1968 Map of Deadman Camp SW

About this map

The Saguache County landscape presented here in the late 1960s is defined by a sophisticated system of water management designed to sustain agricultural life in the San Luis Valley. The Farmers Union Canal and Gibson Ditch anchor a grid of water distribution that includes the North Lateral, North Central Lateral, and Lateral Fortyseven. This intricate network of man-made waterways, supplemented by numerous Flowing Wells, illustrates the transition of the high desert into productive ranching and farming land. The terrain is remarkably level, etched with straight-line surveying and the occasional presence of Cotton Road, providing a clear look at mid-century rural infrastructure before modern consolidation changed many of these smaller water-rights features.