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Lucien B.
Maxwell was the owner of the Maxwell
Land Grant, the largest land grant ever made in
in the United States. Creating more than
its share of complaints and controversy over the years, it ultimately led
to the Colfax County
War. The almost two million acre land grant included the entire
western portion of Colfax County and the southern part of Las Animas
County,
Colorado. Two times larger than the State of Rhode Island,
the area included the towns of
Cimarron, Springer, Raton and
Elizabethtown in
New Mexico,
as well as Segundo and other towns in
Colorado.
The area is surrounded by breathtaking mountain views, beckoning valleys,
streams teeming with fish and hillsides alive with game.
Maxwell
grew wealthy from the rich mineral resources on the grant, but after
enjoying many years of prosperity he made a number of poor investments and
in 1870 sold the grant. Five years later he died at Fort Sumner,
New Mexico
in poverty.
Interestingly, the curator of the
Aztec Museum says that the statue
wasn't originally built for
Maxwell,
but rather for a man named Henry Springer. But Mr. Springer didn't
like it and said "Statues are for dead people." So, the artist
dedicated it to
Maxwell instead.
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Cimarron, New Mexico
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