Raymond A. Hill (1892-1973) was an Honorary Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a member of the American Institute of Consulting Engineers. After graduating in 1914 from the University of Michigan, Hill became an engineering assistant for the Reclamation Service (Bureau of Reclamation) and then served in France during and after World War I, as an officer in the Army's Corps of Engineers.
Early in Hill's career, he worked as a supervisor of labor and equipment in the construction of irrigation and storm water dams and channels in the southwest states and northern Mexico. He was known for his practical planning skills and was often contracted for jobs in the 1920s. He was a leader on several occasions that led to the establishment of new principles in western water law. Hill was also the author of the Rio Grande Compact, an interstate agreement to apportion fairly the water of the Rio Grande among Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.
The Raymond A. Hill Papers, 1890-1945, include notes, plans, descriptions, reports, graphs and diagrams, transcripts, investigations, testimonies, proceedings, and other records related to Hill’s career as an engineer in the Southwestern United States. The papers pertain to water sampling, draining systems, and the Rio Grande Compact agreement. Furthermore, the papers relate to investigations and reports of water areas, regional planning, water analyses, supply, and draining. An item of note in the collection is a book of aerial photographs of the Rio Grande.
The collection is open for research.
A portion of these papers is stored remotely. Advance notice required for retrieval. Contact repository for retrieval.
Raymond A. Hill Papers, 1890-1945, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s