Flowing Water

Introduction of the irrigation system in this area by Franciscan Priest making it possible to establish settlements.

Much of the El Paso area was semiarid when the Spanish were attempting to colonize the area, and so it was necessary to create an irrigation system. The building of acequias, or irrigation canals, was important for their agricultural efforts. Acequias had been widely used in Spain since the time of the Moorish conquest, and the early Spanish colonists brought with them the knowledge of how to build them.

The earliest acequias were dug near Ysleta, below El Paso, after 1680 by Pueblo Indians under the supervision of Spanish friars. These first acequias eventually became part of a large irrigation network, portions of which were still in use in the early 1990s.

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