Our next segment is to travel from Arizona to New Mexico. This is a long travel day covering more than 400 miles, between Kartchner and Alamogordo, which will be our base for the next few days. As we leave Arizona, there are a few reflections worth noting regarding Native Americans, and water.
Despite the fact that Native Americans had lived and occupied this area for thousands of years, both in settlements and nomadic tribes, they are not recognized as the sovereign ‘owners’ of the land. Both the Spanish coming north from Mexico and the Anglo’s coming from eastern America, behaved as if the Native Americans didn’t exist….they were invisible. They were not organized as a nation, but rather a group of autonomous tribes or communities…neither united, governing, nor acting in unison. Spain and America occupied territories and established governments without any consideration for the Native populations. The Manifest Destiny first coined in the 1840s, labeled the prevalent attitude during the 19th century, that the United States not only could, but was destined to, stretch from coast to coast. This was the undercurrent that helped fuel western settlement, Native American removal, and war with Mexico. We have seen the statement of Manifest Destiny in museums here, much more aggressive regarding race. Specifically that the “Anglo-Saxons were a special race and rightfully the superiors of other people.”
Manifest Destiny
On the topic of water, following the Civil War, ranchers moved from their overgrazed pastures in Texas to Arizona’s grasslands. This started Arizona’s cattle boom. By the 1890s, about 1.5 million cattle roamed in Arizona. The growth of the cattle industry did not consider the limits of the land. Ranchers overgrazed the pastures in only 20 years, permanently changing the landscape. The native grasses never grew back as the topsoil eroded from overgrazed lands. When a drought hit in the early 1900s, close to 75% of the state’s cattle were lost. Today’s ranchers strive for a balance between size of herd and sustainability of grasslands. Some of the lost grasslands have been converted to agriculture, which places pressure on water availability. Finally, the rapid growth in population escalates the water issue. There are only three sources of water: surface water, aquifers, and the Colorado river. Reduced rainfall, higher temperatures, depleted aquifers, and the limited availability of water from the Colorado River creates a serious situation for Arizona. Water will determine its future.
This arid condition combined with the tilling of soil for crops creates some scary conditions. Very high winds blowing over the tilled soil produced a dust storm that reduced our visibility to just a few feet. Traveling at 60 mph, with semi-trucks around us, we would periodically hit these dust walls without warning. This is NOT good! The layer of dust was present all the way to Alamogordo. We were fortunate not to encounter any accidents. After setting up camp in the foothills of the adjacent mountain range, we could not see across the valley. Our trucks and trailers were covered with a layer of dust, with winds continuing to blow at more than 30 mph – forcing us to close all vents and seal our aluminum ‘tent.’ As night arrived, we could hear the coyotes howling in the area, and hoped for better conditions tomorrow.
Checking the weather forecast and talking with other campers that had just come through west Texas, convinced us that our next destination, San Antonio, didn’t make sense. They said it was a horrible drive – high winds, dust, and not pretty. Since it would involve driving five to six days through the kind of wind and dust we just survived, we decided to forgo San Antonio and extend our stay in Alamogordo before heading directly to the Carlsbad Caverns. The new plan after Carlsbad Caverns is to spend five to six days in Santa Fe and use it as our home base for excursions around northern New Mexico…lots to see and do.
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