Arizona republican., 1899-10-13
LAND THIEVES AT IT AGAIN.
Another Raid on Baca Float Land
 Grant No. 3.


 Having successfully defended their homes through a protracted legal bat tie of fifteen years and having earned the priceless right of peaceabIe posses sion of their own, it would seem that settlers upon what was once known as the Calabasas grant had cause for graduation and an assurance that their efforts would be finally rewarded with complete and perfect title to their land But instead they are again called to face the monster of land monopoly. which has raised another grant under which to claim their fair domain and dispossess them of their homes, says the Nogales Oasis.
 The new grant with which they are menaced is known as the "Baca float grant No. B. It was issued by the United States government in 1860 to the heirs of one Baca, in lieu of lands at or near Las Vegas, New Mexico, Of which the claimant had been unfaw- fully dispossessed, but which could not be restituted. Under the provisions of this Baca float grant it should be en- tered within three years from the date of issue and upon lands not claimed oy others. At that time the grant was To cated in the Santa Rita mountains. the present north line claimed by the grant being the then south line; and the lines now claimed were held by one of the Gandares, of revolutionary fame in So- nora, who had thereupon a big haci- enda and roamed a large herd of cattle over the hills and along the valley.
 But since the Calabasas grant was overthrown the "Baca float grant IS brought forward to serve to grab the lands the Calabasas grant failed to get, and the scheme bears the ear marks if not the brand" of the contemptible scamps who were defeated by over throw of the Calabasas fraud. The claim is that Baca sent one Wiltshire down into the Santa Cruz valley within the three years limit of his grant to survey the land and delimit it by mon i uments. According to the affidavits lately filed with the general land office Wiltshire was killed by Indians and was unable to make the survey neces- sary for location of the grant, of which fact the claimants were not apprised in time to send some one else, or could get no one to take the chance. Hon. Charles D. Poston, Arizona's first dele gate in congress, who was here at the time and who knew Wiltshire, writes to gentleman at Calabasas that Wilt shire was not here upon any such CT rand, and that he was not killed by In dians at that time.
 But the almost mythical Wiltshire l and his mythical survey have been made to serve the purpose intended, in securing an order from the secretary 1 of the interior suspending land entries | in the region claimed and looking to i new survey for the Baca grant. The 1 settlers have been notified to appear | before the surveyor general on October l g to show cause why such a survey | shall not be ordered.
 In this matter not only are right and | justice clearly upon the side of the set | tiers; but the interest of the whole peO- l pie of Santa Cruz county. If the land | thieves can make this fraudulent lOcd- | tion of a valid grant hold good they 1 will take the heart right out of the l best agricultural lands in the county. 1 Instead of scores of happy homes along l the Santa Cruz river, as is now the | case, there will be a great cattle barony and the peOns of a cattle company will { be the sole residents. NgoaleS and | Santa Cruz county cannot afford to | permit such a condition of affairs to ! ensue, and everybody should do every thing possible to beat off this new at tempt of the ungodly land grabbers who are trying to rob people of their 1 homes under the form of law. Give the | settlers every help to head off the or der now asked to have the grant sur veyed. Nip in the bud this latest and | most nefarious scheme of the land | thieves.