History and government of New Mexico . The Elephant Butte Dam Then, with the camouflage cleared away and no largenumber of vessels navigating the shifting quicksandsof the Rio Grande, the United States Department of theInterior built (1910-1916), at a cost of about $10,000,000,a great reenforced concrete dam more than two hundredfeet high across the Rio Grande from hill to hill, strongenough to hold back a lake of water forty-five miles longand large enough to store all the waters of the river for ayear. This lake has a capacity of 2,600,000 acre-feet of RAILROADS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 209
History and government of New Mexico . The Elephant Butte Dam Then, with the camouflage cleared away and no largenumber of vessels navigating the shifting quicksandsof the Rio Grande, the United States Department of theInterior built (1910-1916), at a cost of about $10,000,000,a great reenforced concrete dam more than two hundredfeet high across the Rio Grande from hill to hill, strongenough to hold back a lake of water forty-five miles longand large enough to store all the waters of the river for ayear. This lake has a capacity of 2,600,000 acre-feet of RAILROADS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 209 water — double the capacity of the Roosevelt Dam inArizona. Below it are the broad Rincon, Mesilla, and ElPaso valleys with nearly two hundred thousand acres ofland to be brought under irrigation. 247. Settling the Land Question. — In 1854 Congressextended American land laws to the Territory, providing a. Harvest Time in the Pecos Valley free homestead of a hundred and sixty acres and settingaside two sections (16 and 36) in each township for office of surveyor general was created at the same the old settled regions much of the best land hadbeen reduced to private ownership under Spanish andMexican grants or by constant occupation for generationsback. The government undertook to investigate the titlesto all these lands. Some holders refused to bring theirpapers into court; others did not have the money to paythe fees; and all regarded the process as needless inter-ference in their private affairs. Consequently many of 2IO THE HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO the grants remained unconfirmed until after the comingof the railroads. Then homesteaders began to take up and hold down their claims in complete disregard ofthe old grants. Many of the grants were genuine; others were of doubt-ful origin and of still more doubtful size and boundaries;while still others rested on out-and-o
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