THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Of the towns in the valley Monte Vista, in Eio 

 Grande county, is the largest and most prosperous. It 

 has a population of 2,250, which at the present rate 

 of development will doubtless be doubled within the 

 next five years. The town was formerly called Henry, 

 in honor of T. C. Henry, the man who conceived the 

 idea of irrigating the valley by taking water from the 

 Eio Grande river. The company he organized origi- 

 nally had its headquarters at Del Norte, but when 

 the people of Del Norte refused to grant concessions 

 in the way of lands a town was established fifteen 

 miles southeast and the company moved its offices 

 there. This was in 1884. Shortly afterward the name 

 was changed to Monte Vista, the Spanish for Moun- 

 tain View, and those who have visited the town agree 

 that it was well named. Del Norte, the county seat of 

 Rio Grande county, is the oldest town in the valley. 

 It was for many years the terminal of a branch of the 

 Denver & Eio Grande railroad, which now extends 

 some forty miles beyond into the mountains to Crede, 

 a mining camp. The town has a population of 1,200. 

 Just in the center of the town is a magnetic spring, 



Denver, to Monte Vista, Del Norte and Creede, to 

 Salida, to Durango and to Santa Fe. The population 

 of the town is over 1,700, made up largely of the em- 

 ployes of the railroad shops located there. 



Other towns in Conejos county are Borneo, Conejos 

 and Antonito. The latter is a junction point of the 

 railroad, one branch going south to Santa Fe, N. M.. 

 and the other west to Durango and the San Juan 

 mining region. Near Borneo the land is being given 

 over to sheep raising. 



Straight north of Alamosa, on the narrow gauge- 

 line to Salida, are the settlements of Mosca and 

 Hooper. This section of the valley enjoyed a great 

 boom about twelve years ago, but careless methods of 

 farming brought alkali to the surface and caused the 

 abandonment of many farms. In the last few years 

 more careful farming methods have been practiced" and 

 fields which have lain idle for years are again being 

 made productive. Center, near the southern 'boundary 

 of Saguache county, is the "Center" of a great grain 

 raising belt. Its chief drawback is its distance from a 

 railroad. It was laid out in 1897 bv the Grain Belt 



Street Scene. La Jara, Colorado 



whose health-giving properties are wonderful, being 

 especially good for persons affected with stomach 

 troubles. Agriculture in the valley has reached its 

 highest point around Del Norte, it being within little 

 less than . a mile of the center of the town that the 

 record-breaking yield of potatoes, 847 bushels to a 

 measured acre, was established. 



La Jara (The Willow), in Conejos county, is the 

 center of a fertile region. The name was originally 

 given to a postoffice located on a ranch six miles west 

 of the present town, which was then known as "The 

 Tank." In 1883 the railroad established a station at 

 the tank and the postoffice was moved, taking the name. 

 The town suffered under the none too scrupulous adver- 

 tising of certain promoters and in 1900 the boom 

 fell flat. Since that time it has been "picking up," 

 however, and as it is in the center of a very fertile 

 region it has a future before it. Its present population 

 is about COO, but it does annually now about $1,000,000 

 worth of business. 



Alamosa. also in Conejos county, is the geograph- 

 ical center of the valley. It is the headquarters of the 

 Fourth division of the Denver & Eio Grande railroad 

 from which five radiating lines go out -to Pueblo and 



Railway Company, which projected and surveyed a line 

 west from Hooper to Center (then called Conterview). 

 a distance of twelve miles. The proposed railroad went 

 the way of many others and never materialized, b\it 

 the town has prospered and should a railroad ever be 

 put through there is little doubt but that it would 

 become one of the largest in the valley. Center is 

 fourteen miles northeast of Monte Vista. Saguache. 

 the county seat of the county of that name, is the 

 northernmost town in the valley. Like Center, how- 

 ever, it is handicapped by lack of proper railroad facili- 

 ties and can never reach its full capacity until it gets 

 railroad connection with other towns. 



I have attempted in this article to give in a general 

 way a descriptive outline of the valley and its prin- 

 cipal centers. There is much more that might be 

 said of the scenic beauties, the business possibilities 

 and opportunities and the healthful advantages of the 

 region. But it is not my purpose to do this, and I 

 have prepared this outline in order to familiarize the 

 readers of the IRRIGATION AGE with the valley as a 

 whole. In the December number I will write of the 

 agricultural advantages which have made the valley 

 famous. 



