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1973 Map of Lane Salt Lake

Name: 1973 Topographic Map of Lane Salt Lake
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1985
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1985

About this map

Lane Salt Lake dominates the northwest corner of this New Mexico landscape, a stark basin set within a territory defined by the cattle and oil industries. The map documents an environment where survival depended on water infrastructure, evidenced by the numerous named windmills including McBride Windmill, Antelope Windmill, and Bull Windmill. These markers, along with the Lane Ranch and McGuffin Ranch, trace the reach of mid-century ranching across the Simanola Valley.

Substantial energy development is revealed through the extensive boundaries of the Flying M South Oil Field, Vada Oil Field, and Bagley North Oil Field. A complex network of pipelines and access roads connects a multitude of Oil Wells, illustrating the intensifying extraction efforts in Lea County during the early 1970s. This survey, photorevised in the 1980s, captures the transition of the high plains from open range to a industrialized resource frontier.