{"nrhp_refnum":"97000885","name":"El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1","other_names":["Rio Grande Prject"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Starting at the jct. of US 80 and US 85, along TX 20 to Alamo Alto","address_restricted":false,"city":"El Paso","county":"El Paso County","state":"TX","lat":31.578562828500054,"lon":-106.25242140380745,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1997-08-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Engineering"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic irrigation district in the El Paso Valley of west Texas, running from El Paso to Tornillo along the Rio Grande. It comprises the publicly owned Franklin and Riverside canals, laterals and drains, built by the Bureau of Reclamation between 1912 and 1940.","why_significant":"The visible text covers only the description, not the significance statement. It shows a large early 20th century federal irrigation system that replaced earlier Hispanic acequias and is still fully functional. The basic layout of its ditches and drains is almost unchanged since construction, while many smaller control structures have been replaced.","narrative":"This irrigation district covers the El Paso Valley of the Rio Grande in west Texas, stretching from near downtown El Paso east to Tornillo and bordered on the southwest by Mexico. It consists of two main canals, the Franklin and the Riverside, along with 67 laterals and 37 drains. The Bureau of Reclamation built it between 1912 and 1940, rebuilding some older ditch alignments and creating new ones, and absorbing earlier acequias set up by Hispanic settlers. Today the system includes 206 miles of canals and laterals and 195 miles of drains, serving about 56,000 acres of farmland. Many ditches have been lined with concrete, yet most canals remain earthen, and the basic layout is almost unchanged since construction. Small control features such as checks, drops and gates have mostly been replaced over the past fifty years. The system remains in active use and still works on its historic design. The listing covers only publicly owned canals and drains, with 104 contributing structures.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Bureau of Reclamation (U.S. Reclamation Service before 1923)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Fully functional irrigation system in current use, though many minor control structures have been modified or replaced in the past 50 years.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.950778-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/93/9718/40971893/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/97000885.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971893","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q109999584"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/el-paso-county/el-paso-county-water-improvement-district-no-1-97000885/"}