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1937 Map of Nine Point Mesa

Name: 1937 Topographic Map of Nine Point Mesa
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1937
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1937

About this map

Nine Point Mesa dominates this 1917 Brewster County survey, standing as a prominent high-desert landmark above a network of isolated ranching outposts. The landscape reveals the early 20th-century cattle economy of the Big Bend region, where named water sources like Cottonwood Spring and Alamo Spring dictated the placement of homesteads. The map traces the winding course of Chalk Draw as it cuts between the Santiago Mountains and the lower mesas.

Remote livestock operations including the Henderson Ranch and Buttrill Ranch are connected by primitive routes like the Stormy Lease Trail and the Lease Rixon Trail. A lonely Pipeline cuts across the basin floor, indicating early industrial infrastructure in a region defined by high peaks like Black Peak and the Rosillos Mountains. The topographic detail from the War Department and U.S. Geological Survey captures a transitional era of West Texas before modern road networks reached these arid canyons.