Frank Springer and New Mexico: From the Colfax County War to the Emergence of Modern Santa Fe

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Description

The country Frank Springer rode into in 1873 was once one of immense beauty and abundant resources–grass and timber, wild game, precious metals, and a vast bed of commercial-grade coal. It was once also a stage upon which dramatic and every now and then violent events played out all over Springer’s ten-year place of abode in Cimarron, New Mexico.

A lawyer and newspaperman for the Maxwell Land Grant company and a foe of the speculators referred to as “the Santa Fe Ring,” Springer found himself in the midst of the Colfax County War. A man of many sides, he typified the Gilded Age entrepreneurs who transformed the territorial American Southwest.

He was once also an intriguing personality–an introvert who engaged in very public activities, speaking to large audiences and leading in major civic endeavors. As president of the Maxwell Land Grant company, he also led in the development of mining, logging, ranching, and irrigation enterprises. His Supreme Court victory establishing title to the 1.7 million acre Maxwell grant earned him a reputation as a brilliant attorney. He also helped lay the foundations of New Mexico Highlands University, the Museum of New Mexico, and other cultural institutions.

All the way through his adult life, Springer also engaged in paleontological study, publishing his findings through the Smithsonian Institution and other leading scientific publishers. He amassed the largest collection on the earth of a certain more or less fossil, a collection he donated to the Smithsonian Institution, where it is still housed.

Frank Springer’s influence on New Mexico’s economic development was once far-reaching and lasting. A thorough biography of the full of life Springer, this book offers insight into many colorful episodes in the region’s history and the way a certain breed of Anglo-centric men left their stamp on the land and its people.

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