The Chronicles Of Grant County
The caption for this photo was "Lake Roberts shimmers in the afternoon sunshine." (The photograph was produced by Bill Mullen and provided courtesy of the Federal Highway Administration of the U S Department of Transportation, circa 2013.)
The roadways in the Lake Roberts neighborhood are named after geographic features and trees in the area. Forest Drive is named after the forest of trees in this community adjacent to the Gila National Forest, while Orchard Drive is named after the groups of trees that produce fruits. Timber Street is named after the timber logged from trees in the area.
Canyon Road is named after the canyon formation here. Rancho Road is named after the Spanish word for ranch.
Four of the streets in the Lake Roberts neighborhood are named after types of trees: Box Elder Street, Chestnut Street, Cottonwood Drive, and Mulberry Drive.
Varieties of two of these tree genera are official trees in four jurisdictions in the United States. The Eastern Cottonwood Tree is the state tree for both Kansas and Nebraska, while the Plains Cottonwood Tree is the state tree for Wyoming. The Yellow Elder Tree is the official tree of the U S Virgin Islands.
Creek Road is named after the Sapillo Creek. The name "Sapillo" may be from the Spanish word for "Little Toad." Several entities indicate that is the likely source for the name of this waterbody. Sapillo Creek feeds into the Gila River. In the early days of Spanish and Mexican settlement in the area, the creek was known as "Rio Sapillo."
On May 29, 1875, the Las Vegas Gazette included a news article from the Grant County Herald that reported a company was planning to purchase Mexican eves which will be bred with "…the very choicest Vermont and Canada bucks" for the "New Mexico Wool-Growing Association" in this area. The news article indicated that this company had "…secured a large section of country on the head waters of the Gila, Sapillo, and Mimbres which secures to them immense grazing fields…"
"This stream has an area of contributing watershed of 173.7 square miles and may be considered a one of the worst feeders of the upper Gila River, with a unit maximum discharge estimated from flood marks of 200 cubic feet per second per square mile of area," stated the book Gila River Flood Control – Letter from the Secretary of the Interior printed in 1919. "This stream in its middle reaches winds through a broad, flat valley in which there used to be considerable farming. Constant encroachments of the stream [have]…taken some and threatens to take the entire area that might be adapted for this pursuit."
Today, according to the Gila National Forest, "Trout, bass and catfish can be found at certain times of the year near the mouth of the Sapillo Creek."
On the other side of Lake Roberts from the neighborhood of Lake Roberts is the neighborhood of Lake Roberts Heights. According to the U S Census Bureau, the Lake Roberts Heights Census-Designated Place included 22 residents in 2020, a decrease from the 32 residents who lived here in 2010. This was a decrease of 31.2% during the ten-year time period. Of the population in 2020, 45.5% are self-identified as Hispanics. There were 30 homes in Lake Roberts Heights in 2020, according to the U S Census Bureau. Thirteen of these houses were vacant; this represented 43.3% of the residences.
Lake Roberts in the Winter. (The photograph was provided courtesy of the Gila National Forest of the U S Forest Service, February 8, 2021.)
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© 2021 Richard McDonough