RITA BLANCA NATIONAL GRASSLAND. Rita Blanca National Grassland is off U. S. Highway 385 twenty-five miles north of Dalhart in Dallam County, Texas, and Cimarron County, Oklahoma. The 93,763-acre preserve was purchased by the Department of the Interior during the 1930s under the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act in effort to return some the badly eroded land of the Dust Bowl to its natural state. The grassland area is administered by the United States Department of Agriculture-Forest Service under a policy of multiple use for range, watershed, recreation, and wildlife. Open grasslands, marshes, and woodlands provide habitats for a variety of animal life, ranging from deer and turkeys to the wood duck and barred owl. In addition, ranchers, with special permits, graze approximately 5,417 cattle on the grassland each year. Facilities include camping and picnicking areas and hiking trails. In 1994 about 4,500 people visited Rita Blanca National Grassland.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: George Oxford Miller, Texas Parks and Campgrounds: Central, South, and West Texas (Austin: Texas Monthly Press, 1984).
