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Thursday, January 13, 2011 - Percha Dam State Park, Arrey NM

Rincon Valley Main Canal, Percha Dam, Arrey NM, April 26, 2008
Rincon Valley Main Canal, Percha Dam, Arrey NM, April 26, 2008

No Percha Dam, no onions (like over the canal)

No pecans. No cotton. No chili. No whatever. Not in the Rincon Valley. A little about Percha Dam swiped from the US Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Reclamation, Cultural Resources Program website:

PERCHA DIVERSION DAM

  • 2 miles northeast of Arrey
  • National Register 4/06/1979

Percha Diversion Dam is an integral feature of the widespread Rio Grande Project, an early Bureau of Reclamation irrigation project that was authorized in 1905. Construction of the project facilities resulted in the delivery of a predictable and dependable water supply to farmers in the Rio Grande Valley in south-central New Mexico and west Texas. Located two miles downstream from Caballo Dam on the Rio Grande River, Percha Dam is a concrete ogee weir structure with embankment wings. It was constructed between 1916 and 1918. The dam diverts water into the Rincon Valley Main Canal, which provides water to over 16,000 acres of land in the Rincon Valley. Individually listed in the National Register, Percha Dam is also included as a contributing feature of the Elephant Butte Irrigation District National Register District.

Night camp

Site 23 - Percha Dam State Park, Arrey NM

Proficiency in Knowledge of the World

There are all degrees of proficiency in knowledge of the world. It is sufficient, to our present purpose, to indicate three. One class lives to the utility of the symbol; esteeming health and wealth a final good. Another class live above this mark to the beauty of the symbol; as the poet, and artist, and the naturalist, and man of science. A third class live above the beauty of the symbol to the beauty of the thing signified; these are the wise men. The first class have common sense; the second, taste; and the third, spiritual perception. Once in a long time, a man traverses the whole scale, and sees and enjoys the symbol solidly; then also has a clear eye for its beauty, and lastly, while he pitches his tent on this sacred volcanic isle of nature, does not offer to build houses and barns thereon, reverencing the splendor of the God which he sees bursting through each chink and cranny.

Essay VII, Prudence Ralph Waldo Emerson

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