The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1897-07-18
THE RIO eRANDE
It frequently Shifts Its Bed, to the
| Inconvenience Of Mankind


TITS freakish river. the Rio Grande,
and no mistake; for sudden turns and
capriciousnesS woman herself can't
equal it," said former federal official
of New Mexico. talking of the recent
floods at Ell PaSo. For the 1900 miles OF
its course its character is everything by
turns from navigable water to dry land.
At its head in the mountainous San Juan
country in Colorado, it is a cold, clear
trout stream; in northern New Mexico
its waters are brown with sand in solu-
ton; farther south, where the liquid
mud of the Rio Pureo DIRTY river) pours
into it, its waters become densely mud
dy. and all along on its way to the sea,
this queer river takes on one or another
new feature differing from anything
that has preceded it,
"The Rio Grandes habit Of going I'M
foreground here and there along it's
course, leaving dry channel above,
from which it reappears anywhere from
mile to fifty miles below, has recently
been told in the Sun, which also has pub
lished accounts of its quicksands and
burrowing cells and catfish. But there
is one performance by this river that
never to my knowledge has been written
except in local history or in the records
of some land case in course. 1t IL the
way it served the town of Mesilla, in
southern New Mexico. The place is a
picturesque, dignifed-looking old Span
ish-American community. built about a
plaza, with orchards and vineyards sur
rounding, and stood in the beginning on
the west bank Of the river. Before the
railroad came it was an important point
in the wagon-freighting trade, and its
people were prosperous and happy. But
they had one cause of complaint. The
routes of all the traffic from Texas and
the north lay on the east Of the Rio
Grande, and stages and wagons must
ford the river in getting to and from Me-
silla This was inconvenent at all
| times, and involved danger and delay in
times Of flood.
"'Que lastima' (what PITY, the peo-
pie often said. "If only our town stood
on the east bank of the brave river
"Their wish came to pass at last in a
startling way. There was an unusually
| heavy snowfall in the mountains Of the
upper country one winter, and. the
spring opening warm, the snow melted,
with the result of a tremendous flood In
| the lower Rio Grande. The waters over
spread the level valley until Mesilla,
which, luckily, had been built on an
eminence, became an island, the refuge
of those persons from the lower lands
who had not been drowned before they
! could reach it. The waters at last sub
sided, and then the discovery was made
that the Rio Grande, instead Of keeping
10 ;fe~o oil had fba CT Nc,
past the town a mile to the west of the
| plaza.
at was what the people had said they
wanted, but it took them some time te
become used to the change and get their
landmarks and points to the compass tc
| tally with the new order Of things Many
peon or Mexican of higher degree 60
| ing or coming from the plaza with load
| of aquadiente inside his skin got an un'
expected ducking in the river when he
had looked for dry land, or walked gin
gerly across the dry channel where the
river used to run, wondering why he
could not find the Rio Grande. Tales Of
such misadventures were stock stories
in the lower valley for years after the
| flood. There was a more tragic aspect
of the business in the epidemic which
took its rise in the exhalations from the
vast extent of river bottom left exposed
by the change of channel. Several hun
bred people died from this cause in the
succeeding summer and autumn. There
| are orchards and alfalfa fields in the old
channel now, but its course can plainly
be traced on the face Of the ground; and
who knows when the Rio Grande may
not take a notion to return to its old bed
and set the maps at fault again ?"-New
York Sun.