Rio Culebra (also called Culebra River, Río de la Culebra and Culebra Creek) is a river or creek in

Costilla County, Colorado Costilla County (Spanish for "rib") is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,499. The county seat is San Luis, the oldest continuously occupied town in Colorado. History On July 8, 1694, ...

. The Rio Culebra rises in the

Sangre de Cristo Mountains ) , country= United States , subdivision1_type= States , subdivision1= , parent= Rocky Mountains , geology= , orogeny= , area_mi2= 17193 , range_coordinates= , length_mi= 242 , length_orientation= north-south , width_mi= 120 , w ...

and is long. It empties into the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

west of the town of

San Luis San Luis (Spanish for "Saint Louis") may refer to: Places Argentina * San Luis Province * San Luis, Argentina, capital of San Luis Province Belize * San Luis, Belize, in Orange Walk District Colombia * San Luis, Antioquia, a town and municipality ...

. The region around San Luis features extensive agriculture made possible by irrigation water from the river. Sometimes called the "Culebra Basin" this area is known for the extensive irrigation canals called

acequia An acequia () or séquia () is a community-operated watercourse used in Spain and former Spanish colonies in the Americas for irrigation. Particularly in Spain, the Andes, northern Mexico, and the modern-day American Southwest particularly n ...

s built by its

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

settlers in the 19th century and still in use in the 21st century

Geography

The most distant sources of the Rio Culebra are the highest slopes of Culebra Peak, in elevation and De Anza Peak, in elevation, in the

. The Rio Culebra is formed by the union of El Valle and Carneros creeks at an elevation of . The largest tributary of the Rio Culebra is Ventero Creek which rises in New Mexico and flows northward to join the main stream. Sanchez Reservoir on Ventero Creek stores water to be used downstream for irrigation. The Rio Culebra passes through the town of

at an elevation of . From San Luis the river flows eastward through the

San Luis Valley The San Luis Valley is a region in south-central Colorado with a small portion overlapping into New Mexico. The valley is approximately long and wide, extending from the Continental Divide on the northwest rim into New Mexico on the south. It co ...

where it joins the

at an elevation of . The watershed of the Rio Culebra is in area. The climate of the watershed of the Rio Culebra is arid or semi-arid at lower elevations and most agriculture is only possible with irrigation. The town of San Luis receives an average of of precipitation annually. Precipitation increases with altitude and most of the water in the Rio Culebra comes from melted snow and rainfall received at the higher elevations of the Sangre de Cristos. A weather station near El Valle Creek at an elevation of received of precipitation annually on average between 1980 and 2021. Annual precipitation at the El Valle weather station varied from in the driest year (2002) to in the wettest year (1983). The Rio Culebra is usually dry in its lower stretches due to the utilization of its water for irrigation. The amount of water for irrigation is variable from year to year depending upon precipitation and snow pack in the mountains. The median flow of the river near San Luis was 45.1 cubic feet per second (cfs) annually from 1907 to 2007. Median flow varied from 18.2 cfs in 1951 to 92.7 cfs in 1942.

History

Expansion northward of the Spanish colony in New Mexico was prevented for more than 100 years by the

Ute Indians Ute () are the Indigenous people of the Ute tribe and culture among the Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. They had lived in sovereignty in the regions of present-day Utah and Colorado in the Southwestern United States for many centuries un ...

who inhabited the Rio Culebra basin. The Rio Culebra basin is part of the

Sangre de Cristo Land Grant The Sangre de Cristo Land Grant in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico consists of of mostly arid land. It was awarded by the government of New Mexico to the Beaubien family in 1843. The land grant was originally settl ...

awarded to the family of Carlos Beaubien in 1843. In 1850 settlers began arriving at the Rio Culebra and in 1851, ten settlers from

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Cha ...

established the town of San Luis on the banks of the Rio Culebra, the first permanent settlement in Colorado. Hispanics established six additional villages in the watershed: San Pedro (1850), San Pablo (1852),

San Acacio San Acacio is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Costilla County, Colorado, United States. The population of the San Acacio CDP was 40 at the 2010 United States census. The Sanford post of ...

(1852), San Francisco (1853-54), Chama (after 1863), and Los Fuertes (?). In 1852, the settlers began digging what became known as the San Luis People's Ditch to irrigate farmland with the water of the Rio Culebra. The People's Ditch is long. Each settler received a long, narrow strip of land 25 to 100 "varas" (70 to 275 feet) wide fronting on the ditch and extending at a right angle from the ditch as much as across the valley. In 1860 the population of Rio Culebra area reached 1,700 persons. In 1863, in accordance with Spanish and Mexican practice, Beaubien, a Mexican citizen of French descent, established a communal pasture ("vega") in which each settler ("poblador") could pasture four cattle, plus horses and mules. Upland areas distant from irrigation canals were designated for grazing of goats, sheep, and pigs. Settlers were guaranteed access to the upland areas for grazing livestock, collecting firewood, hunting, and fishing. The San Luis People's Ditch was the first of a dozen acequias (irrigation ditches) constructed by 1874. In 1986, 83 acequias were utilizing the water of the Rio Culebra and its tributaries. The population of Costilla county peaked in 1940 when 600 to 700 farm families occupied the Rio Culebra watershed; in 2003 that number had declined to 270 families who irrigated of crop and pasture land. The ownership and use of the lands in the basin of the Rio Culebra have been the subject of legal disputes beginning in the 1860s and continuing into the 21st century. Descendants of the original Hispanic settlers have asserted their rights to use formerly common lands for grazing, wood-gathering, and other uses. Anglo owners have attempted, mostly unsuccessfully, to restrict or eliminate those rights.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Colorado Rivers of Costilla County, Colorado Tributaries of the Rio Grande Irrigation in the United States Irrigation canals Spanish words and phrases

Geography

History

See also

References