File:Park near head of Conejos Cañon, Col. - DPLA - 20f8818b80ad11f8c12d1244bc2b5d42 (page 2).jpg

Title from item.; On item: War Department, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army. Geographical Explorations and Surveys. West of the 100th Meridian. Expedition of 1874. Under Command of Lieut. Geo. M. Wheeler, Corps of Engrs.; Plate number: No. 18; Descriptive legend of view no. 18: A companion piece to No. 17, showing the right-hand side of the cañon at this place. In comparing the two views, the explorer's camp, on the left of this picture, may be taken as the point common to both. The valley of the Conejos varies in width from one to three miles. It is almost inaccessible except by way of its mouth, being bounded on either side by an escarpment of precipitous cliffs 2,000 feet above the stream, from whose base the foot-hills slope with an even and gentle grade. In all of our unoccupied territory there is no spot which offers greater advantages to the settler than this. Although it is at too great an elevation for the production of ordinary crops, yet as a grazing country it is unrivaled, and is capable of giving subsistence to thousands of cattle. It is a broad area of pasturage, upon which the grass grows deep in the summer and the snows are light in winter. Hitherto the settler has been deterred from entering this promising district by fear of the Ute Indians, from whose power it is now reclaimed, and when visited, in 1874, it did not possess any permanent inhabitants, and used only by the Mexicans of the Rio Grande, who were in the custom of driving their herds hither for the summer season.