El Fortin de la Cienega

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker at El Fortin de la Cienega tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in Presidio County, where the hills crowd close and the creeks run cold from natural springs, a man named Milton Faver was quietly building something that could only be called an empire, and he wasn't done after the first fort. Faver had already established his headquarters ranch complex at a place called El Fortin del Cibolo, and he used that very layout as his model when he moved on to his next project.

Sometime in the mid-nineteenth century, he picked his spot along Cienega Creek, surrounded by hills, protected by water, and he put up a fortified adobe structure to anchor what would become El Fortin de la Cienega, the second property in the vast ranching operation he'd been building since the 1850s. Now, a man who models a new fort on his old fort is a man who's thinking about more than cattle. He's thinking about permanence.

Faver tapped those natural springs on the property to water his stock and feed his gardens. He built dwellings, work rooms, stone corrals, fences, and holding pens. He brought in several families to work the land as vaqueros and laborers.

Cattle ranching was the heartbeat of the place, and El Fortin de la Cienega beat steady for decades. Then came 1889, and Milton Faver died. His property was divided, his wife Francisca received her share, and his son Juan Faver received title to La Cienega.

The empire, split but still standing. Juan held it until his own death in 1913, when his heirs sold the Cienega complex to neighboring ranchers John A. Pool, Sr. and J.

W. Pool. The Pools kept it in their family, and through them it passed to the Greenwood family, who held on until the 1980s.

One fortified adobe on a creek in the Presidio County hills, built to last, and it did.

What the marker says

Built along Cienega Creek in the mid-19th century and modeled after his headquarters ranch complex at nearby El Fortin del Cibolo, El Fortin de la Cienega was the second property developed by Milton Faver as he expanded the vast ranching empire he began in Presidio County in the 1850s. Faver chose a defensive site surrounded by hills and the creek to build a fortified adobe structure to serve as the Cienega ranch headquarters. The natural springs on the property were tapped to provide the needed water resources for stock raising and gardens. Also located at the Cienega site were dwellings, work rooms, stone corrals, fences, and holding pens. The primary activity at El Fortin de la Cienega was cattle ranching, and Milton Faver employed several families as vaqueros (cowboys) and laborers. Following Faver's death in 1889 his property was divided between his wife Francisca and his son Juan Faver, who received title to La Cienega. After Juan's death in 1913 his heirs sold the Cienega complex to neighboring ranchers John A. Pool, Sr. and J. W. Pool. It remained the property of the Pools and their heirs, the Greenwood family, until the 1980s. (1995)