Site of Four Mile Dam

The Junction ditches belonged to an old Texas practice. Franciscans built acequias at seven San Antonio missions between 1716 and 1744, and corn was the first field crop known to be irrigated in Texas. Large-scale irrigation began with canals near Del Rio in 1868 and spread in the 1870s to the Pecos River, the lower Rio Grande valley and Fort Stockton, and in the 1890s to the Coastal Plain and the El Paso valley. In 1913 the legislature created the Board of Water Engineers, and after the dry seasons of 1916-18 landowners could form water-conservation districts.

What the plaque says

Site of Four Mile Dam BUILT UNDER AN 1896 CHARTER, OBTAINED FOR THE JUNCTION CITY IRRIGATION AND POWER DITCHES, TO FURNISH POWER FOR MILLS AND MINING SUPPLY CITY MAINS, WATER EXTENSIVE LANDS AND LIVESTOCK. AT FIRST UNDER ENGINEERING SUPERVISION OF G. W.REGSDILL, A LOCAL MAN, THEN OF R. J. HAND, SAN ANTONIO, PROJECT WAS SOLD 1903 TO JAY E. ADAMS, SAN ANTONIO,AND A. C. GREEN, OF PALESTINE, TEXAS. DAM WAS NATIVE STONE AND CYPRESS WOOD; DITCHES WERE 4 FT. DEEP, 20 FT . AT TOP, 12 AT BOTTOM. BIG DITCH CARRIED WATER LATE AT 1925; BUT WAS UNPROFITABLE. CHARTER WAS FORFEITED IN 1950. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kimble County Historical Museum — 3.4 mi
  A free county museum in Junction, the town at the meeting of the North and South Llano, with the papers, photographs and tools of a ranching county.

More markers nearby

• John James Smith — 1.2 mi
• Coach Bear Bryant and the Junction Boys — 2.1 mi
• Isaac Kountz — 2.2 mi
• Vicinity of Bradbury Settlement — 2.4 mi