Texas Almanac, 1980-1981 Page: 91
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WATER RESOURCES
Water skiing on Lake Austin. Colorado River lakes pro-
vide varied water recreation.
de Norte (River of the North). The name, Rio Grande
was first given the stream apparently by the explorer
Juan de Onate, who arrived on its banks near present
day El Paso in 1598.
Thereafter the names were often consolidated, as
Rio Grande del Norte. (It has its counterpart in the Por-
tuguese Rio Grande do Sul in the state of that name in
Brazil.) It was shown also on early Spanish maps as Rio
San Buenaventura and Rio Ganapetuan. In its lower
course it early acquired the name Rio Bravo, and it is
called by that name today by many Mexicans living in
its valley. At times it has also been known as Rio Tur-
bio, probably because of its appearance during its fre-
quent rises.
From source to mouth, the Rio Grande drops 12,-
000 feet to sea level as a snow-fed mountain torrent,
carver of canyons, desert stream and meandering
coastal river. Along its banks and in its valley Indian
civilizations developed and the white man made some
of his first North American settlements.
This river rises in Colorado, flows the north-south
length of New Mexico and forms the boundary of
Texas and international U.S.-Mexican boundary for
889 to 1,248 miles, depending upon method of measure-
ment. (See Texas Boundary Line.) The length of the
Rio Grande, as of other rivers, depends on method of
measurement and varies yearly as its course changes.
Latest International Boundary and Water Commission
figure is 1,896 miles, which is considerably below the
2,200-mile figure often used. Depending upon methods
of measurement, the Rio Grande is the fourth- or fifth-
longest North American river, exceeded only by the
Mlssouri-Mississippi, McKenzie-Peace, St. Lawrence
and possibly Yukon. Since all of these except the
Missouri-Mississippi are partly in Canada, the Rio
Grande Is the second-longest river entirely within or
bordering the United States. It is Texas' longest river.
The snow-fed flow of the Rio Grande is used for ir-
rigation in Colorado below the San Juan Mountains
where the river rises at the Continental Divide. Turn-
ing south, it flows through a canyon in northern New
Mexico and again irrigates a broad valley of central
New Mexico. Dating from the 1600s, this is the oldestacl
IT
r ,irrigated area of the United States, where Spanish mis-
sionaries encouraged Indian irrigation. Southern New
Mexico impounds Rio Grande waters in Elephant
Butte Reservoir for irrigation for 150 miles of valley
above and below El Paso. Here is the oldest irrigated
area in Texas and one of the oldest in the United
States. Extensive irrigation practically exhausts the
water supply. In this valley are situated the three old-
est towns in Texas - Ysleta, Socorro and San Elizario.
At the lower end of the El Paso irrigated valley, the
upper Rio Grande, a snow-fed mountain stream, virtu-
ally ends except in seasons of above-normal flow.
It starts as a perennially flowing stream again
where the Rio Conchos of Mexico flows into it at
Presidio-Ojinaga. Through the Big Bend the Rio
Grande flows through three successive canyons, the
Santa Elena, the Mariscal and the Boquillas. The Santa
Elena has a river bed elevation of 2,145 feet and a can-
yon rim elevation of 3,661. Corresponding figures for
the Mariscal are 1,925 and 3,625, those for the Boquil-
las, 1,850 and 3,490. The river here flows around the
base of the great Chisos Mountains. For about 100
miles the river is the southern boundary of the Big
Bend National Park.
Below the Big Bend, the Rio Grande gradually
emerges from mountains onto the Coastal Plains. At
the confluence of the Rio Grande and Devils River, the
U.S. and Mexico have built Amistad Dam, to impound
3,505,400 acre-feet of water, of which Texas' share is
56.2 per cent; and Falcon Reservoir, also an interna-
tional project, impounds 2,667,400 acre-feet of water,
of which Texas' share in Zapata and Starr Counties is
58.6 per cent. Finally, the Rio Grande has created a
fertile delta where it joins the Gulf of Mexico, called
the Lower Rio Grande Valley, that is a major vegetable-
fruit area.
The Rio Grande, as an international boundary,
and because of the use of its water, has been the sub-
ject of frequent disputes between the United States
and Mexico. It was not until 1964 that the boundary on
the Rio Grande at El Paso was settled. The Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo (which ended the U.S.-Mexican
War in 1848) fixed the middle of the stream as the
boundary, thus implying equal division of water be-
tween the nations.
The Rio Grande drains over 40,000 square miles of
Texas.
Principal tributaries flowing from the Texas side
of the Rio Grande are the Pecos and the Devils Rivers.
On the Mexican side are the Rio Conchos, the Rio
Salado and the Rio San Juan. About three fourths of
the water running into the Rio Grande below El Paso
comes from the Mexican side.
Nueces River
The Nueces River rises in Edwards County and
flows 315 mils to Nueces Bay on the Gulf near Corpus
Christi. Draining 17,000 square miles, it is a beautiful
spring-fed stream flowing through canyons until it
issues from the Balcones Escarpment onto the Coastal
Plain in northern Uvalde County. Alonso de Leon, in
1689, gave it its name. (Nueces, plural of nuez, means
nuts in Spanish.) Much earlier Cabeza de Vaca had
referred to a Rio de las Nueces in this region, probably
the same stream. Its original Indian name seems to
have been Chotilapacquen. Crossing Texas in 1691,
Teran de los Rios named the river San Diego. The
Nueces was the boundary line between the Spanish
provinces of Texas and Nuevo Santander. After the
Revolution of 1836 both Texas and Mexico claimed the
territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, a
dispute which was settled by the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo in 1848 which fixed the international boundary
at the Rio Grande. Nueces runoff is about 620,000 acre-
feet a year in its lower course. Principal water conser-
vation project is Lake Corpus Christi. Principal tribu-
taries of the Nueces are the Frio and the Atascosoa.
San Antonio River
The San Antonio River has its source in large
springs within and near the corporate limits of San
Antonio. It flows 180 miles across the Coastal Plain to a
junction with the Guadalupe near the Gulf Coast. Its
channel through San Antonio has been developed into
a parkway. Its principal tributaries are the Medina
River and Cibolo Creek, both spring-fed streams and
this, with its own origin in springs, gives it a remark-
ably steady flow of clear water.
This stream was first named the Leon by Alonso de
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Texas Almanac, 1980-1981, book, 1979; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth113815/m1/93/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.