APPENDIX SS. 1775 



Both upon the Animas, to a slight extent, and more largely upon the Florida, occur 

 exposures of the lignites belonging to the second Cretaceous series, the upper and later 

 sandstones of the j>eriod capping the higher mesa exteuding across the river below 

 Animas City. 



The handsomest outlook is from the lower part of the park, whose anticlinal axis 

 is to the east of the meridional line and where the brilliant coloring most permanently 

 occupies the vista of the valley. 



The eroded strata are displayed in their perfect parallelism and original position, 

 save their southern dip, resulting from subsidence or geological change of underlying 

 strata. Rising in successive terraces, from summit to base, denudation has attracted 

 vegetation with the passage of time, until from the long grassy bottoms and great 

 meadows of the park the hills, no longer vertical, rise up like the steps of some giant 

 stairway, the side or rise most brilliant red, above as bright a green. In no other 

 valley has Nature at once been so lavish with large areas of fruitful land and displayed 

 so beautifully the hand of the Great Architect. Not even the most uneducated person 

 is insensible to landscape beauty; much, therefore, if not all, of the best land of the 

 valley has been claimed and located upon. 



Since returning from the reconnaissance, there has been observed a statement in a 

 report of one of the early exploring parties that traversed the valley, which is repeated 

 by another, that the arable land of the park "does not amount to more than three or 

 four thousand acres." This is most certainly an error in computation or the result of 

 but casual observations. 



In a preliminary report* made soon after returning from the field, during the past 

 winter, touching upon this valley, it was stated that "with over ten thousand acres 

 of tillable land I found, last fall, the amount under actual cultivation to be less than 

 one-tenth of the total." Careful computation of field-notes has not served to percep- 

 tibly change the amount. 



Instructions touching the acreage of arable and timber land being included in the 

 orders for the field, observations in detail were made during each mile of the park for 

 determination of total area, the quantity timbered, the amount of arable land, includ- 

 ing the possibility of irrigation, and the area of grazing, the number of ranches and 

 the quantity of land belonging thereto under actual cultivation. 



An area easily irrigated and in all respects arable, equal to that above stated to be 

 the contents of the entire park, may be found in its lower 4 miles, or from Animas 

 City extending to the north to the ranch of Mr. Lamb. This would be practically 

 proven if lying in sections of high cultivation like the agricultural valleys of Mary- 

 land and Pennsylvania. From Animas City to Hermosa the amount is more than 

 doubled. At this point there is the greatest width of fertile land in the valley, since 

 the valley of the creek, 550 yards at its mouth, should be included. 



From Hermosa the valley decreases more than half in width to the mineral springs 

 above, a group upon the east bank, possessing both soda and sulphur constituents, 

 covering an acre of area. From Hermosa to this point were found about 1,200 acres ad- 

 ditional. North of the springs nothing was calculated as belonging to the arable area, 

 although several ranches were observed with patches as great as 2 acres under culti- 

 A^ation near by. Deducting a fair percentage and the amount of timbered ground 

 of the valley, an acreage between Animas City and Hermosa of 8,224, Avith 36 ranches 

 noted upon the right or west bank, 33 upon the east, and 710 acres belonging thereto 

 under cultivation ; between Hermosa and the mineral springs, 1,237, with 10 ranches 

 upon the west bank, 9 upon the east, and 106 acres tilled; near Old Animas City, 6 

 ranches upon the west side, 3 upon the east, and 3 acres under cultivation. This total 

 does not include the arable land at the mouth and along Junction Creek, where 100 

 acres in crops were observed, nor that of Lightner Creek, or on the bottom of the Ani- 

 mas itself between that and Animas City, all of which forms a proper part of the 

 acreage of this section. This sum, with that above the town already given, will 

 somewhat exceed the aggregate that was earlier given. 



The general state of the agriculture of this section, the finest of the San Juan, may 

 be considered as but little advanced beyond an embryo condition. The ranchmen 

 themselves may be divided into three general classes. The acquisition of fortunes 

 more rapidly than are realized from the tillage of the soil are primarily the attractions 

 to the majority of men entering a mining region. The necessity of a winter home, 

 with the approach of the season too long and severe to remain at the altitude of the 

 mineral belts, forces some men to locate a ranch ; these may be said to constitute the 

 first class. Others seek farming as a livelihood, for bare sustenance, or, as they term 

 it, for "grub stakes" when their hopes of "finds" of silver and gold have vanished, 

 while the third and last kind of settlers are those whose days have been passed in farm 

 industry and who come to locate, to farm, and to work. 



The first class put up a cabin ; oftentimes four logs are simply crossed and sworn to 

 as a foundation by which to locate their claim. No improvement of the land is ever 



*Ex. Doc. No. 66, House of Representatives, Forty-fifth Congress, second session, p. 36. 



