Parque Nacional de Constitucion de 1857
Jacob’s Lost Fortune
Norwegian, Jacob B. Hanson arrived in Baja California in 1882 and acquired a property in the central zone of the Sierra Juarez Mountains, where he established a farm with the intention of raising quality cattle.
Jacob generated a large fortune with his cattle farming activity, he buried his fortune in a secret place within his property, this in a time when banks to deposit the money didn’t exist. Jacob was murdered near Campo, leaving his wife to protect their fortune. Neither the murderer nor the many explorers who arrived at the place thereafter could find the treasure that the Norwegian hid. The story surrounding Jacob’s death is an interesting one.
Across the border in Baja California south of Luman Gaskill’s holdings at Campo were the cattle ranges of Capt. Jacob B. Hanson. In 1885, Hanson disappeared. The accounts of his disappearance amount to gossip, but they boil down to Gaskill. Luman Gaskill was a well known bear hunter and is said that he killed a man in San Joaquin County and fled to San Jacinto and lived there under an assumed name. He eventually moved his family to the San Diego County community known by its Indian name, Milquetay, which means wide, flat fields. The Gaskill's changed the name of the valley to Campo.
One day en route to San Diego from Baja California, Hanson stopped overnight at Campo. He was never again seen, dead or alive. The buggy in which he had been traveling and which had been parked in Campo in the Gaskills backyard quickly acquired a new coat of paint, and some of the paint seemed to cover a pattern of blemishes such as would be made by a charge of buckshot. 
In August, 1885, after the disappearance of Hanson, acting Gov. Juan Montinegro of Ensenada went to Hanson's Baja California ranch where he found eight armed Americans at a place still identified on maps as Laguna Hanson. The governor returned to Ensenada, recruited three rurales and seven other men with arms, and then returned to Laguna Hanson. There he arrested Luman Gaskill, James Ward and Andreas Adams and took them to jail in Ensenada. They were held on suspicion of the murder of Hanson. It’s reported that Luman Gaskill and James Ward had been convicted of changing the brands on Hanson's cattle.
Adams said he knew that Gaskill and Ward once had the buggy which belonged to Hanson. He said they also had the billfold and other personal effects and papers of the missing man. Gaskill was sentenced to four years and 17 days in the territorial prison at La Paz. The Mexicans had no money to transport their prisoner to La Paz and after he was in jail 30 days they decided it was too expensive to feed him. They released him from jail on the condition that he report to the governor, in person, every other day. [Ref: San Diego Historical Society Biography of Luman Gaskill]
Jacob’s fortune is still unfound and now rest in the one of Baja’s most majestic parks...
Parque Nacional de Constitucion de 1857 named for the signing of the Mexican Constitution in 1857 is the high part of the Sierra Juarez Mountains. It’s a natural oasis engraved in the middle of the warm and desert Baja California landscape; some think the area has the cleanest air on the planet. There are roads and faraway places in it, which embraces us in a world of adventure, natural beauty, and which take us to a place of unique peace of mind with quiet and cold nights that light up with all the lights of the Milky Way. Rest in the ethereal forest of 100 ft tall Jeffrey, Pinon, and Ponderosa pine trees, grassy meadows, gigantic boulders, and a gorgeous ephemeral lake that will take your breath away.
In 1951 President Miguel Alemán decrees Sierra Juarez Mountains a National Forest Reserve to protect the coniferous forest. Because of the regions extraordinary beauty, and natural attributes, the area was declared a National Park in 1962 with the purpose of protecting and preserving it. In 1983; the park was included in Mexico's System of Protected Natural Acres (SINAP). The 1857 Constitution National Park represents only 0.07% of the state of Baja California's land area.
There are two lagoons in this Park: Laguna Hanson; derived from the name of the early Norwegian settler J.B. Hanson who disappeared mysteriously in 1885 and Laguna Chica both covering an area of 500 Ha in the winter, and nearly dry in the summer.
Early inhabitants were kumiai (Kumeyaay) natives, dedicated mainly to harvesting, hunting, and fishing. Kumiai left samples of their culture in many caverns on the mountain range, where it is possible to find cave paintings and mortars carved on the rock.
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Size: 5,009 hectares (12,377 acres)
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Altitude: 1,650 meters (5413 feet)
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Climate: Extreme Mediterranean climate, with dry and hot summers and rainy winters, snowing during cold stages. Precipitation plays an important role in the hydrological regulation of the lower arid groundwater basins.
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Fauna: The park is an important refuge for the fauna of Baja California with approximately 80 mammal species, such as; Cimarron Lamb, Bura Deer, Coyote, Cougar, Sheep, and Cat (Lynx rutus) and 44 species of birds.
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Flora: Jeffery pine (Pinus jeffreyi), holm oak, and fir forests. Some of the large pines have grown up to 30 meters in height.
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Infrastructure: 7 cabins, 10 zones of camping, 24 toilets (nice!).
