How 30,000 sheep destroyed a New Mexico grassland paradise

Frank Bond’s Sheep Empire Devastates Valles Caldera

Frank Bond came to New Mexico in 1882 with big plans. The Canadian immigrant soon built a wool empire that stretched across the Southwest.

By 1926, he owned the vast Valles Caldera, where he ran up to 30,000 sheep on fragile mountain grasslands.

Meanwhile, local Hispanic workers toiled under the partido system, a form of sharecropping that kept them in debt.

Workers took care of Bond’s flocks but faced all the risks. The massive herds stripped the land bare, causing damage that still affects the watershed today.

The Bond family’s grip on Valles Caldera finally ended in 1959, but their story lives on at the National Preserve where you can explore the historic ranch buildings they left behind.

Young Canadian Built a Wool Empire in New Mexico

Frank Bond moved to Española in 1882 at just 21 years old.

The small town of 150 people got railroad service only two years earlier, making it perfect for a young merchant.

Frank and his brother George started G.W. Bond & Brother mercantile company in 1883 after buying Scott & Whitehead’s store.

Their small shop grew into New Mexico’s largest wool and mercantile business. The Bond business helped turn Española from a tiny settlement into a town of 3,500 residents.

Wool Business Expanded Beyond Simple Store Operations

The Bond brothers quickly moved beyond retail, adding wool storage and marketing to their growing business.

They bought large pieces of land, including parts of the Valles Caldera in the Jemez Mountains. Frank used these lands to raise thousands of sheep, making good money from wool.

His business spread across New Mexico with stores in Taos, Wagon Mound, Grants, and Roswell. The Bond name became known throughout the territory as their wool operation grew into one of the Southwest’s largest.

Bond Brothers Got Their Hands on Sacred Native Land

Frank and George Bond got grazing rights to the Valles Caldera in 1917.

This land, known as Baca Location No.1, went to the wealthy Baca family after the U.S. government took their original land grant near Las Vegas, New Mexico.

The ranchers ignored that nearby Jemez Pueblo and other Native communities saw the valleys and forested hills as their traditional homeland.

Mariano Otero, part of the powerful Santa Fe Ring of land speculators, bought all the grant land in 1899.

Ten years later, an Otero heir sold the grant for $400,000.

Massive Mountain Ranch Became Bond Property in 1926

The Bond brothers bought Baca Location No. 1 in 1926, though Redondo Development Company kept the timber cutting rights.

The ranch covered 90,000 acres inside the Jemez Mountains. Frank built several log cabins for his foremen and their families while managing the property.

He leased timber rights to logging companies, with the heaviest cutting happening in the 1930s. The purchase gave Bond control of one of the largest mountain ranches.

Local Workers Trapped in Unfair Sharecropping System

The ranch hired many Hispanic workers from nearby towns like Cuba, San Ysidro, Vallecitos, Española, and El Rito.

They worked under the partido system, a form of sharecropping where Bond gave workers sheep to manage for a year.

When the year ended, workers had to return a certain number of sheep plus some wool.
Workers took all risks if animals died and bought supplies at marked-up prices.

This setup meant most workers never got ahead financially.

Thirty Thousand Sheep Ate the Mountains Bare

Bond packed up to 30,000 sheep into the caldera at his operation’s peak.

This heavy grazing stripped the land and caused damage that watersheds still haven’t recovered from today.

The caldera already suffered from overgrazing before the railroad arrived in 1880. Photos from the Otero and Bond eras show the Valle Grande grazed down to bare dirt.

Every summer, sheep ate grass right down to the soil, leaving nothing to hold the ground together or grow back the next season.

Soil Washed Away as Plants Disappeared

The heavy sheep grazing changed which plants could survive, increased erosion, and made the landscape drier. Topsoil washed away in many areas of what later became the Preserve.

Before sheep and cattle came, the grasslands grew native perennial bunch grass that did well with regular natural fires.

Overgrazing happened often in the sheep industry, especially in long-settled areas. The grass in the caldera grows slowly during a short season.

Loggers Cut Down Most of the Old Trees

New Mexico Lumber and Timber Company moved into the southeast corner of the Baca property and started cutting heavily.

They took out huge amounts of old-growth douglas fir and ponderosa pine from the mountains. Clear-cut logging swept through the preserve in the 1960s.

The timber rights sold separately from the land itself, and even a lawsuit couldn’t stop almost every tree from being cut down.

The 1930s saw heavy logging, though the more harmful clear-cutting methods came later in the 1960s.

Cattle Replaced Sheep in the 1950s

The ranch switched to cattle in the 1950s, with up to 12,000 head grazing in the valleys. Later owners after the Bond era kept running cattle on the property.

The caldera still feeds hundreds of cattle in summer months, plus thousands of elk during warm seasons.

The bunch grasses there have low food value compared to other grazing lands. By the 1970s, they offered guided hunts for people willing to pay big fees to hunt trophy elk.

Texas Rancher Took Over as Bond Empire Collapsed

In 1959, the Bond family leased the ranch to Sam King from Texas, ending their direct involvement with the property.

Frank Bond died in Los Angeles on June 21, 1945, from a chronic heart condition. His son Frank Jr. took over as president until he suddenly died from illness in 1953.

With no family member able to run things, business partners started selling off assets and the empire fell apart.

The Bond family finally sold the grant to James Patrick Dunigan for $2.5 million in 1963.

Government Works to Repair Centuries of Damage

The harm from Bond’s intensive sheep grazing continues today, with watersheds still recovering from the destruction.

Since 2000, volunteers and government employees have worked to stop erosion and bring back healthy grasslands. Throughout the caldera, mature trees have no lower branches because elk and cattle ate them all.

The U.S. government bought the 95,000 acres from the Dunigan family for $101 million in 2000, creating Valles Caldera National Preserve.

The National Park Service now works to fix the damage done to both the land and its Native stewards after generations of exploitation.

Visiting Valles Caldera National Preserve, New Mexico

Valles Caldera National Preserve at 090 Villa Louis Martin Drive in Jemez Springs shows how Frank Bond’s sheep empire damaged the land from 1926-1959.

You’ll pay $25 per vehicle for seven days access.

The Volcano Discovery Center has exhibits about Bond’s overgrazing and the partido system he used to exploit Hispanic workers.

You need reservations for backcountry roads to the Cabin District from May 15-November 15, but seven hiking access points don’t require permits.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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