Bluewater Village

The carrots took thirty years of dams first. An earthen dam where Bluewater and Cottonwood creeks meet washed out in 1885, and in September 1894 the Mormon settlers Frihoff Nielson and Ernest Tietjen filed papers for the Bluewater Land and Irrigation Company to build another. It caved in 1903, flooding homes, fields and the Santa Fe track, and a cloudburst wrecked its successor in 1909. Only in 1927 did an 80-foot concrete arch hold, storing 53,000 acre-feet, and the valley celebrated with a three-day Fourth of July dedication.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Bluewater Village This community was founded in 1894 on the site of an earlier homestead and stage coach stop. Irrigation from Bluewater Lake and its proximity on the railroad and Route 66 allowed development of extensive agricultural fields, which earned Bluewater the title, "Carrot Capital of the World." The region became known as the "Uranium Capital of the World" after uranium was discovered nearby in 1950.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• El Malpais National Monument — 19 mi
  The badlands south of Grants: lava 3,900 years old from McCartys Crater, a tube system at least seventeen miles long, and an old trail across four lava flows between Zuni and Acoma.
• El Morro National Monument — 26 mi
  A sandstone headland with a pool at its foot, where Puebloan people, Spanish governors and American soldiers all left their marks, until carving became illegal in 1906.
• Acoma Sky City — 33 mi
  Haak'u, the village on a sandstone mesa west of Albuquerque, seen only on the pueblo's own tours, with a mission whose roof beams were carried on foot from Mount Taylor.

More markers nearby

• Grants — 9.3 mi
• San Rafael — 11 mi
• Grants — 12 mi
• Continental Divide — 22 mi