plateau high level plain mocks the plateaus eastern boundary and mountains across their jagat peaks into its northern limit rainfall is heaviest toward the east where many streams begin threading their way down through the fertile farmlands of oklahoma and texas to the mississippi basin and the gulf of mexico on the western side the slow rise of the plateau has forced the colorado river to dig it's bad a mile deep in the grand canyon as it flows toward the gulf of lower california the great dry plateau is dotted with picturesque stretches of denser the mountains come down from the north there are about can expand or cones which seem to have ceased activity only recently the grand canyon of the colorado attracts thousands of tourists annually as well as geologists who come to read the history of the earth in its exposed rock strai either plateau lands contain a wealth of lure for tourists a wealth of speculation on cultures of a bygone age for ages indians have found this plateau a good place to live the spanish fortune hunters in their earliest sixteenth century explorations came upon ancient cultures here as a result of intermarriage spanish blood mixed with that of native indian continues to this day and many people of the southwest both spanish and english our official languages in new mexico prehistoric irrigation systems are reflected in giant modern project in the rio grande and healer river basin crops include most of the country's long staple cotton more important than the plateau however other cattle ranch is introduced by the spaniards these influence life even today in this region in the vast dried table and our huge cattle ranges stocked with thousands of highly bred beef cattle and of late years thousands of dairy cattle there are sheep ranges with millions of sheep many herds owned or cared for by mexicans or by indians such as the navajo new mexico has ranked among leading sheep grazing regions since the time of spanish occupation she production of the eastern portion of the plateau including portions of texas and oklahoma exceeds even that of arizona and new mexico that's our west texas sub region leads the nation in production of mohair the wall of angora go taxes oklahoma and other plains states developing vast turkey ranches the spaniards overlook arizona's copper today her mine is produce nearly one half of the nation's copper in addition arizona has some gold and silver zinc and l region underlie indian reservations its hands cannot be developed at present new mexico is coming to the fore as a producer of petroleum and also produces some silver gold and coal the vast state of texas and her sister state oklahoma to the north are the more fertile portion of the southwest where rainfall is later refuge were creeks cherokees chickasaw choctaws and seminole were driven from their homes to the oklahoma became the principal indian territory today it are eighty eight tribes in its one hundred twenty thousand of indian ancestry today nearly nine million of the southwest eleven million people live in the fertile region of the eastern plains and gulf coast although there are still many large sheep and cattle ranches in texas and oklahoma there is a area is closely related in agriculture to the southeastern united states texas and oklahoma are raising about one third of the nation's co of this texas red central and northern farm belt produce is three million bales of cotton in an average year it is in cotton that texas one million negro population find much of their work along with louisiana and arkansas southeast texas irrigated lands produce millions of bushels of rice yearly while in another irrigated district the lower rio grande valley is one of the nation's richest year round truck gardening areas as well as vast level great fruit orchard produces nearly half a million bales per year in eastern oklahoma coal fields bitumen is coal miners eight in mineral production to help us stablish it as for among the states in total annual value of all mineral huge piles of chat mark the location of zinc production of northeastern oklahoma production which gives it high rank among states in this metal and six th production of land usually found where there are near zinc deposits but about diversity in value of other minerals and farm crops the southwestern region stands to premium petroleum production the huge oil fields of the southwest are part of a vast basin extending into louisiana on the east into kansas on the north and new mexico around the west in a for years or else much of it on indian lands has been the backbone of oklahoma as well today modern oil derrick forests have encroached upon the very capital in oklahoma city much of the mid continent petroleum is piped to the texas gulf coast and near port arthur which most of the largest petroleum refining center in the world from such texas gov org says beaumont port arthur houston texas city galveston and corpus christi go a variety of products to the eastern seaboard to europe to south america that's the southwest suppliers raw materials petroleum cotton copper grain fruits vegetables cattle and sheep it receives manufactured goods clothing tools a host of smaller products from the northeast autos and farm machinery from the middle state farm products from the northwest tobacco and from the sour these lumber seafood fruits and motion pictures from the far west there are tens eddies in the southwest of over one hundred thousand population they and their smaller sister  es are mostly trade and jobbing centers in a region that has had the greatest population increase ratio in recent years cities of the southwest are typically new and clean fuel lay by natural gas cities largely without smoke and so are bigger as modern culture replaces that of a bygone age in the southwest but ways of strong may have grown become vast activities of modern agriculture the exploitation of resources by modern industry the rising crescendo