Miriam McFate Travel Journal - 1926

Thu, Nov 18, 1926

Very chilly here last night. Froze water. Did not get started very early 8:55. While in camp here Grover met a man and his wife from Denver. He was a camp keeper there when Irwin and Grover came back to Iowa. We got gasoline 18 cents. El Paso is a large city. We did not loose our way in this city for once. The west side of El Paso is all mexicans. 20 miles to the next town, Anthony Texas.

We are driving right along the river now. This is not near as large as we thought the Rio Grande was. They farm thro the valley on this side of El Paso to. Most all cotton. They have some nice fields of alfalfa and some clover, it is nice and green.

Mountains on the north and mountains on the south of us. The highway goes right between these two ranges. These mountains are very steep. On the north it is the San Andres and on the south is the Mexican range. This range has the most ragged, rugged mountain peaks of any we have seen yet. We saw two cranes this morning, out in the river waiting to catch a fish for their breakfast. They were standing perfectly still. Would have made a nice shot, but we did not stop.

Came in to the little town Mesquite. Here was the boundary line of New Mexico and Texas. We bid old Texas good-bye. Don’t know whether she was as glad to see us go as we were to leave or not. We sure were glad get to another state even if it was full of Mexicans. The people here are busy picking cotton. We have counted as high as 30 in one small field busy at work. Little Mexican town along here every 4 or 5 miles. Lots of places thro here they are busy in the field, putting in some kind of a crop. I do not know what it is. There machinery is nearly like our own. The cotton planter looks like our corn planters do, only they plant only 1 row at a time. They use a walking plow to plow it with.

Drove on to Misilla Park Mex. Stopped here and ate our dinner. Started again at 1:00. It is 24 miles to the next town Aden. We turned here and headed off towards the south. Drove about two miles, then we crossed the Rio Grande River. This river was almost dry at this point. Have a large damm up the river aways. We did not drive up to see it. Just 2 or 3 narrow streams of water were running down thro the sand in the bottom of the bed.

When we crossed the bridge we were stopped by the U.S. inspector. They asked us if we had any cotton, cotton comforters or cotton mattresses. Of course we did not, so on we went. This is done to prevent the spread of the cotton weevil. If we had of had any of these things mentioned, it would of been destroyed regardless of its price. They do not allow any cotton of any description to cross this line. We came up a long winding grade thereinto what is known as the Mexican desert. It looked no different to us than some of the rest of the forsaken places we have passed. The same kind of grass and shrubs growing along the road. The road was not as rocky but more sandy. It winds around just the same way.

We drove on and on. We are 13 miles from this next town. Off to the east we can see a great mountain all alone. It is very high. This peak is Mt. Riley. We passed on thro this little town. Railway goes thru it. Depot and a filling station was all there was here. We did not stop. I’ll bet its a hold up for gasoline here. 14 miles to the next town of Cambray. We drove on till we spied some Jack rabbits along here in the brush. We stopped and the boys went after rabbits. Did not get any. Just killed a lot of valuable time as it is growing well along into the afternoon.

On we go again thro the same kind of country. 16 miles from Deming Mex. The sun is going down behind the mountains. We will be in the dark tonight, hunting our roost. When the sun drops behind the mountains here, it is dark. We passed 2 or 3 ranches along here. Drove on as long as we could see. Seems as tho the miles here are extra long. Got so dark had to stop and connect up our lights, Started on. Only went a short distance till Lizzie stopped. Out of gasoline. We carry 3 gallons for emergency so put this in, still we are 2 miles from the city. Drove on till we came to a free camp ground. Here we pulled in at 7:00. 2 other parties here tonight. Isn’t so chilly either.