The purpose of this survey report is to determine eligibility for historic agricultural properties within the project area, as well as identify any historic agricultural districts that may arise from this research.

The Purgatoire River region of eastern Las Animas and southern Otero Counties has a unique identity based on its specific landscape and cultural heritage. This part of Colorado's Eastern Plains is crisscrossed by canyons and arroyos. Tall mesas run along the southern border and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains rise on the west. This area of Colorado is unique in providing an opportunity to examine the mixing of Anglo and Hispanic cultures.

"My overriding concern in this book has been, not to write a historical account of the theories and methods current at various times, and used by different researchers, but to pass in review the sequence of accretions to the store of knowledge, while at the same time giving some attention to those errors which often delay this process."--From the introduction.