A slip (also sometimes called a scoop, scraper, or road scraper) was the common implement for moving dirt when doing such things as digging ponds or making fills where large volumes of dirt were needed.
RIO GRANDE. The Rio Grande rises in Rio Grande National Forest, San Juan County, Colorado (at 37Â°47' N, 107Â°32' W), as a clear, spring and snow-fed mountain stream 12,000 feet above sea level. Its origin is at the Continental Divide in the San Juan Mountains.
Known in Mexico as Rio Bravo, the Rio Grande rises in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado flows through New Mexico before becoming the boundary between Texas and Mexico, touching the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas.