Article March 21, 1903 Issue

Irrigation in the Southwest

The Boston Herald

THE Rio Pecos might be called the Nile of America. Flowing from the eastern slope of the Rockies southeastward through New Mexico and Texas, until it runs into the Rio Grande on the border of the United States, it passes through a desert as desolate and as barren as Sahara, whose few trails are marked with the skeletons of men and animals who have perished in their endeavor to cross its sands. A part of the Llano Estacado, or Staked Plain, is included in this waste.

For years this region was known principally for its sage brush and rattlesnakes. The only human beings who defied its terrors were bands of southwestern Indians, such as the Apaches, a few half-breeds, and the Indian fighting troopers like those who followed Custer and were with Generals Miles and Wood in the pursuit of Geronimo.

The Rio Pecos has another title in Spanish and Indian which means "welcome water." It is indeed an apt title, for there are places in the great Southwest where one must travel a distance of fifty miles from its banks before reaching even a rivulet or well of water which is fit to drink. Here and there ponds can be found, but the water is so impregnated with alkali that a draught means death to man or beast.

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