1766 REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS. 



culture is, therefore, limited to the valleys of the streams, all resulting from erosion, 

 and hence narrow at their heads, generally widening out in their lower parts. It is, 

 therefore, along the lower portions of the Conejos, San Antonio, and Los Pinos that 

 most of the laud cultivated is found. Clusters of houses here aud there give a village 

 or plaza, the largest of which is Conejos or Guadalupe, upon the river of that name. 

 Along the Conejos, above this point and to the west about 10 miles, where the river 

 emerges from its canon, a rapid and turbid stream, a narrow but beautiful valley of 

 8,000 feet elevation extends. Agriculture nourishing in cultivated land well fenced, 

 the settlers being the usual Mexican ranchman. Many thousands of sheep are owned 

 along this river, the herds being driven to the northwest and southwest. 



THE CHAMA OR TIERRA AMARILLA SECTION. 



Beyond this point to the west no other place is found where agriculture has been 

 attempted, uutil the Tierra Amarilla section, a collection of Mexican plazas, is reached. 

 A half mile above Los Brazos, the most northern one, is the seat of the Park View 

 colony, where a settlement was made by inducing Chicago persons to locate here. 

 Upon a bench near by the river was the prospective town-site, and in the river-bottom, 

 of very fine land, the " farms," the total acreage of which under actual cultivation 

 was found to be about 8 acres and not exceeding 10. 



The plazas of the Tierra Amarilla (signifying yellow earth) are five in number, situ- 

 ated in close proximity upon the Rio Chama near the mouth of the Rio Brazos, its 

 Eastern Fork, and upon Nutritas Creek near by, ami comprise a total of 800 popula- 

 tion, whose industry is agriculture aud sheep-raising, from 1,200 to 3,000 head being 

 passed daily while in this region. 



This section contains the finest agricultural land in this part of New Mexico, being 

 chiefly from 7,300 to 7,600 feet in elevation, and aggregating with the valleys of the 

 Chama and tributary streams a total of fully 8,000 acres that will be valuable for 

 agriculture under proper irrigation. This is derived from statements of county officials, 

 not visiting two of the plazas personally. Personal observations included an acreage 

 of about 5,000, of which less than half was under cultivation, and in this, moreover, 

 the tracts were not all under proper tillage, the area being much scattered. 



The amounts paid for forage here were in July 3 cents per pound for hay and 5 cents 

 for corn, or $60 per ton for the former and $2.80 per bushel for the latter, which may 

 certainly be considered as almost "bonanza" prices, when the fertility of this land is 

 taken into consideration. This was almost 50 per cent, more than was paid at Animas 

 City, far to the west. 



The immediate river bottom, near "Park View," averages not over one-quarter mile 

 in width and between 5 and 6 miles long, containing some 900 acres, the whole a very 

 pretty and attractive valley. Above this were passed two deserted Mexican villages 

 of a dozen cabins each, the land about uncultivated. The inhabitants thereof, we 

 Avere informed, had stampeded one night in 1865 from fear of the Indians, who had 

 been in grand council near by for six days and nights, and contemplated, it was thought, 

 a general massacre. 



That the Park View colonization, popularly denounced from its incipiency as a fraud, 

 has culminated in failure is to be greatly regretted, as until ranchmen of American 

 energy take hold of this region, its resources in an agricultural point of view will 

 never be developed. 



THE NAVAJO. 



From the crossing of the Chama until the Navajo is reached there is but little laud 

 that will ever be available for anything save grazing ; while it is of a nature to con- 

 stitute a fiue farming region, with sufficient alkaline constituents to insure large crops, 

 there is a dearth of water, although upon all the maps it is not properly so indicated. 

 During the three day's march from the Chama to the San Juan, from 3,000 to 7,400 

 sheep were daily passed, and also 200 goats. The latter are the favorites of the Indians, 

 small herds of which are possessed by various chiefs, and noticed at various points in 

 the mountains. 



Along the Navajo, in both Colorado and New Mexico, are considerable areas of land 

 finely adapted to agriculture, thus far almost entirely neglected by the ranchmen in 

 choosing their locations. Extensive benches, easily irrigated, and abundance of timber 

 are readily found, while along its upper part are clusters of hot sulphur springs of 

 varying properties. Vegetation is luxuriant, wild berries of different kinds were found 

 abundant, aud so attractive is the river, its banks and surroundings, that the southern 

 Utes still assert and reassert their ownership of the valleys which it waters and of 

 which they were almost wholly dispossessed in the location of their new reserve. 

 Upon the Navajo they wished their new agency located, and on its being built upon 

 the Los Pinos, much dissatisfaction resulted. 



Along this stream for a short distance is part of the route for the Chama-Navajo 

 road, the shortest line from Conejos and neighboring points to the west, and when 



