Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1894-10-02

description of each town. This has been
thought best by the writer, as two sep
arate articles descriptive of the two towns
would necessarily contain much matter of
an identical nature.
THE VALLEY.
Eddy and Chaves counties were formed
out of Lincoln and contain within their
boundaries resources varied and rich
enough to support an immense popula-
tion independent of outside help. The
valley is situated in the extreme southern
part of the territory and runs parallel
with the Rio Grande valley, being an i'm
mense trough deeply eroded by the Pecos
river between the Llano Estacado, or the
staked plain, on the east and the central
ranges of New Mexico. The dividing
range at the Santa Fe mountains towers
to height of $4,000. Here the Pecos
has it's head, flowing southwardly and
taking through network of creeks the
great rain and snowfall of this area. 1t
! pursues its course aim ost to the wall Of
the staked plains and from it's drainage
the river as it turns south takes up an
other dozen of small tributaries. Below
/ It's most northern spur the Llano Esta-
cado is dry and the river receives no
further moisture from that source. On
the west, however, the eastern drainage of
the inter-Rio Grande-Pecos divide aug
ments in its valley with the waters of a
great many streams. 1t drains an area
of, over 10000 square miles. In length
the valley is over 800 miles, while it varies
in width from twenty to fifty miles.
Geologically its soil is part of the I'M
mense area known as the Red Beds, which
in eastern New Mexico, Indian territory
more than 100000 square miles.
In this connection it may be well to
quote from Prof. Robert 7. Hill, at one
time state geologist OF Texas and who was
employed by the U. y. government to
make an examination of the Pecos valley.
Prof. Hill said: "To one accustomed to
the green-clad landscape of the east or its
sombre colored formations the vast land
scapes and brilliant colors Of the Red
Beds are striking, especially if seen in
some bold cliff for scores of miles. Glar-
ing vermillion or deep brown chocolate
sometimes prevails, varied only here and
there by snow-white bed of gypsum.
y Along the eastern escarpment
of the L!ano Estacado there are beautiful
bluffs of these vermillion beds with an
occasional butte or mesa"
HOW IT BECAME KNOWN.
The New MEXICAN is primarily the
cause of the wonderful possibilities of
che Pecos valley becoming known and
Mr.. Charles w. Greene is the man through
whom the deed was accomplished. In
1883 the NEW MEXICAN commissioned Mr.
Greene, as special correspondent, to ex-
anime and report upon the resources OF
the valley, which was at that time the
abode of few people and was principally
inhabited by herds of cattle. Mr.. @. B
Eddy had, however, undertaken the con-
struction Of a small irrigating system by
building a series of bitches on the "La
guna VISTA" Mr.. Eddy and Mr.. Greene
were both greatly interested In the valley
and became imbued with the idea of max
ing it an ideal garden spot. Mr.. Greene
bears the reputation of being an organ
izer of great ability. He at once left the
newspaper field with the avowed inten'
ton of organizing company with suffic
lent capital to carry through the i'm
mense undertaking of reclaiming the val