Welcome to Day 2 of Documerica Week on In Focus -- a new photo essay each day, featuring regions of the U.S. covered by the photographers of the Documerica Project in the early 1970s. Today's subject is the American Southwest, including Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and California. The photos depict some of the challenges facing residents at the time: scarce resources, mining operations, growing cities and towns, as well as glimpses of people at work and play in the deserts, mountains and ocean shores. The Documerica Project was put together by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1971, with a primary goal of documenting adverse effects of modern life on the environment, but photographers were also encouraged to record the daily life of ordinary people, capturing a broad snapshot of America. Be sure to see the whole series: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
America in the 1970s: The Southwest
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Hunters, taking a deer back to Denver, stop at a check station north of Rifle, Colorado, where their kill is counted and examined by the Colorado Department of Fish and Game. #
David Hiser/NARA -
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Left: The start of annual Outboard World Championship boat race on Lake Havasu near Parker, Arizona, May 1972. Right: A dune buggy on sand dunes east of Brawley, California, May 1972. #
Charles O'Rear/NARA -
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Frank Starbuck, last of the old time ranchers near Fairview, Colorado, manages a spread of 1,300 acres and 400 head of cattle, October 1972. He does it alone because it is too difficult and expensive to get help. Starbuck finds it easier to feed his livestock from a horse drawn wagon or sled than from a truck or tractor. #
David Hiser/NARA -
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A sign outside Moab, Utah, an old Mormon pioneer town situated on the Colorado River, invites industrial expansion, in May of 1972. The region is rich in oil, uranium, and potash. #
David Hiser/NARA -
Left: EPA laboratory monitor Frank Reed, driving an agency truck, makes daily collections of water and air samples from an atomic test site area in Nevada, May 1972. Right: Camping in the Maze, a remote and rugged region in the heart of the Canyonlands, in May of 1972. #
Charles O'Rear/David Hiser/NARA -
Empty steel beer and soft drink cans were accumulated from a variety of sources near Taos, New Mexico, to be used in building experimental houses. Builder Michael Reynolds bought the cans from bars at 15 cents a case, in May of 1974. #
David Hiser/NARA -
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Abandoned automobiles and other debris clutter an acid water and oil filled five acre pond near Ogden, Utah, in April of 1974. It was cleaned up under EPA supervision to prevent possible contamination of the Great Salt Lake and a wildlife refuge nearby. #
Bruce McAllister/NARA -
Left: Mazda vehicles await shipment, Terminal Island, Long Beach, California, June 1972. The RMS Queen Mary, moored in the background, opened as a tourist attraction on May 8, 1971. Right: The painted bus is home, October 1972. #
David Hiser/Charles O'Rear/NARA -
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M.K. Stewart, owner of this general store in Alamo, Nevada, is one of several citizens who wears a TLD (thermo-luminescent dosimeter) to measure radioactive fallout from past atomic testing, May 1972. #
Charles O'Rear/NARA -
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