La Angostura

The narrows still decide where the valley's water goes. In 1934 the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, formed in 1925 after some 60,000 acres of valley farmland had gone to swamp and alkali, built the Angostura Diversion Dam here, a concrete weir seventeen feet high and eight hundred feet long. It turns up to 650 cubic feet of river a second into the canals of the district's Albuquerque division, which also water the lands of the southern pueblos, San Felipe's among them. The Bureau of Reclamation rebuilt it in 1958.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker La Angostura Near here the Rio Grande Valley closes into a narrow pass (angostura) . Control of this pass was critical to the safety of the trade along the Camino Real, so this area has been the focus of fortifications since the early 17th century. The 18th century settlement of Algodones developed as a result of continuing Spanish efforts to control the pass and nearby fords of the Rio Grande.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Petroglyph National Monument — 22 mi
  Some 24,000 images pecked into the dark basalt of Albuquerque's West Mesa, protected in 1990 and then crossed by a city boulevard.

More markers nearby

• Women Veterans of New Mexico — 4.5 mi
• Las Placitas — 5.2 mi
• Bernalillo — 6.0 mi
• Bernalillo — 6.3 mi