Natural Resources and the Law in Hispanic Arizona: The Babocómari Ranch and the Living Legacies of the Gadsden Purchase

The San Ignacio del Babocómari land grant had followed the procedures established in the Mexican civil law of property, which were essentially the same procedures followed when Mexico was a Spanish colony prior to 1821. [...]neither the federal government in Mexico City nor the state government in Arizpe ever revoked the grant because the Elíases had somehow failed to comply with their obligations as property owners.