The Infamous CatWalk
Five miles northeast from the small town of Glenwood, New Mexico is a road that leads to the mouth of Whitewater Canyon to the infamous “Catwalk.” Named appropriately because of a pipeline built in the 1890’s to deliver water to the mining town of Graham. The pipe up Whitewater Creek was only 18 inches in diameter and the men who worked on it needed nerves of steel and balance of a cat to walk the pipeline, hence the name, Catwalk. Even today with a metal walkway with four foot high metal mesh sides running on top of the pipeline, you feel suspended in mid-air.
A 250 foot metal causeway clings to the sides of a boulder-choked canyon, which in some places is only 20 feet wide and 250 feet deep, so narrow you can almost touch the sides. However, there are many places where you can leave the causeway and relax on the grassy banks of a sycamore shaded stream.
Who would have guessed that in this arid southwest region, there is a free flowing creek. With shores hugged by sycamores, oaks and abundant wildlife such as bighorn sheep, mule deer and exotic bird life?
In frontier days, the canyon was used as a hideout by both Butch Cassidy and Victorio’s Apaches. In the 1930’s, the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) rebuilt the Catwalk as a recreation area for the Gila National Forest. In the 1960’s, the Forest Service rebuilt the metal walkway and several times since due to occasional flooding of Whitewater Creek.
Cat Walk in Whitewater Canyon