The Baca Family Cemetery is located next to an area known as Baca Meadows where Juan and Damasia Baca built a cabin and established their home in 1899 and began farming and ranching. The family was growing and reached seven girls and a boy and Juan added rooms to the cabin and connected them with Walkways. Today the home site is just a lovely meadow deep in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest and no remnants of the home remain. Juan passed away four years later leaving Damasia to care for the family and farm. Their only son, Fred became the man of the house at age 15. Eligible women in the Arizona Territory were quite scarce, so the Baca home became a favorite stopping place for many of the eligible bachelors. One suitor even went so far as to build a road from his community to the Black Canyon Trail so that he could more easily call upon the girl he loved.
The homestead sat just off the wagon trail that connected Pleasant Valley with Holbrook and was well traveled and the travelers would all stop and partake of Damasia's hospitality. And if a stranger should wander by, she would run outside and insist they stay and "eat a bite' before traveling on.
The cemetery is easily spotted from the road and just a few yards off the road. Traveling from the Payson area the site is just a short distance from the Hangman Trail Burial Grounds on the right hand side. If you miss it you will see a sign that identifies Baca Meadow and Auto Tour Stop # 6 which is the old home site.
The cemetery itself is just a beautiful, serene site. It is bounded on three sides by Aspen trees and large Ponderosa pines. The fourth side is the beginning, or the end, of the Baca meadows.