Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - Leasburg Dam State Park, Radium Springs NM

In the early 1900s, after the onstruction of the Elephant Butte storage dam, planning began for a project to divert water from the Rio Grande to irrigate crops for 50 miles through the Mesilla Valley.

In late winter of 1908, the Leasburg Diversion Dam was completed. This concrete dam held back the flow of the Rio Grande, not to create a storage reservoir, but to divert water from the Rio Grande into a canal. From this canal, ditches delivered water to the communities od Dona Ana, Las Cruces, and Mesilla.

The dam was constructed of reinforced concrete with some hand-placed rubble. Peñasco Rock, located on the eastern shore, was used as the east end for the dam. The western end was concrete. The openings for the canal headgates were cut into solid rock.