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Sage to Meadow ~ Jack Matthews · An encounter with nature and people living with the land in the American Southwest through the writings of Jack Matthews.
Sage to Meadow ~ Jack Matthews 
I am a resident of Llano de San Juan. I am looking for evidence of water rights on our acequia dating back to the 1790s, Please let me know if you found any records relating to this.
Hi, Jean. The plat of Upper Llano was a property I looked at and nearly bought–I have farm equipment and wanted to transfer my work to northern NM. That plat was furnished by a real estate agent representing the property. I did not purchase it, unfortunately. Here is what I would do about finding water rights by acequia–I would get a title company to research your deed. It can get pricey, but they should uncover, I think, if any existed. I do recommend the book, Jose A. Rivera, Acequia Culture, as a general overview of southwestern acequia culture. In looking through the book, however, just now, I find no reference to the San Juan Basin. I’ll look a few more sources and if I come up with anything, I’ll let you know.
As an afterthought, if you do have an acequia close by or parallels your land, have you tried to find the mayordomo (ditch boss) by asking around? He or she may have answers.
I am interested in your outcome, Jean. At the present, I am looking at property about the Taos area that has water rights. My daughter and son-in-law have a home in Taos that may have rights also.
Good luck, and let me know your outcomes.
I do have water rights and am in close contact with our majordomo and acequia association. There are those who want to pipe a long section of our acequia madre and if we can establish acequia dates prior to 1851, we have a better chance to keep it a traditional open ditch. The need for a pipe has been great exaggerated and there are many of us who are against it because of cost and cultural and environmental degradation.
I gave a cursory view of the literature and there is one source I found that you may already have, but it does have data on San Juan. I’ll send you the online link. It’s 258 pp. pdf. I’ll shoot it to you after lunch.
great, thanks.. I’ll be out the rest of today but will look forward to getting it.
Click to access nackerly_aceq_rpt96.pdf
This has information on San Juan Basin acequia development. Have you and your group looked at this? I did not look closely, but it is reputable and the bibliography may hold some sources. My apologies if you have looked at it before. You and your group represent a cause I support fully. Please let me know how it goes. I hold a Ph.D. in U.S. history and wrote my dissertation on consular relations with Mexico during the period, 1821-1860, which includes some issues with New Mexico.