El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-10-29
THE rio 6RANDE RIVER.
Its Total Dryness Not Due To Its
Use For IRRIGATION.


- The Rio Graz de is at present dry
from near AL buquerque. New Mexico,
to far below the city OF Ell Paso, dis
tance of several hundred miles, and
the former bed OF tb Q stream is now be-
iug used for wagoproads, burro-trails,
aI other means OF locomotioD:t :to'a pas-
senger travelling on the Sauts F'e road,
for several hundred miles In New Mex
leo along the course of this stream. the
white glistening. sands which fill its
b. d present an interesting and sug-
ge-tive aspect.
In the past, many th eories have been
set ahost - to the cause OF this coudi-
tion of the ri er, and it has been quite
common in the last few years to stsri-
butte it's dry ness to the large diversions
OF the water in the San Luis Valley,
Colorado, but those who have made q
spec'a study with reference to the
same, poiot out different reasons for
this condition.
One theory is that the destruction
OF timber in the mountains of Colorado
aud New Mexico has caused the SHOWS
to melt much earlier in the spriD gtime,
and causes much larger Il DDS to rush
dow n the steep mountain sides than in
the former years, when, under the
Rrote citing influence of forests, the
meltiug of the SHOWS continued
grad uslly until the season was Ear sd-
vanced. Those who advocate
this theory contend that there is,
during the present year, just ss much
water flowing down the Rio Grapde
as ever flowed there, but hold that it
CONES now in great torrentisl floods In
stead of the normal flows Of earlier
years; they also point out that the
floods, descending with great force
from the mountains, carry i'm
mense amounts of rock, silt, aud
debris of all kinds into Il q stream,
which formerly was OF uuloo-ed from
the mountain side and that the result
OF this can be seen, from hundreds of
tain sources of the streams, In i'm mense
silt and sand banks ever rising higher
aud h CHER 10 the bea of the stream,
and that these banks of sand and silt
hold the moisture, which would other
wise dow down the stream, with
spou uge-like characteristic.
Whether this be tn e true theory OF
the decadence OF the Rio Graude as a
sire am, the examipation of irrigation
slati-tics as we'll as the oDiuions of the
great experts In the handling of wa
ters for irrig alton, certainly tend be-
yond all doubt, to establs sh the fact
that the diversion OF waters in the up-
per parts of the stream - aud
The location of rese-Tolrs for
use tbere8t, do NOT destroy the charac-
ter of the stream as wafer
coarse a. poi1ts below fer any great
leng h of time, but that, after The first
short period Of years, the soil being
irrigated commences to turn back the
waters formerly poured up1n IL into
the stream, and in a short time the
s.ream, a few miles below, resumes its
flow OF water, apparently to the normal
extent. This has been repeated so
many times over in all the western
section that it 10 now accep'ed as true
by all persons stnoying sucn conditions.
Then again, il i equally well proved
by observatiOn ard experience Of al
persons in irrigated sections that the
construction of reservoirs goes far 20
wards conserving the normal flow OF
the stream in which the same are con-
structed, and largely offsets the TOO
rapid melting of the SHOWS due to
timber destruction.
The present condition of the Rio
is suggestive of the fact that
the diversions of water therefrom in
Colorado do not seusiby affect
the amount of water flowing b-low
In the stream, because the irrisat-
Lng ,elson has now been over In
Colorado for sixty days or more,
and all waters turned out Of the
bitches back into the Rio Grande,
tne state line, the Rio Grsnde has \
ceased to flow. 1t would therefore ap-
Dear that we must find some other !
theory or reason for the condition of
this stream, end to those looking for |
such, we point out that as far back as |
Z the,records of this country 60, the |
Rio Grande was occasionally in tie |
same condition IL Is today, q shiftin e,
quicksapd stream, some
times filed with food waters and even
shen treacherous and useful to man,
sometimes dry for months
at time for hundreds of miles. |
One OF the earliest expeditions |
which came porth from Mexico into /
this country, reported, according to re-
cor ds of the Catholic church, that the |
strerm was dry for fifty leagues above
and fifty leagues below the point W here
FL Psso now stands: and sll q long, fcon
chat time down to the present, thu.
,ame condition has periodically appear
ed.
Under these circumstances, 1t seems
to believe that the drying
up of the stream is more due to the
lack of precipitation in the noun taius
along its head water5 and the plains i
bordering the same, than to any other
cause.