LeonSpringsPupfish_AcresforDitches_Mace_Robert_SanMarcosTX_28July2021_Reel4062.mp3

Robert Mace [00:00:00] Texas was land-rich, you know, because that's how Texas paid for the construction of the state Capitol building was, you know, gave away a bunch of land for companies to build the Capitol building.

Robert Mace [00:00:12] And so they used, similar to the way the United States used, land as an incentive to get people to settle or to do things.

Robert Mace [00:00:20] And so in 1875, the Legislature passed an incentive program, where if you dug irrigation canals, you could get a land grant correlated to the length of your canal.

Robert Mace [00:00:33] So an easy way to get land was to go out and dig canals, irrigation canals.

Robert Mace [00:00:38] And so a number more canals were dug. There were irrigation companies that were created because they were looking for speculators to invest in irrigation projects and then, you know, and then get, get dams.

Robert Mace [00:00:58] But miles and miles of new irrigation ditches were built. Some of them, I would argue, quite crazy in terms of how far they went, and not only in Comanche Springs, in Leon Springs, but also along the Pecos River as well.

Robert Mace [00:01:19] By 1913, pretty much the full flow of Comanche Springs was being used to irrigate about 6000 acres. And also, by that time, Leon Springs was pretty much being captured to irrigate about 3000 acres.