Adventuring Down the Acequia

On Thursday, Jeff set out from the house at a quick pace as usual and we all did our best to keep up. We all met up at the Santa Fe River near the plaza and Jeff briefed us on the river and acequias' history. Through time, the government tried more and more to take away the native peoples' water rights and were semi-successful. Now the river is a lot smaller and much less meandering than it used to be but it is still flowing. Many changes have been made to it to keep it from flooding the city in the monsoon season and have therefore altered it permanently. The acequias flowing off of it have much less water than they used to, but most are still flowing at least part-time after many fights over water rights. What Jeff told us about the history of acequias matched perfectly with our readings from Stanley Crawford and his views and facts about the long past of acequias in the areas surrounding Santa Fe.
After Jeff's informed history of the river, we began following the Acequia Madre. We followed it as long as we could (until it entered backyards and finally flowed off through the woods), which ended up being about 3 miles. Along the way, we saw lots of cool houses and interesting doors on the walled-in yards. The most upsetting part of the whole adventure was that the acequia was dry. David Rasch actually drove by and stopped to say hi and told us that the acequia only ran on Wednesdays. However, that did not deter us and it meant we got to see the all the gates in detail. Everyone had their camera out the whole time and photographed everything in sight. There were beautiful flowers all along the road and lots of fascinating entryways and doors. Maya climbed a huge old, dead tree and Jakob climbed precariously along a narrow fence-line on the inside of the acequia. We found a statue gallery that had several animal statues outside that, of course, we took pictures with. Later on, the acequia ran into some backyards next to a park. The students all played on the playground while Dr. Hardin and Dr. Kosiorek tried to peek in all the backyards that the acequia ran through, which was rather amusing. Finally, the acequia ran under a bridge in the road and went off into the woods. We explored the last bit of the acequia before it flowed off and then headed back to town for lunch. Some of us went into the plaza to eat while others headed back to the house to cook. Our adventure down the acequia was informative and fun because we learned more about the history of the Santa Fe River and it's effect on the acequias, which added to what we had learned from Estevan. Everything we've done on this trip seems to inform another part of our adventures, making this trip the ultimate liberal arts trip.
-Katie Kilpatrick