When the United States acquired New Mexico by invasion and conquest on August 15, 1846, it inherited a land grant problem of considerable magnitude. This problem continued for decades until 1870 when the United States Congress suddenly declined to act at all on any New Mexico grant claim. Among the grants that had been confirmed, however, was the Miranda and Beaubien, or Maxwell Land Grant, and that is the dominant theme of this book. Originally made in 1841 to Guadalupe Miranda and Charles Beaubien under Mexican rule, the Maxwell Land Grant was determined to embrace almost two million acres of land--2,460 square miles. Politicians, Indians, courts, ministers of the gospel, early day settlers, and soldiers, all had their place in the story of the Grant. Governor Manuel Armijo, the last chief executive under Mexican rule, Padre Martinez of Taos, Lucien B. Maxwell, Kit Carson, Charles Ben, Dick Wootton and many another old timer live again in these pages that read like fiction but are, in fact, totally true accounts.