Clara Corbin

William G. and Clara A. B. Corbin marked a significant turning point in Gran Quivira's history when they claimed a homestead on 160 acres, which they thought held the remnants of Las Humanas Pueblo and the San Buenaventura mission. William, a Civil War veteran from New York, served as a commissioned officer for colored troops during the war. After the war ended, he headed west in search of work and never went back to his first wife and kids in Lockport, New York. While in Chicago in 1872, he sent a letter to his wife asking for a divorce and remarried two years later in Ohio. William and his new wife, Clara A. Ball, moved to New Mexico in 1882 to pursue a railroad venture but lost everything during the financial crash of 1893. To try and recover their lost wealth, the couple decided to explore Gran Quivira in search of its legendary treasure.

William and Clara made their initial trip to Gran Quivira sometime before April 1895. Using his benefits as a Civil War veteran, William submitted a homestead claim for the land to protect their rights to any treasures that could be discovered in the ruins. Sadly, before they could pursue their treasure hunt, William Corbin passed away in Albuquerque in 1898. After his death, Clara inherited the homestead claim and played a crucial role in the history of the Salinas antiquities.

After her husband passed away, leaving her without support, Clara Corbin, who was legally blind, started giving lectures on different subjects in Albuquerque and later in the Colorado Springs area. While traveling for her lectures, she lived at Gran Quivira to meet the homestead requirements. Clara stayed in a room of the convento that had a new roof, and even though she couldn't see, she managed to find her way to the clothesline and outhouse using specific guidelines. A local shepherd boy helped her by bringing water. Toward the end of the century, Clara went to Colorado Springs for medical help, where she met Mrs. Virginia McClurg, a strong advocate for the Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings and the leader of the Colorado Cliff Dwellers Association. In July 1899, Mrs. McClurg invited Clara to give a lecture at her home. However, their friendship quickly deteriorated because they had different opinions on how to handle the ruins at Gran Quivira.

In July 1901, Virginia McClurg enlisted Alfred Wetherill to take her to the ancient ruins of Gran Quivira in central New Mexico so she could explore them firsthand. She later wrote a report to the director of the Brooklyn Museum, sharing her experiences and detailing her intentions to challenge Clara Corbin's homestead claim. McClurg's strategy was that if she won the contest, her husband, Mr. McClurg, could file a claim on the ruins since married women like Mrs. McClurg were not allowed to do so. The legal battle between Corbin and McClurg kicked off on July 23, 1901, at the General Land Office in Santa Fe and eventually reached the General Land Office in Washington, D.C. In June 1903, it was determined in the capital that Corbin's claim was invalid because William's divorce from his first wife had never been finalized, which made him a bigamist and Clara not his legal widow. However, in January 1904, Secretary of the Interior E. A. Hitchcock reversed the General Land Office's decision, returning the land to Corbin. Finally, on April 18, 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt signed Homestead Certificate No. 2921, officially completing Clara Corbin's homestead application.

Clara Corbin kept fighting for the preservation of the ruins at Gran Quivira. To fund her passion for excavating the site, she traveled across the United States, giving lectures about the ruins, reaching places like Oregon and California. Eventually, she authored a book and sold subscriptions for it and its follow-up. Clara Corbin passed away in Los Angeles, California, in December 1913. Shortly after her death, in 1914, the Museum of New Mexico bought the land of the Corbin Homestead. This area was later included in the expanded boundaries of Gran Quivira National Monument in 1919.