1917 Map of Tascotal Mesa

About this map

San Jacinto Mountain and the high desert plateaus of the Big Bend region dominate this 1917 survey. The landscape is defined by the massive escarpments of Tascotal Mesa and Bandera Mesa, which are navigated by narrow passages such as Wire Gap and Smugglers Gap. Early ranching life is evident through isolated outposts like the San Jacinto Ranch, Rooney Ranch, and Cotter Ranch, which relied on scarce water sources like Alazan Spring and Alamo de Cesario Creek. The map documents a critical transportation network of the era, including the Marfa and Lajitas Road and ancient routes like the Seminole Trail. These paths provided the only reliable transit through the complex topography of Green Valley and the Alazan Hills, connecting remote cattle operations to the outside world before the modernization of the Texas backcountry.