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1904 Map of Terlingua

Name: 1904 Topographic Map of Terlingua
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1904
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1904

About this map

Lajitas sits at the base of Lajitas Mesa in this early 20th-century survey of the Big Bend region, conducted by Arthur Stiles and J.E. Blackburn for The University of Texas Mineral Survey. The landscape is defined by the circular uplift of Solitario and the Rio Grande corridor, which forms the United States Mexico border. This era marks the height of quicksilver mining activity in the area, evidenced by the Colquitt-Tigner Mine and Mc Kinney-Parker Mine.

Remote outposts and family cattle operations like Howard's Ranch, Gourleys Ranch, and Reed Ranch are connected by a thin network of trails, including the Telephone Trail. In the south, the river passes through the Grand Canyon of Santa Helena, near the small settlement of Terlingua Abaja. This map captures the Chihuahuan Desert before the establishment of modern park boundaries, when the economy was tied strictly to mining, ranching, and cross-border trade.