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1940 Map of El Paso Gap

Name: 1940 Topographic Map of El Paso Gap
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1940
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1940

About this map

Queen and the surrounding rangelands of the Guadalupe Mountains define this high-desert landscape in the late 1930s. The settlement pattern is dominated by remote cattle and sheep ranching, with isolated homesteads such as Thayer Ranch, Shattuck Ranch, and Hepler Ranch scattered across the high plateaus and deep drainages. Education in this sparsely populated territory was anchored by the Queen Sch and Dog Canyon Sch, serving families living miles apart.

Surface water is a critical and scarce resource, evidenced by the extensive network of man-made catchments like Ira Lewis Tanks, Kneedeep Tank, and Guadalupe Tank. These water features, alongside rugged landmarks like Big Dog Canyon and Pickett Hill, guided travel along the primitive Carlsbad Road. The map provides a detailed view of the borderlands between New Mexico Texas and the division of Otero Co and Eddy Co.