What a dam!!

Well this past weekend I had the privilege to go take a trip over to Espada Park on my own, and see for myself just how beautiful that area looked. From the moment that I entered the park I noticed, just like I did at the Espada Mission, how green and thick the grass looked. As I kept on driving thru the park and continued on the road I saw many other people there doing all types of activities. Some of the families that were there were riding their bikes together, and other families were having bar-b-que’s on the grass underneath the shade of some of enormous trees that were inside of the park. When I stepped out of my car one of the first things that I heard was the sound of rushing water, and I’ve always like that particular sound because it always seems to help me relax. When I was getting closer to the water I started to notice that the grass would get higher and thicker due to all of the water that runs through the dam. The dam that is used the most today is made of concrete and had the help of modern technology, but the dam that was constructed originally sometime between 1731 and 1745 is made of nothing but stone. The converted Native Americans were the ones who built the 270 feet long and 8 feet high dam with their bare hands and still to this today part of that dam can be seen on the right side of the road towards the back of the park and still is in use. The Espada dam was used to help the surrounding areas get their irrigation water. When I got closer to the original dam I notice that there was a stone near the bank that provided me with the following information. It stated that this structure diverts 4,500 gallons of water a minute into the four mile long irrigation ditch know as “Acequia De Espada”. Gravity helps the water flow and spread through out the entire 400 acres of land at the Espada Mission to this very day. I wanted to go further into the park but there was a metal gate that wouldn’t allow my car over the low bridge. Plus there was water flowing over it and I didn’t want to chance something happening to my car! So after I had gathered some information to help me write this paper I decided to take a walk around the park for a little while. I embraced the open fields and enjoyed being able to feel the nice cool breeze while I was walking. See now a days there are very few places like this around here or at lease that I know of, but if it wasn’t for this class that I’m taking I don’t think I would have ever seen the beauty that the city of San Antonio actually has!