Canal System of Del Rio

Paula Losoya Taylor helped lead the building of the first big canal, the Acequia Madre, and by one account worked on it herself. Born in Guerrero, Tamaulipas, she came with her husband, James H. Taylor, and her sister Refugia between 1860 and 1862 to a place then called Las Zapas, for the underground shelters its Mexican settlers lived in. The acequia watered her family's sugarcane, and her hacienda added a sugar mill, a flour mill, a gin and a candy factory. She was said to count her money in buckets.

What the plaque says

Canal System of Del Rio Crude irrigation systems, drawing water from San Felipe Springs and Creek, were first devised by Indian and Spanish inhabitants of this area. Anglo-American settlers also saw the need for irrigation in this arid region, and about 1869 a group of landowners formed the San Felipe Agricultural, Manufacturing & Irrigation Company. Among early stockholders were W. C. Adams, Donald Jackson, Joseph Ney, Randolph Pafford, James H. Taylor, and A. O. Strickland. They dammed San Felipe Creek just below the Springs, and by 1871 had built canals diverting water to 1,500 acres of land. Under an 1875 irrigation law, the company received a 99-year state charter which authorized the digging of two canals: five-mile-long "Madre Ditch" and mile long "San Felipe Ditch", plus lateral canals. In 1876 the state inspector reported that the San Felipe Company had irrigated about 3,000 acres. Land grant provisions of an 1876 law awarded the company 5,000 acres of state land for the total mileage of its canals. In addition to promoting agricultural development, the work of the San Felipe Company stimulated the growth of Del Rio, since the irrigation canals provided water to the city as well. Today this vital water supply system is still in operation. (1975)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Whitehead Memorial Museum — 0.4 mi
  A village of old Del Rio buildings set along a working irrigation canal, from an 1870 store to a 1925 doctor's office, with Judge Roy Bean buried on the grounds.
• San Felipe Creek — 0.8 mi
  The spring-fed creek that made Del Rio, rising from the third largest springs in Texas and running past swimming holes and a hike-and-bike trail through town.
• Val Verde Winery — 0.8 mi
  The family winery an Italian immigrant founded on Del Rio's irrigated land in 1883, which outlasted Prohibition by selling table grapes and kept Texas wine alive into the 1970s.
• Amistad National Recreation Area — 9.2 mi
  The American side of the reservoir the United States and Mexico finished in 1969 where three rivers meet, with painted shelters still reachable by boat when the water allows.

More markers nearby

• Max and Anna Stool — steps away
• Val Verde County Courthouse Square — steps away
• Camp Hudson, C.S.A. — 0.2 mi
• Old Del Rio High School — 0.2 mi