1952 Map of Rio Puerco

About this map

San Clemente Grant and other expansive Spanish land grants define the legal and physical geography of this arid New Mexico landscape. The winding course of the Rio Puerco serves as a critical hydrologic spine, shadowed by the prominent rise of Hidden Mountain and the high flats of Cat Mesa. This 1952 survey shows a region where traditional landholdings meet industrial transit, as the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe railroad cuts across the valley floor. The small settlement of Rio Puerco sits near a crucial Gaging Station, illustrating the importance of water management in a territory partitioned by the Isleta Pueblo Grant Boundary and the Nicolas Duran de Chavez Grant. The map captures a moment when large-scale land tenure systems remained the dominant structural feature of the Rio Puerco valley.