Page 106 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

Mexican Boundary Commission, and Parke.
In his opinion, only one alternate had any natural superiority, and that one followed the railroad route on Parke’s map. It left the Rio Grande at Mesilla, ran due west before turning up through Florida Pass
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This route, however, was lacking in surface water resources, and the development of underground resources would have incurred disproportionally excessive expenditures (which had been prohibited) when compared to the available alternative. However, the existing road from the Rio Grande up to the mesa near Picacho
was improved in grade and distance. 1
The primary road around the north side of Picacho
Peak and thence west to Cooke’s Spring was 18 feet wide on straight stretches and 25 feet on curves, with all brush and other obstructions cleared to 25 feet. This allowed use of 10-mule teams for freight wagons. Between Mesilla and Picacho it was neces- sary to raise the roadbed and provide drainage ditches on both sides for three miles through farm land. It was also necessary to construct five small bridges of eight- to ten-foot spans over ditches and irrigation canals. The crew also constructed a cutoff road that passed south of Picacho Peak and joined the main road about 12 miles west of the river, thereby saving about three miles for a traveler com-
ing from the south.
Engineer Hutton also reported that the road crew
made several improvements to water sources or water collection systems. Between the river and Cooke’s Spring they constructed a reservoir of stone and earth across an arroyo that could trap about 40,000 gallons of water. Twelve miles east of Cooke’s Spring they dug a well and constructed two water tanks that had a combined capacity of more than 16,000 gallons. At Cooke’s Spring, they con- structed two tanks to contain the overflow from the spring that provided a reservoir of nearly 27,000 gallons in addition to the water directly available from the spring.
The stretch from the Rio Grande to Cooke’s Spring remained dry for some time, however, as emigrants reported traveling all day and night from the river to reach the next available water at the spring. Evi- dently there had been little rain or Leach’s tanks were incapable of retaining water very long.
In the matter of water, Hutton erred badly when he reported the water resources available at the cross- ing of the Mimbres. He had measured the water
flow upstream from the old crossing point to be
and on to Peloncillo Pass.
retaining water when the river was
flowing as a hedge
The Government Wagon Roads
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20,000 gallons per minute.
this stream was sometimes completely dry at that point. Whatshouldhavebeenaccomplishedthere was to establish some method of collecting and
against periods of exsiccation.
In making his report, Hutton was careful to point
out how beneficial the road improvements would be for the emigrants. He calculated that the distance eliminated would amount to at least 5 days’ travel, the distance between water sources reduced to a maximum of 27 miles, the mileage adjacent to run- ning water was significantly increased, and the grades reduced sufficiently for 6 mules to jiull 4,000 pounds and a team of 10 to manage 6,000.
Hutton recommended a few improvements for the road. He suggested increasing the size of the water tanks that had been constructed and making them more permanent with the addition of stone linings. This, he estimated, would cost about $25,000. Hut- ton also requested consideration of a plan to build a bridge across the Rio Grande at Frontera, upriver from El Paso, that would be approximately 600 feet long and cost about $50,000. The first issue of the Mesilla Miner June 9, 1860, included an article com-
,
plaining that $36,000 had been left over from the El Paso-Fort Yuma Road construction and that this money could have been used to construct a bridge at Mesilla, but was expended on other roads instead. Obviously there were differences of opinion about where a bridge could be most efficiently constructed
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and the attending cost for the task.
In 1857, possibly as a result of Leach’s recommen-
dation or as a means of pumping more money into the New Mexico treasury, the Territorial Legislature signed a contract with Samuel J. Jones, Robert P. Kelley, and Lewis S. Owings to build a toll bridge
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across the river at Mesilla.
apparently was never built, because there is no record that the Overland Mail used it, and a few years later floods were to change the course of the river anyway.
Engineer Hutton called the Rio Grande Valley from El Paso to Dona Ana the most important in the territory and reported that the combined population of Franklin, Mesilla, Las Cruces and its suburbs, and Dona Ana was about 10,000 people."
It should be noted that not all had gone smoothly with the road improvement party headed by Leach.
As has been reported,
However, this bridge