1937 1999
Side by side comparison
Map
Data Sheet
TANK MESA
General Description: The original photograph is of a CCC road development
project some three miles southwest of Decker Ranch. The view is to the southwest
across BLM administered land. The original image is poor quality, the background
mesa is faintly visible in the 1937 photograph.
Soils: This site is primarily a wind blown very sandy loam inclusion over
a Moenkopie-rock outcrop complex. Sand depths here vary from a few inches to
several feet. These soils are well drained with a moderately low water supplying
capacity.
Precipitation: Average annual precipitation at this site ranges from 6 to
8 inches. Seventy years of precipitation records take at Bluff, Utah some 8
miles south of this site, indicate a 7.8 inch average annual precipitation rate
there.
Legal Description: SE1/4SE1/4 Section 23 T.39S., R.21E.
COMPARISON: The road cut made by the Blanding CCC camp has not
appreciably changed in the 62 years between photographs. The mid-ground sand
dune is much more stable with a significant increase in vegetation frequency,
density and ground cover. Soil binding capabilities are much improved.
Vegetation on the dune and immediate area includes, sand sagebrush, purplesage,
rough mulesear, fourwing saltbush, shadscale, blackbrush, Indian ricegrass,
curlygrass, cheatgrass, and snakeweed. A few non-vegetated interspaces are
visible at the dune crown in the left center of the 1999 photograph.
Original:
Date: Ca. 1937 (- A)
Photographer: Unknown
Source: National Archives, Denver, Colorado
Photograph Number: CCC DG-34.3
Retake:
Date: June 2, 1999 (- B)
Photographer: Earl Hindley
Source: San Juan County
