Old Mission Dam is a historic water impoundment structure in

Mission Trails Regional Park Mission Trails Regional Park is a open space preserve in San Diego, California, United States. The park was established in 1974. It is the sixth-largest municipally owned park in the United States, and the largest in California. Description ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, California. It was built in 1803 to impound the San Diego River to provide water for

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

of the fields associated with

Mission San Diego de Alcalá Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá (, lit. The Mission of Saint Didacus of Acalá) was the second Franciscan founded mission in the Californias (after San Fernando de Velicata), a province of New Spain. Located in present-day San Diego, C ...

, the first Spanish mission in what is now the US state of California. It was the first major colonial-era irrigation project on the Pacific coast of the United States. The surviving remnant of the dam was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 1963.

Description and history

Old Mission Dam is located about northeast of the site of

, in the hills northeast of San Diego. It spans the San Diego River, which was historically a seasonal body of water which dried out in the summer. The dam is built out of stone and cement, and was , at its base and as originally built. The dam created a body of water behind it, which would undergo controlled releases when the river otherwise ran dry. A tile channel to the mission fields was also built, in order to minimize water loss in the sandy soil, but only fragments of this work still survive. Mission San Diego de Alcalá was founded in 1769 by Father Junipero Serra, and was moved to its present surviving site in 1774. By 1800, the mission was a thriving community with 1,500 Christianized Native Americans. The mission suffered three years of drought in 1800-1802, which likely prompted construction of the irrigation project. The works probably reached their greatest extent in 1817, including the tiled aqueduct and other features lost to time and vandalism. The dam and aqueduct were reported to be in ruins in 1867, but the dam was repaired in 1874 and again put to use for a time. The dam is now part of

, the largest municipal park in California. Old Mission Dam is also a registered state historic landmark.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Dams in California San Diego River Buildings and structures in San Diego Dams completed in 1803 National Historic Landmarks in California National Register of Historic Places in San Diego 1803 in The Californias 1803 establishments in The Californias

Description and history

See also

References