Description
Book SynopsisJust how wild was the Cimarron country in the late 1800s? And what were the consequences for the region and for those caught up in the conflict? The answers, pursued through this remarkable work, enhance our understanding of cultural and economic struggle in the American West.
Trade Review“All the elements of the settlement of the American West are here in David Caffey’s carefully researched story of the Maxwell Land Grant and the various groups and people who sought to make all, or even a small piece, of it their own at the end of the nineteenth century: cattlemen, miners, Mexican settlers who came earlier, American settlers who came later, the Jicarilla Apache and Southern Ute people who had called the region home for hundreds of years, corrupt politicians, the Santa Fe Ring, hired gunmen, and absentee corporate landlords. All of them created a volatile mix that erupted over the largest private landholding in the United States. Caffey elucidates on how the ingenious use of American land laws and policies coalesced with the American dream of land ownership to provide the rationale for settling and “civilizing” the wild territory of Cimarron."—Veronica E. Velarde Tiller, author of
The Jicarilla Apache Tribe: A History, 1846–1970"An engaging and readable retelling of the Colfax County War and the troubles over the settling of the Maxwell Land Grant in northeastern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Through the lens of extrajudicial violence, David Caffey explores how local ranchers, farmers, and miners took the law into their own hands in order to seek justice and settle old scores."—MarÍa E. Montoya, author of
Translating Property: The Maxwell Land Grant and the Problem of Land in the American West
