Red River Valley Co.

A cattle run in New Mexico for the Red River Valley Company. Part of Pictorial Collection, PICT 000-086 (Box 1, Album 1).

The Red River Valley Company, formerly the Bell Ranch, was a three quarters-of-a-million-acre ranch lying along the Canadian River in northeastern New Mexico. Bell Ranch was originally two Mexican land grants, the Baca Location No. 2 and the vast Pablo Montoya Grant of 1824. After the war with Mexico in 1846-1847, the Pablo Montoya heirs applied for confirmation of their grant. John S. Watts who led the confirmation process took a large part of the grant as his legal fee; he later acquired the adjoining Baca Location No. 2. Watts later sold a major part of this huge property to Wilson Waddingham. Waddingham invested in gold and silver mines in the West as well as land grants in the Southwest. He had a part in the sale of the Maxwell Land Grant to British investors. Waddingham registered the Bell brand for livestock on his property in 1875.

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