Historic Acequias of Las Vegas, New Mexico
In a land where life-sustaining water supplies depend primarily on the whims of
nature- how much or how little rain falls in the summer, how much winter snow piles up
in the mountains, how great and when summer runoff will be- man has devised a way to
control the water that is available, delivering it to where it's needed most.
An acequia (ah-say-kya) is a man-made earthen channel, or ditch, which conveys
water to tracts of land. Several of these ditches function as a highly efficient though fairly
crude irrigation system.
Traditionally, acequias are plotted to follow the contour of the land, diverting water
upstream and winding around trees, large boulders and hills to utilize gravity flow to aid
irrigation. They are dug using shovel, spade, pick, how, knife or bare hands by the men
who plan to irrigate with the system. These landowners, or propietarios, make up the
acequia association.
In early Spanish towns and in Mexican villages modeled after them, such as Las Vegas,
residents lived clustered together surrounded by cultivated land that grew nearly everything
they needed. Hardly a settlement didn't exist in New Mexico that didn't rely on acequias
to irrigate crops. Prior to the development of acequias settlers had to cultivate dry land
or carry heavy buckets of water themselves, often suspended from yokes across their
shoulders.
The establishment of acequias was so important to the success of a new settlement
that they were often dug before houses, churches and other buildings were finished.
A main ditch is dug first, diverting water from a river or stream. A head gate is located
at the point of diversion. Smaller ditches called laterals branch off the main ditch,
threading their way to and across pasture and cultivated fields. Gates of timber, brush, rocks,
concrete or masonry are built at every point of diversion throughout the system. The gates
allow the equitable allocation of water among ditches, each branch being opened and flowing
for a specified period of time according to the amount of acreage to be irrigated and established
rights to to water. Finally, a wasteway channel, or desagua, may wind its way
back to the water source.
The allocation and distribution of irrigated water among members of the association is governed by
an acequia commission including one man who is selected as steward, or
mayordomo, of the ditch.
Everyone who irrigates with the system has an obligation to help maintain the ditch. Each
summer all association members join to clear roots, grass, accumulated silt and other debris
from the temporarily dried ditch and to rebuild the ditch banks.
Though modern water works technology has caused a sharp decline in the use and need for
acequias in most communities, there remain a significant number of villages that
rely on this unique system. It is estimated that there are 1500 community acequia
associations in New Mexico, most located in the north central counties of Mora, Rio
Arriba, Santa Fe, Taos and San Miguel. The farms served by acequias average 20
acres or less.
This page is a copy of the brochure "Historic Acequias of Las Vegas,
New Mexico", a project of the Citizens' Committee for Historic Preservation, Las Vegas,
New Mexico. The brochure was funded in part through the City of Las Vegas, the New Mexico
Historic Preservation Division, and The National Park Service, Certified Local Government
program.
Special thanks to Michael Coca and Michael Torres, et al.
