The US Bureau of Reclamation was known as the US Reclamation Service (USRS) from its formation via the Reclamation Act of 1902 until it was renamed in 1923. This “USRS” was cast in concrete on Mesilla Dam, an irrigation diversion structure on the Rio Grande outside Las Cruces, NM, in 1915. The dam is part of the Service’s/Bureau’s Rio Grande Project, which delivers water from Elephant Butte Reservoir to farmers in southern New Mexico.

As an aside, note the lack of water in the river’s bed. That’s sand, folks.

US Reclamation Service sign, circa 1915, with some modern decoration. Mesilla Dam, on the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico, March 2013