Colorado's oldest water right
1852
In April 1852, Dario Gallegos and the other founders of San Luis began hand-digging an acequia, a community irrigation ditch, to carry water from Culebra Creek to their narrow farm strips. Known as the San Luis People's Ditch, it holds the first official water right in Colorado, dated April 10, 1852. Its first crops were wheat, beans and corn, and the ditch still runs through town today.
Photo: Jeffrey Beall, CC BY 4.0, source
