150 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



March 



with pure spring water, the bottom of 

 which has not as yet been fathomed. 

 The side walls of this well go down 

 about eighty feet before water is 

 reached, and small cliff dwellings are 

 found just above water level. A short 

 distance up Clear Creek from this 

 point is the "Soda Spring," a spring of 

 cold water tasting strongly of carbonic 

 acid gas boiling up out of the ground 

 in which it is impossible for a person 

 to sink. 



difficult to utilize on account of the 

 scarcity of water for stock purposes, 

 let alone irrigation. 



Stock is mainly the means of mak- 

 ing a living both inside the reserve and 

 adjacent to it. When the reserve was 

 first created there were 225,000 head 

 of sheep and about 40,000 head of cat- 

 tle grazed upon during the greater part 

 of the year. The number of stock has 

 been gradually reduced from year to 



Large Growth of Alligator Juniper in the Black Mesa Forest Reserve 



To the south four miles is the "Na- 

 tural Bridge," the largest natural 

 bridge in the United States; articles 

 placed in the water running under- 

 neath the bridge are rock-covered 

 within a week. These points of inter- 

 est are so far off the line of travel that 

 they are not very well known except 

 locally. 



There is very little agricultural land 

 on the reserve and- that little is very 



year until at present there are 115,000 

 head of sheep and 30,500 head of cat- 

 tle and horses grazed under permit. 



The sheep grazing permits are for 

 the grazing season commencing April 

 1st and closing December 1st each 

 year; there is no regular grazing sea- 

 son for cattle and horses, but during 

 the winter months the greater part of 

 the stock necessarily drifts off the re- 

 serve to the lower levels. 



