<P> The Maxwell Land Grant, also known as the Beaubien - Miranda Land Grant, was a 1,714,765 - acre (6,939.41 km) Mexican land grant in Colfax County, New Mexico and part of adjoining Las Animas County, Colorado . This 1841 land grant was one of the largest contiguous private landholdings in the history of the United States . The New Mexico towns of Cimarron, Colfax, Dawson, Elizabethtown, French, Lynn, Maxwell, Miami, Raton, Rayado, Springer, Ute Park and Vermejo Park, came to be located within the grant, as well as numerous other towns that are now ghost towns . </P> <P> The lands covered in the Maxwell Land Grant were originally tribal lands belonging to Jicarilla Apache Indians . The region of northern New Mexico was claimed by Spain in 1524, but there were few settlements east of the Sangre de Cristo Range . In 1821, the government of Mexico was established, and the new government retained the Spanish policy of encouraging settlement by making land grants . </P> <P> Carlos Beaubien was a French - Canadian trapper who became a Mexican citizen . His partner, Guadalupe Miranda was the secretary to Governor Manuel Armijo in Santa Fe . On January 8, 1841, Beaubien and Miranda petitioned Armijo for a land grant . They had to swear that they would colonize and cultivate the land . Three days later, Armijo granted them the land on the condition that they put it to good use . However, Beaubien and Miranda failed to prove up the grant for the next two years . On February 13, 1843, they asked the Justice of the Peace in Taos to sign an order promising them possession of the land . The justice affirmed that he had marked the boundaries of the grant and that Beaubien and Miranda were in full possession of the land grant . </P>

What was the purpose of the maxwell land grant