The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 25, July 1921 - April, 1922 Page: 123
306 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Early Irrigation in Texas
The site of the Mission Rosario, about four miles upstream from
the present city of Goliad, was chosen for the possibilities it sup-
posedly offered for irrigation. In 1756 a report was made that
a dam of lime and stone, forty varas long and four varas high,
had been built across an arroyo and the digging of the canals was
under way. But, in 1768 Father Solis reported that, "the mission
has fields of crops which depend upon rainfall, for water can not
be got from the river since it has very high and steep banks, nor
from anywhere else, since there is no other place to get it from."
The Mission Espiritu Santo, during its sojourn on the Guada-
lupe River, also failed in its attempt in 1736 to build a dam across
that stream for diverting water for irrigation, and agriculture by
rainfall was employed with some success.
On the San Saba River a mission was founded in 1757, but due
to Comanche depredations was abandoned in 1768. At some time
within these dates were built a dam and a canal. The latter
skirted the hills on the south side of the river one-half mile above
Menardville; the remains of the old canal are easily traceable today.
Two missions were founded in 1762 in the Nueces River Canyon;
one, Mission Candelaria, near the present town of Montel, the
other, San Lorenzo, some twelve miles upstream near Camp Wood.
Both had irrigation ditches fed by springs, according to Mr. G. K.
Chinn of Uvalde. He states that in 1870 the original masonry
headgates existed. He was told then by old residents that in the
early "forties" signs existed of the irrigated furrows, cultivated
by the missionaries about 1769. These missions were abandoned
after a short, precarious life.
Near Rockdale, on the San Gabriel River, the Mission San
Xavier was established in 1746. Four years later construction
was begun on a dam and its accompanying canal. Vestiges of both
were found in recent years by Mr. Herbert E. Bolton in his search
for the site of the old mission.
It is in San Antonio and its vicinity, however, that we find the
best works of Spanish irrigation engineers in Texas. They seem
to have exhausted the possibilities of this region and at least one
of the seven enterprises undertaken, the San Pedro ditch, is a
model of intelligent canal location.
The oldest of the San Antonio canals was the Concepci6n, or
Pajalache, constructed in 1729. Its dam stood about five feet high123
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 25, July 1921 - April, 1922, periodical, 1922; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101082/m1/129/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.