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The Big Ditch, 1940, Herbert W. Yeo, courtesy NMSU
As
E-Town’s mining boom continued, the creeks of the area were found to be
inadequate to supply the mining operations and the citizens of the
bustling boom town. To solve this problem, entrepreneurs,
Lucien B. Maxwell,
William Kroenig, W.H. Moore, and others
made a plan to rectify the situation by conceiving
the idea for a water project known as the "Big Ditch," an engineering
marvel for the time. When the survey was complete, work began in May,
1868, and by the next year, the project was complete at a cost of some
$280,000.
The “Big Ditch” was built
to divert water from the Red River through ditches, pipes, and trestles --
around mountaintops and through canyons for a distance of 41 miles (which
was only 11 miles in a straight line.) The project, employing more than
400 men, was all done by hand. On
July 9, 1869, the first water was delivered and
sold for $0.50/inch.
Though the plans were grandiose, only about 1/10th of the
water that went into the ditches and flumes came out at the other end, due
to leaks, seepage and evaporation.
The Big Ditch in the 1800's.
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In 1875, the original owners sold the ditch to Matthew Lynch, the owner of
the rich Aztec Mine on Baldy Mountain and one of the most successful
placer miners in the area. By this time, the ditch had been neglected and
Lynch immediately began to modernize it for use in his profitable mine.
What water the mine didn’t use was sold to others an exorbitant prices.
When Lynch died five years later, his brothers continued to operate the
mine and ditch. Though it never brought in as much water as was hoped for
and required constant maintenance, the Big Ditch was in use until 1900.
Eventually, a lawsuit resulted which banned the diversion of water.
Today, all that remains of this astonishing engineering feat are a few
remnants of the flume.
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