Three Palms Inn by Jason Reed

Issue 45

The sublime vastness of the West Texas borderland is only reinforced by its harsh environment and sparse population. Most of the region is consumed by scrub brush, sandy hills, and jagged mountains emblematic of the Chihuahuan Desert. For this it is beautiful, if not equally foreboding.

Through the center of the region, the Rio Grande forms a small vein of life, as it streams southbound from the American Rocky Mountains and joins force with the Rio Conchos, flowing from Western Mexico. La Junta de los Rios, or the junction of the two rivers as the area is known, provides an oasis amongst a devil’s landscape. Presidio, Texas and its sister city Ojinaga, Mexico sit just south of this river union.

For most of its life, the Rio Grande was used and crossed without implication, though over the last few centuries the river has become an increasingly fragile line of political demarcation. Early European immigrants claimed land and resources in the name of royalty and religion, treaties were passed dividing the land at the river, and in the last ten years Border Patrol agents have doubled to slow smuggling and immigration in what is called by some “America’s Third War.” A tranquil natural environment has become a complicated social landscape: what was once a river is now a border.

Jason Reed is a New Braunfels, TX based photographer.
To view more of Jason's work, please visit his website.