Name: Grandfalls, Texas
Address: Grandfalls, TX

Engineering an Oasis RoadyGoat

The existence of Grandfalls is an engineering marvel. In the late 1880s, settlers looked at the dry Chihuahuan Desert and the muddy Pecos River and devised a plan. Two brothers-in-law, R. I. Carr and J. T. Sweatt, threw a brush dam across the river above the great falls, powered their cotton gin off the drop, and cut canals to pull water out of the river valley and onto the arid plains. A flood tore the dam out, so they rebuilt it with mules and plows and pushed the canals farther. About two decades later they did it again, only bigger: around 1912 Imperial Reservoir was built upstream on the Pecos to feed the Imperial Canal and keep water in the ditches through a dry season. That system turned the desert green and grew cotton, alfalfa, and eventually cantaloupe. The Pecos had the last word — its salty water slowly poisoned the soil, and crops up and down the valley failed. Still, it was a remarkable application of engineering that let a community exist, for a time, in one of the most inhospitable climates imaginable.

RoadyGoat →

The Lost Falls of the Pecos RoadyGoat

The town of Grandfalls is named for a landmark most people passing through have never seen. When settlers arrived in the late 1880s, they found a stretch of the Pecos about three miles west of here where the river tumbled over rock ledges — not one great cataract but a long churning run of rapids that made a roar you could hear from the flats. They called the upper falls the Grand and the lower ones the Great, and the falls were more than scenery: R. I. Carr and J. T. Sweatt threw a brush dam above the lower falls and used the drop to power their cotton gin. Then the river took it back. A flood in 1894 demolished the raceway, destroyed the dam, and cut the Pecos an entirely new channel. Carr and Sweatt rebuilt and dug new canals to spread the water onto their fields. Since 1936 the Pecos through here has run on a schedule set a hundred miles upstream at Red Bluff Dam, released to the irrigation districts below. The falls that named the town belong now to old photographs and to the sign you're driving past.

RoadyGoat →

Grandfalls, TX RoadyGoat

The town of Grandfalls, Texas, owes its name to its proximity to the 'grand falls' of the Pecos River. This natural landmark serves as a distinguishing feature of the area and is the inspiration behind the town's name.

Butterfield Overland Stage Line

1858

One of the longest stage routes ever established, the Southern Overland Mail Line (Butterfield Route) which provided semi-weekly service St. Louis to San Francisco, 1858-1861. Followed substantially the route of this highway through Ward County.

Historical Marker →

Red Bluff Dam and Reservoir

1934

Red Bluff Reservoir is on the Pecos River in Reeves and Loving counties, forty-five miles north of Pecos (at 31°54' N, 103°55' W). It extends into Eddy County, New Mexico, and takes its name from red bluffs along the river. T. A. Ezell became interested in constructing a dam at the site in 1905, but it did not materialize. Ten projects were diverting water from the Pecos by 1914, and the West Texas Reclamation Association was formed to study possibilities. In 1916 The Pecos Valley of Texas Water Users Association filed a petition with the United States Secretary of the Interior requesting aid for a reservoir. A new organization, the Red Bluff Water Improvement District, developed plans to include lands from Red Bluff to Grandfalls, Texas. The water users' contract was approved in 1920, and surveying started in 1921. Agreement between Texas and New Mexico provided for construction in 1924. President Calvin Coolidge approved the plan in 1926. Seven water districts were combined into the Red Bluff Water Control District in 1927. The Public Works Administration approved the loan in October 1934, bonds were sold to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, construction was then started, and the dam was completed by September 1936 at a cost of $2 million. Water use started in 1937. The drainage area of the reservoir is 20,720 square miles, with usable storage of 307,000 acre-feet. The dam is an earthfill type, 9,200 feet long, 102 feet high at the river, and 25 feet wide at the top. The reservoir is used for irrigation of 145,000 acres and for two hydroelectric units with a combined capacity of 2,300 kilowatts. The lake covers the historic sites of Camp Pope and Pope's Crossing , a stagecoach stop and ford of the nineteenth century.

Tsha Handbook →

Water Improvement District #2

1896

Water Improvement District No. 2 office. Built 1896 by promoters of irrigated farming. Community Center. (Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966.)

Historical Marker →

Grandfalls Union Church

1910

Built by three Protestant groups, 1910. First church building in town founded 1897. (Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966.)

Historical Marker →

Imperial, TX (Pecos County)

1910

Imperial is at the intersection of Farm roads 1053 and 11, four miles south of the Pecos River and twenty-eight miles northeast of Fort Stockton in northern Pecos County. It may have been known as Redlands from 1908 until around 1910 but was apparently renamed for the Imperial Valley of California when a post office and school were established there in 1910. In 1911 a townsite was laid out for the owner of the property, Benjamin E. Bush. Water was diverted from the Pecos River, and a dam was built to form the Imperial Reservoir, eight miles west of the community. An irrigation canal was constructed through Imperial in an effort by land promoters to attract buyers. Water rights were given to buyers, but high saline levels, a declining water supply, and low profits made farming unproductive. In 1925 Imperial had a population of twenty-five. The town had eleven rated businesses and a population of 250 in 1949. By 1968 the population was nearing 1,000, and the town supported twenty-six businesses. However, by 1986 the population had fallen to 720, and only twelve businesses remained. In 1990 the population was still recorded as 720. The population dropped to 428 in 2000.

Tsha Handbook → · 10.7 mi away

Grandfalls, Texas

Music in Grandfalls

Songs About Grandfalls

Artists From Grandfalls

Rivers & Roads in Song near Grandfalls

History of Grandfalls

Engineering an Oasis RoadyGoat

The Lost Falls of the Pecos RoadyGoat

Grandfalls, TX RoadyGoat

Butterfield Overland Stage Line

Red Bluff Dam and Reservoir

Water Improvement District #2

Grandfalls Union Church

Imperial, TX (Pecos County)

Things to Do in Grandfalls

Everything Near Grandfalls