1918 Map of Nine Point Mesa

About this map

Nine Point Mesa and the Santiago Mountains dominate this Brewster County landscape, surveyed in 1917 during a period of significant military interest in the Big Bend region. The topographic work, completed under the direction of George Otis Smith and in cooperation with the War Department, reveals a remote ranching economy dependent on scattered water sources. Isolated homesteads such as Rixon Ranch and Henderson Ranch are positioned near intermittent drainage systems like Chalk Draw and Nine Point Draw. The importance of water in this arid terrain is evidenced by the careful mapping of Cottonwood Spring, Cedar Spring, and Double Tanks. From the heights of Back Peak to the deep cuts of Burnt Willow Canyon, the map provides a record of the early twentieth-century land use where life centered around reliable springs and the rugged mesas of West Texas.