BRN 9-4 - Flipbook - Page 40
Above: This abandoned
ranch house in lower
Cottonwood Canyon
represents the scattered
ranches that were established
in these mountains beginning
around the 1860s. Ranchers
raised cattle for the beef
industry, angora goats and
sheep for the mohair and
wool industries, and horses.
Individual ranches had from a
few hundred to a few
thousand head of livestock.
With the creation of White
Sands Proving Ground in
1945, ranching declined,
then was eliminated in the
1960s after the designation
of White Sands Missile Range
in 1958. The U. S. Army
needed the land to test long
range missiles and rockets for the military and for space
exploration.
Rock House
Spring
Bear Den
Canyon
Rhodes Canyon
Bosque
Canyon
Sweanor and a visitor to our study are sitting at the bottom
center of this photo.
The dirt road in Rhodes Canyon was established as a wagon
trail in the early 1900s. It linked the east side of the Tularosa
Basin with Engle in the Jornada del Muerto and Hot Springs
and other communities along the Rio Grande. In the 1930s
the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) improved the road and
had a tent camp in Rhodes Canyon while they were doing
that work. Access to this road is now strictly controlled by
White Sands Missile Range.
Top of the Following Page: Looking southwest across the
grasslands in upper Cottonwood Canyon. Loma Vista is the
peak on the left side of the Chalk Hills. After the ranching
industry exited and the U. S. Army protected the San Andres
Mountains, natural processes have restored these mountains
to a state of de facto wilderness.
Bottom of the Following Page: Looking up lower Rhodes
Canyon with Hardscrabble Mountain on the skyline. Linda
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