Historical Marker

Raton Ranch—Baca Campground

Shortly after Civilian Conservation Corp camp DF-17-N was established in 1933 under the New Deal, it was renamed Camp Saturnino Baca for the founder of Lincoln County. Abandoned after one summer, it reopened in 1935 for five years as one of the first Unemployed Girls’ Educational Camps in the nation. After Pearl Harbor was bombed in December 1941, the entire Japanese population of Clovis—railroad workers and their families—was relocated here during 1942, and the camp’s name reverted to Raton Ranch. Today it is managed by Lincoln National Forest as Baca Campground.