Engineer recalls building Mescalero Lake Dam

Ruidoso engineer John Shaw sits on the rail that blocks the entrance to the Mescalero Lake dam, which he helped build in the early 1970s, as a centerpiece for a new tourism complex being created by the Mescalero Apache Tribe. (Dianne Stallings Ruidoso News)

Newcomers to the Ruidoso area often hear the story of a fearless Wendell Chino, who led the Mescalero Apache Tribe for more than 40 years until his death in 1998, and how he defied federal and state officials to create Mescalero Lake.

Local engineer John Shaw, who directed construction on part of the dam that formed the lake, said while Chino certainly possessed enough drive and ambition for his tribe to go head-to-head with government officials, the project was federally funded and routinely inspected as it went up in the valley off Carrizo Creek. Besides his memories and a still-clear grasp of details true to his engineering training, Shaw also possesses a publication distributed by the tribe that he secured when he arrived in 1972, touting a new tourism complex. The booklet opens with a photograph of Chino, who appears to be in his early 50s.

"He was quite a gentleman," Shaw said. "I worked with him and built two of the parking lots at the old Inn."

A section of the booklet states that the tribe was in the process of developing one of the finest tourism complexes in the United States to be called the Cienegita Resort Hotel, named after a stream that runs through the area. Cienegita means "marshy place" in Spanish.

"This multi-million tourism triad will consist of the largest ski area in the Arizona-New Mexico southwest, a resort hotel beside an 18-hole golf course and 100 surface acre lake, and a dude ranch and hunting lodge," the booklet states. "This complex will provide the terminal tourist from the Midwest, a year-round variety of activities centering around the best facilities available."

The resort had been on the tribal planning boards since 1962. Numerous studies were completed and seven small dams to protect the large dam were completed, along with core drilling and geohydrological investigations, according to the publication.

"The resort, golf course and large dam will be under construction in the very near future," it said, adding that the dude ranch was to be named the Rinconada Dude Ranch and Hunting Lodge for bird and big game in a 10,000-acre game preserve. The total tourism complex would occupy more than 30,000 acres of virgin land and scenery. Ruidoso's population was listed as 4,000.

Shaw said he worked for the Arkansas Highway Department almost 10 years during summer, college and later after graduation from the University of Arkansas, overseeing construction of Interstates 30 and 40 in central Arkansas. He then was hired by Dick Rowand, owner of a new company, who wanted him to be his engineer in the Little Rock area, overseeing five or six projects.

"One Thursday he said he wanted me to go to New Mexico with him that next Monday," Shaw said. Being single at the time in 1972, abrupt trips were no problem,

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Engineer recalls building Mescalero Lake Dam