After the United States annexed Mexico’s northern territories in 1848, the new American citizens of the Southwest moved north and east. One of these Hispano Americans was Teofilo Trujillo, who settled with his wife in the San Luis Valley west of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in 1865. The Trujillo Homesteads is a National Historic Landmark that recognizes the importance of the family’s two Colorado ranches as illustrations of the settlement history and influences of Hispano culture in the United States. The Trujillo Homesteads today are part of the Zapata Ranch, which the Nature Conservancy owns.

Hispano American settlers migrated to Colorado’s San Luis Valley in the 1850s and began to form agricultural communities there as the United States military suppressed the American Indian threat to these settlers. The Northern Ute Indians dominated the valley until the 1860s, and Navajo, Jicarilla Apache, and Plains Indian tribes also traveled and hunted in the region. During this time, American military presence in the San Luis Valley region discouraged conflict between settlers and Indian groups, which allowed Americans to move in and permanently settle the land. To protect the Americans’ claims, the United States established a permanent outpost in the valley in 1856, first at Fort Massachusetts and then at Fort Garland. The majority of the valley’s early settlers from New Mexico lived and worked land communally. These settlers lived in adobe homes built around common plazas, cultivated common land, and shared water resources. The Trujillos, who moved to San Luis Valley in 1865, broke from this settlement pattern by founding an independent ranch away from other settlements becoming among the first permanent settlers to claim land and ranch on what had been the domain of American Indians.

Over 1500 bison are currently managed within park boundaries by The Nature Conservancy. This area is only open to the public through tours.In 1999, The Nature Conservancy made conservation history by acquiring this preserve, its largest in Colorado. It manages the ranches for two reasons: to protect their significant natural values and to demonstrate how cattle and bison operations can co-exist with conservation efforts.

Credits and Sources:

“Great Sand Dunes: Mammals,” National Park Service, http://www.nps.gov/grsa/learn/nature/mammals.htm, Accessed on June 28, 2015.

“Trujillo Homesteads: Hooper, Colorado,” National Park Service, http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/American_Latino_Heritage/Trujillo_Homesteads.html, Accessed on June 28, 2015.