CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. – Native Americans have treasured the Bluewater Valley area for centuries. Ancient tribes relied on the ecosystems that encompassed Bluewater and Cottonwood Creeks; these were the primary streams which flowed through the area. The influx of immigrants forever changed the land.
Recorded history acknowledges that the Spanish Empire claimed this part of modern-day New Mexico based on persistent rumors about rich silver lodes north of Mexico. This belief was the driving force behind Spanish explorations of the American West.
Fray Marcos de Niza set out in 1539 to search the region based on stories about the seven cities of gold and silver, Cibola. (Fray Marcos de Niza, sometimes called Marco da Nizza, 1495 –1558, was an Italian missionary and Franciscan friar. He is credited with being the first European in what is now the State of Arizona.)
More than three centuries later the 1848 treaty ended the Spanish-American war and Spain ceded claims to what is now most of southwestern U.S. This meant that present-day California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona, about half of New Mexico, approximately one quarter of Colorado and a small section of Wyoming became U.S. territories.
The vast expanse of these western lands attracted a stream of European immigrants; some of their forebears had previously settled in the eastern regions of the U.S.
President Abraham Lincoln signed the 1862 Homestead Act, which allowed people to claim 160 acres of “public land” in areas west of the Mississippi River if they lived on the property and made improvements. That legislation caused a surge in the immigrant population; that westward movement included the arid regions of Southwest.
Water is sacred in Native American cultures, especially in the Southwest.
The American poet T. S. Eliot, 1888-1965, shared that reverence. He wrote that drought “is the death of the earth.” Crops die, trees wither, and streams and lakes dry up during a drought. Human reliance on surface water has caused people to invent ways to move water to where it is needed. The “right” to water has remained an integral part of European philosophy since the arrival of the first immigrants, many of whom sought to establish farms and ranches, in the western territories.
A peace treaty made prior to 1880 with the Navajo Nation identified the southern border of their tribal lands as a place called Agua Azul, which was later anglicized to “Blue Water.”
Bluewater Creek flowed through Salitre Mesa, part of the Zuni Mountains, and this access to water attracted small farmers who moved into the area. Anglo immigrants quickly realized the need for harnessing Bluewater Creek to irrigate hay, which was the primary crop at that time.
The migration included Frihoff G. Nielson, born May 3, 1851 in Copenhagen, Denmark, and E.A. Tietjen, born Sept. 14, 1848 in Mahmohus, Sweden. The two men first farmed in Ramah (in McKinley County). They visited Bluewater Valley several times during 1894; Nielson and Tietjen formed a partnership and purchased land in the valley.
The partnership later expanded to include two men who did not live in the area. Their goal was to replace an earlier earthen dam that had been constructed at the confluence of Bluewater Creek and Cottonwood Creek. The original 1885 structure had collapsed.
This endeavor led to the 1894 registration of the Bluewater Land and Irrigation Company in Valencia County. (Cibola, created on June 19, 1981, had originally been part of Valencia County.)
The plan was to build a dam at the head of Blue Water Canyon and work began in 1895. The resulting reservoir covered 400 acres of adjoining land. Seasonal precipitation and fluctuations in surface waters caused the lake to be dry during 1897 and farmers were forced to haul water from other sources. But by July 1987 the lake was cresting the spillway.
Tragedy struck in 1903 when “cave off” affected the dam and this resulted in floodwaters damaging homes, fields, and portions of the Santa Fe Railroad track. The following years from 1905 through 1909 were known as “the years of the big floods.”
The Bluewater Land and Development Company declared bankruptcy and the Bluewater Development Company stepped in with plans to complete a new dam and create a reservoir for water storage.
The new dam suffered from inadequate engineering. New Mexico Territorial Engineer Charles D. Miller identified structural problems with the completed dam. He acknowledged that the defects could have been eliminated if the BDC had utilized expert supervision during the construction process.
Four centuries of European immigration contributed to a chain of events, from 1539 through 1937, that led to the creation of Bluewater Lake State Park.
Timeline for Bluewater Dam
(1539-1903)
•1539 - Fray Marcos de Niza set out to search this region based on stories about the seven cities of gold and silver, Cibola.
•1848 - United States declared victory at the conclusion of the Spanish American War. Both parties signed the treaty which resulted in ending the Spanish colonial era in present-day California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona, about half of New Mexico, approximately one quarter of Colorado and a small section of Wyoming.
•1862 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, which allowed people to claim 160 acres of “public land” if they lived on the property and made improvements.
•1880 – prior to this year a peace treaty with the Navajo Nation identified the southern border of their tribal lands as a place called Agua Azul, which was later anglicized to “Blue Water.”
•1885 – an earthen dam at the confluence of Bluewater Creek and Cottonwood Creek washed out. The structure had been built at an earlier time to ensure a water supply for irrigating fields which were primarily used to produce hay for livestock.
•1894 -Frihoff G. Nielson and E.A. Tietjen, farmers in Ramah, visited the Bluewater Valley several times and purchased land to expand their agricultural production. The partners decided to replace the previous dam at the same location.
•September 1894 – Articles of Incorporation for the Bluewater Land Irrigation Company are filed in Valencia County.
•June 1895 – Santa Fe Land Commission reported the that the Blue Water Canyon irrigation plant was 42 feet high, 200 feet in length, and 130 feet thick and created a 400-acre reservoir.
•1898-1903 – Numerous disputes were reported about reservoir water rights.
(more time line in Part II)