Continental Divide marker, U.S. 70 and 80, New Mexico, circa 1937

About this postcard

A low wooden sign stands beside the highway and a fence line in open grassland under a wide sky with clouds, marking the Continental Divide where U.S. 70 and U.S. 80 cross it, midway between Deming and Lordsburg in southwestern New Mexico. The painted board is headed "OFFICIAL SCENIC HISTORIC MARKER" and gives the elevation as 4,587 feet, with the note that "Rainfall divides at this point. To the west it drains into the Pacific Ocean - to the east, into the Atlantic." The marker is numbered 152 in the state's roadside series. At this elevation the divide is a gentle rise in dry, flat country rather than a mountain pass, which is why the sign rather than the landscape carries the story. Markers like this one gave motorists on the two named highways a quick lesson in geography during the years when auto travel across the Southwest was still a novelty for many drivers.