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1943 Map of Bassett Lake

Name: 1943 Topographic Map of Bassett Lake
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1943
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1943

About this map

Foster Ranch and the isolated Hilltop House stand as the primary human outposts in this arid borderlands landscape surveyed in the early 1940s. The terrain is defined by the high, craggy slopes of the Hueco Mountains in the southwest, falling away into a series of broad draws and canyons. Water management is the central theme of the landscape, evidenced by the dense network of earthen tanks and catchments like Tinney Tank, Red House Tanks, and Camaleche Tanks scattered across the high desert.

The presence of Bassett Lake near the center of the sheet and the Wet Weather Pond to the north highlight the ephemeral nature of water in the Chihuahuan Desert. Local naming conventions often reflect family or ranching history, from Roberts Tank to John Key Tank. The boundary between New Mexico and Texas cuts across the southern portion of the map, while the divide between Otero and Hudspeth counties marks the jurisdictional split in this livestock-oriented frontier.