| Rio Grande Valley | |
|---|---|
| Valle de Río Grande (Spanish) | |
.jpg) Rio Grande Valley nearSocorro, New Mexico | |
| Length | 230 mi (370 km) N-S |
| Geology | |
| Type | River valley |
| Age | 2.06 Ma |
| Geography | |
| Country | United States |
| State | New Mexico |
| Population centers | |
| Borders on | New Mexico-Texas (3 mi (4.8 km)) |
| Coordinates | 33°41′52.41″N106°57′19.78″W / 33.6978917°N 106.9554944°W /33.6978917; -106.9554944 |
| River | Rio Grande |
 Interactive map of Rio Grande Valley | |
TheRio Grande Valley is theriver valley carved out by theRio Grande as it flows through theAmerican Southwest and northeasternMexico, forming a part of theborder region. In theUS state ofNew Mexico, the river flows mostly north to south, and forms a valley from nearCochiti Pueblo[1] to the state line nearEl Paso, Texas, along the floors of the largesedimentary basins of theRio Grande Rift, and includes the narrow sections between the basins. It has been historically settled first by thePueblo peoples, theSpanish, theMexicans, and finallyAnglo-Americans. As thelargest river in the state, some of New Mexico'smost populous cities are located wholly or partially in the valley, includingAlbuquerque, New Mexico's largest city.
The Rio Grande Valley is vital to the state's surface and groundwatermunicipal water supply,recreation, andagriculture, includingirrigated farmland, theRio Grande Valley AVA, theMesilla Valley AVA, and the largest acreages of land for growingchile peppers andpecans in theUnited States, accounting for 77% and 14% of US production, respectively.[2][3]
The middle Rio Grande Valley begins atCochiti Lake where the river exits theEspañola Basin west ofSanta Fe, and forms a shallow valley along the floor of theSanto Domingo Basin, where it hosts mainlyPuebloan agriculture. The valley runs throughAlbuquerque Basin, the location ofAlbuquerque, New Mexico'slargest city, between the aptly namedEast andWest Mesas. It is also the location ofRio Grande Valley State Park. The valley narrows to the south of this basin before entering theSocorro Basin nearSevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. The valley (and river) trend mostly north–south to -southwest, supporting agriculture in a thin green ribbon across theChihuahuan Desert. It entersElephant Butte Reservoir, the largest water body in New Mexico, betweenBosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and the city ofTruth or Consequences. Between Elephant Butte andCaballo Reservoir, the river supports very little agriculture.Ojos (hot springs) are located along the valley floor, and many spas offer natural mineral soaks in T or C.[4] South of Caballo, the valley supports highly fertile lands of theHatch region where most of the domestically produced chile peppers in the United States are grown. This part of the valley is known as the "Hatch Valley". The valley becomes constrained again before entering theMesilla Basin where it hosts large tracts of agricultural fields. The river exits the valley south ofLas Cruces, the second-largest city in the state, and flows mostly southeast betweenTexas andMexico to theGulf of Mexico.
The first and largest modification structure in the valley isCochiti Dam at the river's confluence with theSanta Fe River. Other major dams areElephant Butte Dam andCaballo Dam. Diversion structures are, north to south,Angostura,Isleta,San Acacia,Percha,Leasburg,Mesilla, andAmerican Diversion Dams. Additionally the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA) operates an adjustable height dam to supply the city with drinking water.[5]
The valley hosts thePueblo communities ofCochiti,Kewa,San Felipe,Sandia, andIsleta. Other population centers include Albuquerque, Socorro, T or C, Hatch, and Las Cruces.
The entire Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico follows theRio Grande Rift, a structural rift caused by the westward extension of the continental basement of theWestern United States during the past 35 million years. The rift itself extends fromColorado in the north toChihuahua in the south, where the river no longer flows. The valley is therefore also arift valley.[6]
Before theAncestral Rio Grande was integrated into a single watercourse, the valley was a series of closedbolsons each draining into a centralplaya.[7] An axial river existed in the Espanola Basin as early as 13 million years ago, reaching the Santo Domingo Basin by 6.9 million years ago. However, at this time, the river drained into a playa in the southernAlbuquerque Basin where it deposited thePopotosa Formation.[8] The ancestral Rio Grande progressively integrated basins to the south, reaching the Palomas basin by 4.5 million years, the Mesilla basin by 3.1 million years, to Texas by 2.06 million years.[8]
Although the Rio Grande flows primarily throughdesert and arid lands, the valley floor nearest the river supports a richbosque habitat, featuring large cottonwoodgallery forests. The bosque has been cleared in areas for agricultural fields. The fields themselves provide a habitat for migratory birds.
The Rio Grande Valley has been inhabited for millennia. TheFolsom tradition first reached the Rio Grande Valley between 13,000 and 12,000 years ago near present-dayAlbuquerque. Following herds of bison across theWest Mesa, they would frequent the valley for water, game, and wild plants. Artifacts left behind by the Folsom culture include flakes of stonecherts from theChuska Mountains, theZuni Mountains, and theRio Puerco Escarpment, suggesting they were moving east toward the Rio Grande, collecting high-quality stones along the way, and stopping to camp and kill game upon the mesa, before continuing west and south across theAmericas.[9]
TheAncestral Puebloans inhabited the valley year-around starting sometime before 1300CE, after abandoning their settlements near theFour Corners region, probably due to drought, in the latePueblo III Period.[10] They established the variouspueblos in the valley that are still inhabited today.
TheApache peoples entered the valley sometime between 1200 and 1500 CE; the Apaches' nomadic way of life complicates accurate dating, primarily because they constructed less substantial dwellings than other Southwestern groups.[11] They were a primarily nomadic culture who would hunt and gather wild plants. They traded with the Pueblos their bison meat, hides, and stone tool materials for Puebloanmaize and wovencotton goods. They would also raid Pueblo, and later Spanish, Mexican, and American, settlements. Since the early 21st century, substantial progress has been made in dating and distinguishing their dwellings and other forms of material culture.[12][13]
In the autumn of 1540, a military expedition of theViceroyalty of New Spain led byFrancisco Vásquez de Coronado,Governor of Nueva Galicia, reached theTiwa pueblos in the valley around the future site of theAlbuquerque Metro.[14] When they entered the valley to establishirrigated fields, they encountered fields already in place by the Pueblos, complete with diversions and canals "as if built by Spaniards".[15][16]
El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (English: The Royal Road of Interior Land) was established in 1600 to connectMexico City with the capital of the kingdom ofSanta Fe de Nuevo México. The road first entered the valley atEl Paso del Norte (present day Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua). North ofLas Cruces, New Mexico, the road left the valley and traversed theJornada del Muerto Desert. The road then rejoined the valley atSocorro and followed along the floor of the valley to nearKewa Pueblo, where it again left the valley on the final leg toSanta Fe, New Mexico.[17]
La Villa de Alburquerque was founded byNuevo México governorFrancisco Cuervo y Valdés in 1706. It was built in the style of a typical Spanishvilla, with buildings surrounding a central plaza. The area was an important crossing in the valley since ancient times. Here, a good ford of the river lined with the path to animportant mountain pass[18]
Between 1591 and 1942, 82 floods with flows greater than 10,000 cubic feet per second of flow were recorded. Flooding resulted from seasonalmeltwater from snow in the northern mountains in the spring, and fromstorm runoff during theNew Mexican Monsoon in the summer.[19] The Spanish noted that Pueblos living along the river would often build on raised land or natural highpoints along the valley floor; rarely, they would abandon settlements if the flooding was too frequent or severe in a particular location. An unnamed Spaniard in 1776 wrote of the floods in the Rio Grande Valley:
"This river is in flood from mid-April to the end of June. The force of the freshets depends upon whether the winter snows have been heavy or light, but they never fail, for it always snows more or less. In a very rainy year, the flood sea-son lasts a long time, and the longer it lasts, the greater the damage it does, whether to people or cattle who are drowned, or to farmlands that are swept away, or even to nearby houses that are carried off."[19]
The largest flood occurred in 1828 and exceeded 100,000 cfs. Records indicate that the entire valley was flooded from Albuquerque to El Paso, which caused the river to shift to new channels in several locations. Several settlements in the Albuquerque area were moved due to flooding, such as Alameda and "Upper Bernalillo". Near Albuquerque, the river would alternate during floods between a channel near present-day 2nd and 4th Streets NW east of town, and the present-day channel west of town; this ended when the river was channelized in the city in the 1950s.[19]
The construction ofElephant Butte Dam andCochiti Dam in the 20th century virtually ended the era of unpredictable and destructive flooding in the middle Rio Grande Valley. This has led to issues in the valley such as falling water tables, decreased fertility due to reduction in silt deposition, decrease incottonwood saplings due to competitive vegetation surviving flood season, and endangerment of certain aquatic species due to decreased intensity of spring flood pulses, which typically cues spawning in such species.[20]
When theAtchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad arrived in Albuquerque 1880, it bypassed the Plaza, locating the passenger depot and railyards about2 miles (3 km) east in what quickly became known as "New Albuquerque" or "New Town".[21] A new line, theEl Paso Subdivision, was built from New Albuquerque, 230 miles (370 km) south to El Paso, Texas. The northern and southern sections of the route traverses the Rio Grande Valley, while the central section bypasses the valley and crosses the Jornada del Muerto Desert, very roughly parallel to the Camino Real. The line is still active as of 2021, but is only moderately used. The entire line from Belen to El Paso is unsignalizeddark territory.[22]
In the 1926,U.S. 66 was constructed through the New Mexico. The highway entered the valley atKewa Pueblo. It then continued south through the valley through the Albuquerque area toLos Lunas, where the highway left the valley to continue west to California. U.S. 66 was rerouted on a more east–west path to cross the valley at Albuquerque in 1937.[23]U.S. Route 85, part of thePan-American Highway, was constructed along the length of the valley from El Paso, Texas to then-US 66 (nowNM 6) in Los Lunas. It was shown as "U.S. Route 466" in an early 1925 plan for theUnited States Numbered Highway System.[24] The number "466" was later used alonganother routing.
Repeated floods in the middle Rio Grande Valley have created some of the most fertile agricultural lands in theSouthwest. The Puebloans were the first to grow crops in the valley, growing maize,squash, andbeans. TheSpanish later expanded irrigation to almost everyarable acre of floodland along the Rio Grande.[15]
The valley is famous for growingchile peppers; the village ofHatch bills itself as "The Chile Capital of the World".[25] The mix of desert minerals with clays and otheralluvium carried south by the floods have created a uniqueterroir,[26] resulting in peppers with unique flavors and uniformheat levels. It includes acreage for New Mexico'sstate vegetable, theNew Mexico chile.
Other important crops includepecans,frijoles (pinto beans),peanuts,onions, and cotton. It is the location of Stahmann Farms, which operates the world's largest pecan orchard near Las Cruces. Livestock includescattle,dairy,sheep,angora goats,pigs,chickens,turkeys, andhoney bees.[27][3]
