Description
Book SynopsisThe country Frank Springer rode into in 1873 was one of immense beauty and abundant resources - grass and timber, wild game, precious metals, and a vast bed of commercial-grade coal. It was also a stage upon which dramatic and sometimes violent events played out. A lawyer and newspaperman for the Maxwell Land Grant company and a foe of the speculators known as ""the Santa Fe Ring,"" Springer found himself in the middle of the Colfax County War. A man of many sides, he typified the Gilded Age entrepreneurs who transformed the territorial American Southwest. As president of the Maxwell Land Grant company, Springer led in the development of mining, logging, ranching, and irrigation enterprises. His Supreme Court victory establishing title to the 1.7 million acre Maxwell grant earned him a reputation as a brilliant attorney.
Trade Review[Caffey] chronicles the contentious and sometimes dangerous work of Frank Springer that established property ownership and rights in the New Mexico Territory, eventually leading to statehood. His legacy is evident here as well as in the Fine Arts in Santa Fe, in higher education in New Mexico, and in the science of paleontology where Springer was a leading authority on crinoid fossils. - William I. Ausich, Professor of Geological Sciences, Ohio State University and Director, Orton Museum
