I grew up in Eastern New Mexico, sparsely populated but also remarkably scant in public land. Noticed a lot of those green spots fell there.
Wasn't for lacking of trying, you drive through and occasionally you'll see the remains of old buildings. Mostly schools I think. For some odd reason the schools were always built with rock while everything else was made out of wood.
Basically what happened is that people came in after the Homestead Act to try and settle, found out that despite all the grasses it's still basically a desert, and gave up after the Depression.
There's also the town of Tolar, New Mexico. That one's special. It got leveled during WWII when a train carrying bombs derailed.
Nowadays I think most of the land between Clovis and Roswell is privately owned by ranchers.
Wasn't for lacking of trying, you drive through and occasionally you'll see the remains of old buildings. Mostly schools I think. For some odd reason the schools were always built with rock while everything else was made out of wood.
Basically what happened is that people came in after the Homestead Act to try and settle, found out that despite all the grasses it's still basically a desert, and gave up after the Depression.
There's also the town of Tolar, New Mexico. That one's special. It got leveled during WWII when a train carrying bombs derailed.
Nowadays I think most of the land between Clovis and Roswell is privately owned by ranchers.