Rio Grande (river)

The Rio Grande is a river that flows through the United States and Mexico, serving as an important natural boundary and a source of water supply, irrigation, and biodiversity. More than just a body of water, the Rio Grande River is an important element of the region’s ecosystem, economy, and politics, as well as a cultural and historical symbol for both countries.

Geography

The Rio Grande is a border river that separates the United States and Mexico for 2,000 kilometers, from the city of El Paso to the mouth formed when the river flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

The river’s origins are not entirely conventional. Its stretch below the city of El Paso is the youngest watercourse in North America. About 50,000 years ago, the river, which would later be called the Rio Grande, flowed into Lake Cabeza de Vaca. That’s when the lake’s waters broke through the hilly terrain to the east and headed toward the Gulf of Mexico.

Merging with the Pecos and Rio Conchos rivers, the Rio Grande tripled its length.

The river originates in the San Juan Mountains (Colorado, USA), which serves as the watershed between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The source of the river is located at an elevation of 3658 meters in the Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge. Descending from the mountains, the river enters flat and arid plateaus and forms the San Luis Valley, which is closed by mountains 2000-2500 m high.

Closer to the city of Taos in the U.S. state of New Mexico and above Santa Fe, the river cuts deep narrow canyons in the valley. Leaving the state of New Mexico, above the city of El Paso (Texas), the river changes direction to the south and southeast, forming up to the mouth of the border between the American state of Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. At the same stretch, the river twists steeply at this place is located Big Bend National Park, or Steep Turn Downstream, forming several separate branches, the Rio Grande dissolves into the waters of the Caribbean Sea.

The river’s feeding is highly variable due to precipitation and topography. In the upper reaches, the Rio Grande is fed by snow and mountain springs. In the middle and lower reaches, the main type of nutrition are rains brought by hurricanes coming from the Gulf of Mexico. But this does not happen often: once in five to seven years. For these reasons, the river is subject to violent floods from September through November, begins to shallow in May, and in the summertime it almost dries up in many places.

History

Pueblo Indian tribes lived on the banks of the Rio Grande: they built earthen fortresses-pueblos (hence the tribe’s name), worshipped the sun, and practiced the cult of kachinas (painted figures). They called their river P’osoge, meaning Great River.

In the XVI century the Spaniards came here and named the river Rio Bravo del Norte: this name has been preserved in Mexico. After the Spaniards came the English, then American farmers settled here and long bloody wars began. The Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty of 1848, a peace agreement between Mexico and the United States that summarized the American-Mexican War of 1846-1848, put an end to the feuds. In addition to the fact that Mexico lost 1.36 million km2 of its territory to the United States, the border between the American state of Texas and Mexico along the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo del Norte) was finally established. Exclusively because of this treaty, the entire area along the river was surveyed and mapped.

Until the end of the Civil War in 1861-1865, the Rio Grande remained the escape route for black slaves from Texas to Mexico, where slavery had been abolished as early as 1828. Nowadays, the migration route across the river has changed and is going in the opposite direction, with millions of illegal immigrants from Mexico and Latin American countries crossing the Rio Grande northward.

To settle their differences, the United States and Mexico signed the Rio Grande Water Rights Agreement back in 1944, but as the river shoals, the Americans are getting less and less of its resources.

The water situation became even more complicated at the beginning of the XXI century. In the summer of 2001, a natural sandbar blocked the mouth of the river and for the first time in history the river could not bring its waters to the Gulf of Mexico. The berm was removed, but immediately reappeared. The river almost ceased to flow regularly into the Gulf of Mexico, not reaching it only 150 meters. The river’s delta has disappeared, bringing the population of the local species of dwarf trout, shrimp and many species of birds and mammals to the brink of extinction.

Whether or not the river will flow into the bay depends on the spring rains: if they pass, they will wash away the berm, and if not, the Rio Grande will not flow into the bay.

For these reasons, navigation on the Rio Grande – very intensive in the 19th and early 20th centuries – has virtually ceased. This occurred as early as the 1950s due to the massive diversion of water for irrigation and domestic needs of urban dwellers: the population along the Rio Grande amounted to about 10 million people. The gradual drying up of the climate in the river basin, when the Rio Grande became very shallow, also had an impact. It can now be waded almost the entire length of the river. In some places it is so dried up that the course breaks up into a chain of small lakes.

Communication across the river is maintained by three major road and railroad bridges maintained by U.S.-Mexican companies.

The same joint ventures undertake flow regulation and water storage activities, for which a network of reservoirs and impoundments has been established. Elephant Butte Reservoir is New Mexico’s largest man-made lake. Built in 1916, it stretches 60 kilometers long and its shoreline is 320 kilometers long. This man-made lake has been given the status of a protected area and is called New Mexico’s Lake Elephant Butte State Park. Another body of water, the International Faulcon Reservoir, is notable for its considerable depth (34 meters) and length (97 km).

Another artificial detail in the channel of the Rio Grande is the long concrete banks in the El Paso area. The banks had to be concreted over as a result of 114 years of disagreement over the boundaries between the United States and Mexico. It was at this point that the river often changed course and the border shifted. It was necessary to concrete its banks for centuries.Rio Grande River on the map.

Nature

The tributaries of the Rio Grande do not manage to fill the river with fresh water, but are of great interest to nature lovers. One section of the American tributary of the Pecos River even received the unusual status of “Wild and Scenic River”, becoming a legally protected area. It is also home to the Pecos National Historical Park. The Rio Conchos, the main tributary of the Rio Grande, flows into the drying river to re-fill its bed, but nevertheless, the river’s flow is steadily decreasing, causing extreme dissatisfaction among American farmers who take water downstream for irrigation. Even in the best seasons, no more than 3% of the flow reaches the mouth of the Rio Grande due to water diversion for irrigation of fields.

The area of irrigated fields is very large: more than 800,000 hectares along the river banks, and most of the area is in Mexico. Irrigation of land by the waters of the Rio Grande has a long history, dating back to the time when the Pueblo Indians lived along its banks. Fertile lands are found along its upper and middle reaches. To the south, most of the desert vegetation survives: prosopis, creosote bush, various species of cactus and yucca.

General Information

• Location: southwestern North America. Flows through the territory of the USA and Mexico.
• Political-administrative boundary: between the USA (Texas) and Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas).
• Feeding mode: mixed, snow-dominated.
• Basin: Caribbean Sea, Atlantic Ocean.
• Source: Rocky Mountains, San Juan massif (Colorado, USA).
• Mouth: Gulf of Mexico of the Caribbean Sea.
• Largest tributaries: left tributary – Pecos (USA), right tributaries – Rio Conchos (Mexico), Rio Salado (Mexico).
• The largest cities: USA – Albuquerque, El Paso, Laredo, Brownsville; Mexico – Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo.
• Length: 3051 km (2000 km between USA and Mexico).
• Total basin area: about 870,000 km2.
• Average water discharge: 68 m3/s.
• Maximum water discharge: 27,297 m3/s.
• Minimum water discharge: 1 m3/s.

Economy

• Mineral resources: oil (Texas, USA).
• Industry: hydropower.
• River navigation (closer to the mouth).
• Agriculture: crop production (potatoes, alfalfa, peppers, onions, pecans, citrus, vegetables), livestock (cattle).
• Cotton growing.
• Fishing.
• Sphere of services: tourism, transportation.

Climate and weather

• Moderately continental in the north, dry tropical in the south.
• Average temperature in January: +7°С.
• Average temperature in July: +28°C.
• Average annual precipitation: 750 mm.

Attractions

• The city of Taos and the complex of Indian buildings of the XV century (New Mexico, USA);
• The city of Santa Fe – the capital of New Mexico, USA;
• The city of El Paso and historical sights of the “Wild West” (Texas, USA);
• The city of Chihuahua – capital of the state of Chihuahua. Mexico;
• The city of Ciudad-Xyapec and the parks of Xtremo and Central (Chihuahua, Mexico);
• Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge (Colorado, USA);
• Big Bend National Park (Texas, USA);
• Pecos River;
• Elephant Butte Reservoir;
• New Mexico’s Lake Elephant Butte State Park;
• International Faulcon Reservoir;
• Brownsville Matamoros Border Bridge.

Fun Facts

• Big Bend National Park is located in southwest Texas on the border with Mexico, from which it is separated by the Rio Grande River. The park has preserved relict forests from the Pleistocene period. 434 species of birds live here – more than in any other national park in the United States, and more than half of the species of North American avifauna.
• The Mexican state of Nuevo Leon shares a common border with the United States to the north, along the Rio Grande River, which is only 15 kilometers long.
• In the 19th century, the Rio Grande River was the border between Mexico and the Republic of Texas, a state in North America that existed from 1836 to 1845.
• The most intense period of navigation on the lower Rio Grande was in the 19th century, when 200 steamboats traveled the river. Many of these vessels had previously traveled the Mississippi and Ohio, but were requisitioned by the U.S. government and transferred to the Rio Grande during the Mexican War of 1846 to transport troops and munitions.
• The river’s name and the river itself are immortalized in the movie of the same name. “Rio Grande” is a 1950 American classic western directed by John Ford and starring Hollywood star John Wayne. The action takes place on the banks of the Rio Grande during the war with the Apache Indians. Recognized as one of the best movie westerns of all time.
• In 1997, the U.S. government awarded the Rio Grande River special honorary status as one of the “American Heritage Rivers” in recognition of its role in the history of the United States. Two sections of the river have been honored as Wild and Scenic Rivers: in northern New Mexico and in Texas, in Big Bend National Park.
• Taos Pueblo is a millennia-old settlement of ancient multi-story pueblo buildings with meter-thick walls, supposedly built by the Anasazi culture, the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians. Here is the largest of the used structures of the ancient pueblos. The settlement is inhabited by Indians even today: it is an isolated and uncommunicative group. Taos Pueblo is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Some canyons in the Rio Grande Valley reach depths of more than 450 meters. The deepest canyon is in the Big Bend area: it is 520 meters deep.
• The Faulcon Reservoir on the U.S.-Mexican border has become the scene of a struggle between the American police and the Mexican drug mafia. In addition, for the first time in the last two hundred years, pirate attacks on tourists and locals, accompanied by the seizure of riverboats, took place on U.S. territory, at the Faulcon Reservoir.