Virginia-born Milton Faver, or don Melitón as he came to be called on the border, began to acquire what would become el Rancho del Cíbolo in 1858, named for Cíbolo (Buffalo) Creek, the water source that made habitation here possible. Faver and his wife, Francisca Ramírez, moved their household from Presidio del Norte, Chihuahua, to the ranch, constructing the adobe walled fortín (fortified ranch headquarters) with its torreones (turrets) for protection during raids by Apache and Comache. The fortified ranch compound was the Mexican architectural response to building on the frontier. Faver constructed two additional fortified ranch houses on his holdings in Presidio County: the Fortín de la Ciénega on Ciénega (marsh) Creek, and Fortin de la Morita on Morita (mulberry) Creek. Fortín del Cíbolo was the largest, a one-story adobe ranch complex surrounded by 3-foot-thick, 20-foot-tall adobe walls with loopholes ( troneras) and two round corner torreones for firing on attackers. This was Faver’s home from the 1850s until his death in 1889. In 1990, Houston-based manufacturer John Poindexter acquired the Faver ranches and hired Ford, Powell and Carson to reconstruct Faver’s ranch headquarters, buildings, and grounds, including the springs and acequia system. In addition, the architects designed a 12,000-square-foot guesthouse addition with wide porches and a simple but spacious screened dining area for the Fortín del Cíbolo, transforming it into the poshest hotel in the Trans-Pecos. (Because the ranch is 230 miles from the nearest airports in El Paso and Midland, guests can only arrive at the hotel’s airfield via private jet.) Ford, Powell and Carson additionally reconstructed the Fortínes de la Ciénega and Morita and designed new guest facilities (1994) at each.