Cuchilla Ditch

How and when the Cuchilla Ditch was constructed was, is, and will continue to be debated until “time travel” can verify. The current rule is “if it wasn’t written, it didn’t happen”. 

• • Current theory’s as discussed during the Abeyta/Arellano Adjudication priority date hearings. 

    • The White Feather Ditch was constructed by Taos Pueblo

    • The Cuchilla Ditch initially was a trail made by the Buffalo as they went for water in the RH. 

    • A sheepherder from Arroyo Seco/Des Montes area noticed that when the water was high, there was water on the trail and started digging and saw that the water flowed along the new trench. 

    • Sanchez land owner in the area offered agricultural land in Des Montes in exchange for labor on the Cuchilla Ditch. (Documents used to establish priority date) Baxter report.. Thus the 1808/1809 Priority date on some properties. The Courts rejected this date. 

    • The “Tejada Papers” written in 1939 claimed the “gente” living in San Antonio/Valdez; had contracted the Cuchilla Ditch about or after 1823, following the settlement of San Antonio.

    • Ultimately; as a result of the “Abeyta/Arellano Adjudication, the Cuchilla Ditch acequias were given an 1815/1829 priority date.