Land grant disputes from the nineteenth century have divided and embittered some people for most of the twentieth century. In an attempt to bring final resolution to lingering controversies in New Mexico and throughout the West, in 2000 the U.S. Congress pledged to review disputed claims in the next few years.The Pecos Grant is illustrative of legal and administrative wrangling over land grants. To ensure that a U.S. Senate Committee understood the complexity of the Pecos Grant, New Mexico lawyer and historian Ralph Emerson Twitchell told them in 1923: "There are so many things in connection with this entire business that twenty King Solomons cannot unravel the knot." Yet in this book Hall does sort through the conflicting claims in the over one hundred years of Spanish, Mexican, and American legal maneuvers, legislative stalemates, and private sales involving this 18,000 acre square of land.

Four Leagues of Pecos: A Legal History of the Pecos Grant, 1800-1933 (New Mexico Land Grant Series)

Business & Money

Hall, G. Emlen

Economics

University of New Mexico Press

Four Leagues of Pecos

Focusing on the political and legal battles for water rights, this book traces the 20-year history of Texas v. New Mexico . But it doesn't stop there. The book also considers the significance of water, and this river especially, in an arid region. It examines the river's environmental, scientific, and social aspects. Hall teaches law at the University of New Mexico. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

High and Dry: The Texas-New Mexico Struggle for the Pecos River

Univ of New Mexico Pr

Water law, water politics, and especially water shenanigans are at the center of this book about New Mexico and Texas dividing the Pecos River. On one level the story is about a twenty-year court case, Texas v. New Mexico, a monstrous law suit between two states sharing a common water source, a state boundary, and a long history of mutual enmity. On another level, this story is as big and far-reaching as the high plains drained by the Pecos: it is part memoir, part biography, and part environmental history, part the history of hydrology, and part a contribution to the annals of litigation in the great tradition of Anthony Lewis and Jonathan Harr.
While High and Dry focuses on clashes of principles and personalities, especially in the courtroom, it remains very much a story about a river and its world in an arid region. There are irrigators here, including the leading "old families" of southeastern New Mexico, and there is nature here, including "the vampires of the West," the rapacious salt cedars relentlessly sucking up the precious Pecos stream flow. But beneath them all is the author, inviting readers to see how tiny gardens grown for the soul are as crucial to the overall story as the adjudication of water rights. Hall gives a masterful summary of the legal and scientific parts of the story, but he excels in letting us feel and care about water in the same manner as do the people who use it to grow crops.
 "One of the best books anywhere on the heart and soul of western water, High and Dry will leave you awed and flabbergasted by the intricacy, chicanery, mystery, and good old nonstop adventure of interstate water disputes. It is a joy to read, rich in humor and quirky personalities."--John Nichols
 "A major contribution to western water law and history in the tradition of Donald Worster. High and Dry is essential reading."--Dan Tarlock, Chicago-Kent College of Law

History

Americas

The Rio Grande was ancient long before the first humans reached its banks. These days, the highly regulated river looks nothing like it did to those early settlers. Alternately viewed as a valuable ecosystem and life-sustaining foundation of community welfare or a commodity to be engineered to yield maximum economic benefit, the Rio Grande has brought many advantages to those who live in its valley, but the benefits have come at a price.
This study examines human interactions with the Rio Grande from prehistoric time to the present day and explores what possibilities remain for the desert river. From the perspectives of law, development, tradition, and geology, the authors weigh what has been gained and lost by reining in the Rio Grande.

Reining in the Rio Grande: People, Land, and Water

Phillips, Fred M.

Black, Mary E.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hall, G. Emlen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hall, G. Emlen

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hall, G. Emlen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Four Leagues of Pecos: A Legal History of the Pecos Grant, 1800-1933 (New Mexico Land Grant Series)

Four Leagues of Pecos

High and Dry: The Texas-New Mexico Struggle for the Pecos River

High and Dry: The Texas-New Mexico Struggle for the Pecos River

Reining in the Rio Grande: People, Land, and Water

Reining in the Rio Grande: People, Land, and Water