Old water – the San Luis People’s Ditch

San Luis People’s Ditch, May 2018

I took the long way home from a meeting in Alamos, Colorado, yesterday to make a pilgrimage to San Luis.

In the Culebra Valley of Colorado in the high country near the New Mexico border, San Luis lays claim to being the oldest town in Colorado, settled by the descendants of Spanish immigrant families. Native erasure notwithstanding, it’s an important claim and an important place. The San Luis People’s Ditch (above) stakes its water rights claim toApril, 1852, the oldest continuously irrigated water rights claim in the state of Colorado. 21 cubic feet per second, 1,600 acres, still running yesterday despite a vicious drought.

One Comment

  1. that looks very interesting, to see how they keep it fed and running, upland wetland someplace, deep topsoil, trees? will have to look into it sometime. *taking notes*

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