The Southwestern States (1954)

the southwestern region of the United States whether it's Texas and it's Oklahoma it's New Mexico and Arizona is sometimes referred to as a great Empire in itself it's expense is indicated by the fact that New Mexico and Arizona span the broad Rocky Mountain Plateau a high level plane marks the eastern boundary of the plateau and mountains thrust their jagged peaks into its northern limits rainfall is heaviest toward the east and here many streams originate and thread their way through fertile farmlands of Oklahoma and Texas into the Mississippi Basin and the Gulf of Mexico on the western side the slow rise of the plateau has forced the Colorado River to dig its bed more than a mile deep in places as it flows toward the Gulf of Lora California on the grape dry plateau there are picturesque stretches of desert lofty mountains come down from the north there are volcanic cinder cones which seemed to have ceased activity only recently the plateau is a country of mountain plain and Canyon here is the Grand Canyon of the Colorado attracting thousands of tourists every year attracting geologists as well to read the story of the Earth's crust and its exposed rock strata other plateau lands contain a wealth of lure for tourists a wealth of speculation on cultures of a bygone age here are ancient Aztec ruins in Chaco Canyon are these unsurpassed ruins of dwellings more than a thousand years old and here near Santa Fe New Mexico archaeologists investigate this great communal dwelling of 1,000 rooms built more than 2,000 years ago this region thus has long been known to man the Spanish fortune hunters in their earliest 16th century explorations came upon ancient cultures here conquistadors conquered priests converted and one of the old world ruled labor agents of the Spanish government taught the Indians they conquered on the plateau how to make objects of value to the Spaniards as a result of intermarriage the Spanish blood mixed with that of native Indian continues to this day in many people of the southwest both Spanish and English are official languages in New Mexico prehistoric irrigation systems are reflected in giant modern projects in the Rio Grande and Gila River Basins where crops include most of the nation's long staple cotton more important on the plateau however are the cattle ranches the Spaniards first set up these influence life even today in this region in the past dried tableland are huge cattle ranges where thousands of highly bred beef cattle roam where of late years thousands of dairy cattle have been stopped sheep ranges with millions of sheep many herds being owned or cared for by Mexicans or by Indians such as the Navajos New Mexico has ranked among leading sheep grazing regions since the time of the Spanish occupation the Sheep production of the eastern portion of the plateau extending into Texas and Oklahoma exceeds even that of Arizona and New Mexico the Southwest Texas separation leads the nation in production of mohair the wall of Angora goats Texas Oklahoma and other plain states are developing vast Turkey ranches overlook for the Spaniards was Arizona's copper today her copper mines produced one half of the nation's copper in addition Arizona has some gold and silver zinc and led the billions of tons of coal of this sub region underlie Indian reservations hence cannot be developed at present New Mexico likewise has considerable copper gold silver coal and petroleum the great state of Texas and her sister state Oklahoma to the north represent the more fertile portion of the Southwest where rainfall is heavier this region likewise was crossed and re-crossed by early Spanish explorers later Americans who had gradually settled in eastern Texas struck for liberty at the Alamo and its anser Center and Texas became a republic which joined the Union in 1845 to the north layoff Lahoma land of the red men once hunting ground of wandering Plains tribes such as Kai was pawnees and Apaches who followed the great buffalo herds on the Great Plains later refuge for creeks Cherokees Chickasaws Choctaws and Seminoles who were driven from their homes to the east Oklahoma became the principal Indian Territory today it includes remnants of 88 tribes in its 120,000 of Indian ancestry much of Oklahoma became likewise a new melting pot for Native American whites when the large central strip of land shown here in lighter tone was thrown open to white settlement in 1889 nearly 100,000 were added the first day within 50 years this migration brought over 2 million settlers into the state from all other parts of the country north east south and west today nearly nine million of the Southwest's 10 million people live in the Fertile region of the eastern plains and Gulf Coast although there are still many large sheep and cattle ranches in Texas and Oklahoma this area is closely related in agriculture to the southeastern United States Texas and Oklahoma raising about one-third of the nation's cotton of this Texas rich central and northern farm belt produces 3 million bales of cotton of 500 pounds each in an average year it is in cotton the Texas 1 million Negro population find much of their work along with Louisiana and Arkansas Southeast Texas irrigated lands produce millions of bushels of rice each year while in another irrigated district the Lower Rio Grande plain is one of the nation's richest year-round truck growing areas also vast level orchards from whence come Texas grapefruit the northwestern part of the region is in the winter wheat belt Oklahoma stands second only to Kansas in production of winter wheat corn farmers reap fine harvests in large areas nearby and Oklahoma's cotton belt produces nearly half a million bales per year in eastern Oklahoma coal fields bituminous coal miners aid in mineral production to help establish it as fourth among the states in total annual value of all minerals huge piles of chats marked the location of zinc production of northeastern Oklahoma production which gives it top ranking among states in this metal and forests in production of land usually found with or near zinc deposits but above all the diversity and value of other minerals and of farm crops the southwestern region stands supreme in petroleum production the huge oil fields of the Southwest are part of a vast based on extending into Louisiana on the east into Kansas on the north and New Mexico on the west in a recent year Texas alone produced almost one-fourth of the total world supply of petroleum for years oil much of it on Indian lands has been the backbone of Oklahoma's well today modern oil derrick forests have encroached upon the very capital in Oklahoma City much of the Mid Continent petroleum is piped to the Texas Gulf Coast in an airport our third where is located the largest petroleum refining center in the world from such Texas Gulf ports is Beaumont Port Arthur Houston Texas City Galveston Corpus Christi and Port Aransas for variety of products to the eastern seaboard Europe and South America thus the Southwest supplies raw materials petroleum cotton copper zinc LED grain fruits vegetables corn cattle sheep goats and hogs it receives manufactured goods clothing tools and a host of small products from the Northeast autos and farm machinery from the Middle States farm products from the Northwest tobacco and textiles from the southeast lumber seafoods fruits and motion pictures from the Far West there are six cities in the southwest of over one hundred thousand population they and their smaller sister cities are mostly trade in jobbing centers in a region that has had the greatest population increased ratio in recent years cities of the southwest are typically new and clean fueled largely by natural gas cities usually without smoke thus in the southwest a vigorous modern culture replaces that of a bygone age the wastes of straggling native growth become vast irrigated citrus farms across the sunlit plateau to the west echoing back from canyon walls that shield a past that long has been dead comes the surge of modern life the far-flung activities of modern agriculture the exploitation of resources by modern industry the rising crescendo of the conquest of a continent