Watering the Land: The Turbulent History of the Carlsbad Irrigation District

Hufstetler, Mark; Johnson, Lon

On November 28, 1905, Secretary of the Interior Ethan Allen Hitchock approved acquisition of the financially-troubled Carlsbad reclamation project. It was neither an easy nor swift decision. More than a year earlier, the general manager of the Pecos Irrigation Company had pleaded with Federal officials to purchase the privately-financed irrigation system. A series of disastrous floods in October 1904 had destroyed the system's main diversion dam and canal network. Chronically under-capitalized, the local irrigation company was unable to repair the extensive damage and quickly slipped into bankruptcy. The plight of hundreds of waterless farmers, as well as intense congressional pressure, eventually persuaded the Secretary of the Interior to act. Like many other Federal reclamation projects throughout the West, the Carlsbad reclamation project represented the beginning of a long-lasting, and often troubled marriage between the Reclamation Service and the local farmers that the agency was created to serve. The Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) history, written by Mark Hufstetler and Lon Johnson, relates the turbulent story of the Carlsbad Project. The history traces the roots of the irrigation system to Pat Garrett, the well-known killer of Billy the Kid. Deciding not to seek re-election as Lincoln County Sheriff in 1882, Garret retired to his 1800-acre ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. Here, from his comfortable two-story adobe home, the taciturn former sheriff envisioned the physical transformation of the Pecos River Valley from desert to small prosperous farms. Possessing vision but little hard currency, Garret enlisted the financial support of New Mexico cattleman Charles B. Eddy, Punch Cigar manufacturer Robert Weems Tansill, and most importantly, railroad builder James J. Hagerman. Damming the unpredictable and turbid waters of the Pecos River was key to their new corporate irrigation plan.