ROUTE FROM INDIANOLA TO EL PASO. 
Ill 
271 miles from San Antonio. The next at Live Oak creek, 304 miles from San Antonio. Afte 
crossing this creek the route follows it to the Pecos, and up this to the crossing. This portion of 
the Pecos is “narrow and deep, extremely crooked in its course, and rapid in its current. Its 
waters are turbid and bitter.” * * * “Its banks are steep, and of clay. In a course of two 
hundred and forty (240) miles there are but few places where an animal can approach them fcr 
water with safely. Not a tree or bush marks its course.” 
The road crosses the Pecos 348 miles from San Antonio. It then proceeds west to the Escon¬ 
dido springs, 27 miles; thence to Comanche springs, 19 miles—(clouds of suffocating dust accom¬ 
panied the passage of the train;) thence to Leon springs, 10 miles; thence to the Limpid, 37 miles. 
The country from the Pecos to this point, 93 miles, is exceedingly sterile, and, except a little cane 
and coarse grass about the springs and the mezquite, is barren; but it is favorable for grades. At 
the Limpid we enter the region of the Diabolo mountains, probably a continuation of the Guada¬ 
lupe range. The country is beautiful, and the mountains in August were covered with green grass 
to their summits. Pine is found on them. The pass is called the Wild Rose Pass. 
These mountains do not form a single continuous ridge, but are made up of single conical 
peaks, intersecting each other so as to form “an impassable barrier” had not some convulsion of 
nature seemed partly to have opened the pass and canon through which the road runs. The 
canon is deep and nari'ow, and in some places not more than 200 yards wide. The last encamp¬ 
ment on the plain to the east is at the Painted Camp, 463 miles from San Antonio. We leave the 
mountains about 40 miles farther on and come upon an elevated plain with water in very limited 
quantities. Over this plain the road passes for 60 miles to Eagle springs. From Eagle springs 
the route leads by a canon through the mountains on the left, and reaches the Rio Grande in a 
distance of 31 miles; thence to Fort Fillmore, 119 miles; making a total distance from San 
Antonio of 710 miles, and from Indianola 840 miles. 
No reliable practical result could be obtained by the application of the equation of grade to the 
ascents and descents on this route according to the profile we have. 
The elevations are: at Indianola, 0 feet; at San Antonio, about 700 feet; at leaving of 
Pecos, 1,900 feet; at summit of Wild Rose Pass, 5,766 feet; at Van Horner’s well, 4,146 feet; 
on the mountains to the west, 4,714 feet; at first reaching the Rio Grande, 3,536 feet; at Fort 
Fillmore, 3,938 feet. Some of the grades are, for short distances, as high as 400 to 500 feet per 
mile, but could, no doubt, by proper location, be reduced to practicable ones. No wood could 
be relied on for railroad purposes from the San Felipe to the Diabolo mountains, a distance of 
330 miles; probably none to the west of these mountains. 
Water for working parties and for the use of the locomotives could probably be obtained as 
easy as on corresponding portions of the route of the 32d parallel. 
