by Elizabeth Cunningham
Recently one of our guests commented on the beautiful stream running through the Mabel Dodge Luhan House property.
Courtesy of the University of New Mexico Press
Along with other centennial celebrations – Taos Society of Artists 100 years, San Francisco de Asis (St. Francis) church 200 years – this year marks the 300th anniversary of the Acequia de los Lovatos. The festivities occurred on September 20 exactly 300 years from the date that the acequia was officially documented.
The Lovato ditch is the oldest recorded ditch in the Taos Valley. The Taos News reported on its history. In 1715 a petition for a land grant reached Governor Flores Mogollon in Santa Fe. It was submitted by Francisca Antonio Gijosa, widow of Antonio Maya and the only woman in the Taos Valley to receive a Spanish land grant. On Sept. 20, 1715 when Taos Mayor Juan de la Mora Pineda identified the boundaries of the land grant in a letter to the governor, one of the borders was “east from the acequia, which was already in use”, named the “Acequia de los Lovatos.”