Josefa Horcasitas Garcia. The Court reestablished and defined the boundaries of the grant as follows: "Beginning at a cottonwood tree on the west bank of the river in the bend of Piedras Paradas; thence north along the west bank of the river 20,000 varas to a cottonwood tree on the west bank of the river in the bend of the Cobrena; thence 5,000 varas to a monument of stone above the brow of the hills; thence south 20,000 varas to a monument of stone in a depression in the hills; thence east 5,000 varas to the point of beginning". It is no wonder that such a rough description of more than 8,000 prime acres in the rich Rio Grande valley led to more than three quarters of a century of further disputes that worked their way through numerous court and judicial proceedings in both the states of New Mexico and Texas, the U.S. Government, the Mexican State of Chihuahua and the Mexican Federal Government. The dispute was only finally decided by the U.S. Supreme Court that found in favor of the heirs of Francisco and Josefa Horacasitas Garcia and the subsequent purchasers of the land from their heirs. That decision made in December of 1927, formally established the interstate boundary between Texas and New Mexico and allowed final adjudication of the original Santa Teresa grant to be completed. The Guadalupe Miranda Grant: While Guadalupe Miranda may be best known in New Mexico history as one of the original recipients of what came to be known as the Maxwell Land Grant, his legacy stretches beyond that claim to fame. After the conquest of New Mexico by the United States in , Miranda worked to assist those Hispano New Mexicans who wished to remain Mexican citizens. He also fought to ensure that the American government would confirm the land grants enacted in the late Mexican period. In recognition of this and a long history of community service to the state, in 1851 Miranda received his own land grant in the area, now called the Guadalupe Miranda Grant. He had invested in the overland trade between Santa Fe and San Antonio, Texas and used the grant, just north of El Paso del Norte, to house his ranch and serve as a grazing site for the large quantities of livestock he owned as part of the trading operation. This area was in what is now called Sunland Park. Unfortunately for Miranda, he lost his copy of the grant papers. He requested the official copy from the local (Mexican) property registry, but learned that the pertinent record books had been lost or destroyed much as had occurred with the Santa Teresa Land Grant. Once the United States acquired the territory north of El Paso del Norte in the 1853 Gadsden Purchase, Miranda realized that he could never get the title to his grant confirmed under the stringent Court of Private Land Claims requirements, so he sold the land to a Josiah F. Crosby on 18 January 1888 for five dollars. References: New Mexico State Historian Website: New Mexico History.org website: miranda

4 Santa Teresa Land Grant Boundary Line

5 Santa Teresa Land Grant Boundary Line

Unit 13: La Entrada The Spanish Enter New Mexico

Unit 13: La Entrada The Spanish Enter New Mexico Assessment Activities: Student Activity Sheet Activity 1. Matching Place Names Draw a line to connect the Spanish Place Name with its English definition. 1. Los Alamos a. mayor 2. Española b. the stream