Living In The Southwest States: Growth In The Desert

[Music] uh [Music] foreign do [Music] ah [Applause] excitement and open spaces part of the past and present of the southwest a region attracting great numbers of tourists and new residents and growing rapidly only four states make up this region but they have a major effect on the economy of the whole nation part of this importance lies in cattle southwest is cattle country [Music] i guess i grew up in the saddle been in texas all my life mexico a few times this is a big ranch i've worked smaller ones but there aren't too many nowadays that boy is the owner's son he's pretty good already [Music] has shot against black leg [Music] back to mama [Music] fences help us split the range up into what we call division every division has its own cattle and corrals we don't have to herd the cattle to the main ranch it's often this way water's always been a problem out here sometimes we sink well but we don't get enough water liking this one we're going to use cakes of dry ice to try to blow this well we're dropping down the shaft if we get the water we want we'll hook up a windmill and keep pumping it into a pond for the cattle the more head of cattle you have the more water you need we have an airstrip on the ranch the owner brings in cattle buyers that way we also use planes to seed the pastures and crop dust this field of alfalfa is getting a treatment of insecticides [Music] one thing the old cowboys wouldn't understand is the way we get our horses out to the range we chuck em out trucks are taking over a lot of the work but they still can't work cattle like a horse and they're not as good a friend ranching is an old industry being changed by modern ways modern ways have affected another old part of the southwest the indians the sign is correct we're all real we don't live in pueblos anymore but in villages like this this village is on a reservation we're zooming some of us have nothing much to do but i have a good job i make jewelry i set turquoise into silver a lot of us do this some of us work at home some in jewelry factories [Music] the navajo learned silversmithing from the mexicans around the 1850s then the navajo taught us and we taught the hopi [Music] some of us work in electronics in a plant on the reservation [Music] we try to be part of the modern world but our past is all around us the spaniards moved into the southwest 350 years ago the palace of the governors was built in the early 1600s it's in santa fe new mexico the spaniards constructed missions too like the mission san jose in san antonio texas it was built in the 1700s [Music] the spanish language is often found in the southwest for many spanish americans live here especially near mexico the indians and spaniards are part of the southwest's past so is the prospector but prospecting has taken a modern turn no i probably won't ever strike it rich but i keep on hoping i worked for a big company for a while then i thought i'd try it on my own i prospect for uranium in the new mexico area i'm subsidized by the government they advance me fifty percent of my costs if i find uranium i'll pay back the government on a royalty basis i carry a simulation counter with me that's what really does the prospecting it registers radiation if there's uranium i hear a clicking in my earphones i keep on listening prospecting has ties with the past but some activities in the southwest don't this is nasa's manned spacecraft center near houston in clear lake texas science projects can take advantage of the clear and steady weather of the southwest lowell observatory near flagstaff arizona is a major center for astronomical study and research the natural beauty of the southwest draws millions of tourists every year hikers especially enjoy big bend national park in southwestern texas on the rio grande rocks here have been sculpted into unusual shapes by wind and water white sands national monument in new mexico [Music] those are picnic benches with sun shades around the ball field [Music] the painted desert in arizona in it is the petrified forest the remains of trees that lived 170 million years ago [Music] fish creek canyon in arizona the southwest has its own special look this arid region has its own distinctive plants and animals too [Music] a roadrunner another one a kawati mundi that's a relative of a raccoon a desert lizard in that hillside is the entrance to carlsbad caverns in new mexico immense caves created over millions of years by the slow processes of nature [Music] machines have created this immense crater an open pit copper mine in arizona the southwest is rich in minerals probably the most important today is oil offshore on the continental shelf in the gulf of mexico and in immense fields inland crews worked 24 hours a day on this rig in three eight hour shifts i'm what you call a roughneck this means i'm part of the crew not the driller the driller is the boss we just added a section of drill pipe and once we get the kelly attached again we go on drilling the chain's ready now now we'll bring in the kelly here's the kelly the kelly turns the drill pipes we can pull up a kelly and add a section of drill pipe and connect to kelly again about 45 seconds it takes real teamwork we can keep doing it until we strike oil in little more than a hundred years the petroleum industry has become the foundation of our modern world as a source of energy and raw materials for many products the southwest produces most of the crude oil in the united states [Music] refineries turn it into gasoline and other products oil helps industries grow towns grow houston texas grew up on oil oil dominates the economy of the southwest as cattle once did agriculture is secondary now but cotton is an important crop texas is the country's leading producer of cotton citrus fruits grow well too on irrigated land mainly in texas and arizona dams have made irrigation possible they've also stimulated the growth of many attractive recreational and residential areas especially retirement communities there's been a great commercial development here part of it was the transporting of the old london bridge to lake havasu in arizona i can't believe that not too long ago this was just desert land my husband and i operate this sightseeing boat on lake havasu we moved out here i guess with a lot of people who liked well the climate and the clear air winters are really mild but i don't think i could stand the heat in summer without air conditioning but everybody has it houses cars stores i just love it here that blue sky and such clean air it's a great place for retirement or for young families too did you know that london bridge is cleaning itself because of the quality of our air it's true i can't imagine living anywhere else now arizona has one of the fastest growing populations in the united states people have come for the advantages of living in the southwest but they also have to face its problems phoenix as well as cities like houston dallas fort worth san antonio oklahoma city are often faced with water shortages people also have to contend with pollution heat dust storms sand storms cloud bursts and hurricanes yet cities keep growing building up and spreading out and new communities keep springing up as people continue moving into the southwest a region undergoing a phenomenal growth [Music] you