Episode #4: Baca Float #3

By Steve Gastellum (RRHS Museum Docent)

The Baca Float #3 was an illegal land grab scheme perpetuated by an attorney representing the Baca heir interests. The scheme covers over two hundred years of fraud, involves three counties, including Spain, Mexico and the United States, and affected over 175 families who legally homesteaded 100,000 acres from just south of Tubac, all the way to Calabasas on the south, old Nogales Highway on the east and all the way to the foot of the Santa Rita Mountains on the west. It involved the villages of Tubac, Carmen, Tumacacori and Calabasas. Seven presidents signed legal homestead patents for the homesteaders who established homes, built out-buildings, corrals, wells and access roads to their properties. They raised crops and animals on this land and lived on it for twenty plus years, only to have it illegally taken from them during the years from 1900 into the 1920’s.
When you visit the Rio Rico Historical Museum, you will learn how this fraud happened, and what happened to the families who were affected by this land grab scheme; where they went, what happened to their homes, what happened to the communities they lived in and what, if any justice did they receive after losing everything. Were any of your relatives affected by this fiasco? To find out, as a docent to guide you through the exhibit or you can learn about it on your own through an interactive display.