Elephant Butte Dam: Irrigation shaped Mesilla Valley's history

For almost a century, the Rio Grande has come to a stop at what was once the largest man-made reservoir in the world. From there, through the spillway of the Elephant Butte Dam, the river waters become part of a complex irrigation network feeding farms and orchards from Rincon to the El Paso Valley. With the beginning of another dry irrigation season this week, farmers already know they'll be getting precious little — in most cases, the equivalent of one good irrigation — of that river water this year. Yet without Elephant Butte, it's possible some wouldn't be getting any at all. Before the dam, the Rio Grande was a naturally flowing ribbon of water. But it was erratic, either flowing strong or at a trickle. In 1902, the newly created U.S. Reclamation Service assumed control over a proposed dam some wanted built 90 miles north of Las Cruces. That dam would impact the growth, development and history of the Mesilla Valley like nothing else. Irrigation ditches were some of the first things built in the early days of Doña Ana, Mesilla and Las Cruces. In the early years, primitive dams made of intertwined sticks and rocks guided river water into a main ditch that fed smaller ditches extending for miles. The centuries-old acequia system only worked well when river water was plentiful. During drought, some farmers used steam pumps, and even windmills, to draw groundwater, but few could afford the high cost.In addition, by the 1880s, newcomers to New Mexico were farming all along the Rio Grande. Farmers in El Paso were complaining of no water, and Mexican farmers were headed to U.S. courts to file grievances. Sometimes lack of river water wasn't the problem. The river changed paths, most notably in 1865 when it left Mesilla on its east side once and for all. It flooded the valley a dozen times since 1849, destroying homes, railroad lines, farms, roads and ditches...more