Region

All rivers have stories, and the Rio Grande has its share, for sure. It’s a river with at least two names, known in Mexico as the Rio Bravo del Norte, and in the U.S. as the Rio Grande. It took centuries for European explorers to establish that the river they encountered in New Mexico was indeed the same river flowing into the sea near the present Texas city of Brownsville.

The river, nearly 1,900 miles long, rises in the mountains of southern Colorado, flows south the entire length of New Mexico before winding its way along the Texas-Mexico border and emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists tell us that, for the New Mexico portion, the river flows along the bottom of a large valley called the Rio Grande Rift, a place where the North American continent, they say, is being pulled apart, or “stretched like taffy.”

Throughout history people have relied on the river’s water – through seasons of flood and drought – developing settlements, raising crops, and worrying if its waters can support growing cities and the native river dwellers such as the silvery minnow. Extensive acequia networks (community owned irrigation ditches) were built to support agriculture, and dams were constructed to aid irrigation and control flooding. And sections of the river were left relatively undisturbed – such as the Bosque del Apache near Socorro, which is world famous as a migratory waterfowl and bird-watching area.

NMSU, as New Mexico’s land-grant university, has the mission of researching and understanding all aspects of the Rio Grande. Faculty, staff and students at the university collaborate with citizens and groups throughout the Southwest to help understand the river as a vital natural resource, an important economic factor in the state, along with its importance in political, historical and geological contexts.