Baca Float Number 3

Few land titles in Arizona are stranger than this one. When the Baca family surrendered its claim to Las Vegas, New Mexico, in 1860, Congress let them take five 100,000-acre parcels elsewhere, grants that could float onto unclaimed land. Baca Float Number 3 drifted for decades, aimed first at Santa Rita mining ground, before it finally came to rest here in 1917. The trouble was that people already lived on it, and they were evicted. Many of the displaced moved north and built up present-day Tubac. A paper grant, real families uprooted.

What the plaque says

This was the northern boundary of Baca Float Number 3, one of five 100,000-acre grants made to the Baca family, in exchange for land taken from them in New Mexico. An attempt was made to relocate this grant to include mines in the Santa Rita Mountains to the north, but in 1917 the grant was established here, and settlers on the land were evicted. Many moved north to present-day Tubac.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tumacácori National Historical Park — 2.7 mi
  Arizona's first mission, on O'odham ground along the Santa Cruz River.

More markers nearby

• Juan Bautista de Anza — steps away
• Charles Debrille Poston — steps away
• Tubac — 0.3 mi
• Mission San José de Tumacácori — 3.0 mi