|
Post by sloanrodgers on Feb 23, 2009 11:50:40 GMT -5
No problem. I figured it was just a simple mistunderstanding. Take it easy.
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Sept 22, 2013 16:50:15 GMT -5
Speaking of acequias -- we were indeed, at one time -- here is my model view of the Concepcion Dam lifting the river into the Pajalache. This is the acequia that ran to Mission Concepcion. The dam was located just upriver from the ford to La Villita. The street leading beyond the dam is now called Presa St. (the Spanish word for dam). While I believe my structuring of the dam is a bit extreme using the SketchUp tools, it is in the correct spot geographically and the buttresses are shaped from the feature on the 1845 map San Antonio de Bexar & its Ancient Wards in George Nelson's book (page 3 of the 3rd. Revised Edition). It is likely that the actual dam was stone but the appearance would have been more earthy, like the extant Espada Dam. It is interesting that these mission dams bowed out (downstream) instead of in. One would think it would be stronger as a concaved structure like its modern counterparts. In appearance, it would have probably looked more like a huge beaver dam. The lone house in the distance is the McMullen house (of conjectural RLC design)near which Santa Anna's army had an "entrenched encampment," according to Travis.
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Sept 22, 2013 16:58:20 GMT -5
The ford looking east to a minimalist version of La Villita. The far bend of the River (upper-left) is where the Arneson River Theater is now. The pinkish building in the village is the Cos House.
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Oct 12, 2013 13:52:13 GMT -5
From my Virtual Bexar map-model, here is a view of San Pedro Springs. We are, in effect, standing on low bluff over the head spring -- that the Spanish Colonial explorers and missionaries referred to as "fountains" because (then) they gushed out of the ground and high into the air. The lake beyond (we are looking south) was either natural or a product of the dam ( saca de agua) built by the soldiers of the Presidio de Bexar prior to the arrival of the Canary Islanders in 1731. NOTE: This was taken during an early stage of my model, but your bearings can rely on the precise placement of San Fernando Parish on the upper-left horizon. Looking north from below the saca de aqua, we can see how the dam raised the water level of San Pedro Creek several hundred feet below the springs (at the far end) allowing it to flow into the head of the Acequia de San Pedro to the right. This acequia, also dug and constructed by the military, watered all the fields ( labores)between the creek and the river -- all the land to the north and south of Bexar on the west side of the San Antonio River. This water had to be fairly distributed between the original population (the soldiers and their families) as well as the Islenos (Canary Islanders) who arrived later. This created much consternation and needed to be solved by the governor. This "San Pedro Ditch" (as later Anglo Texians labeled it on their maps) was also the source for all town drinking water, so strict regulations were place on how it was to be used -- and what couldn't be dumped into it. NOTE: My depiction of the dam is stone and rather formal. In reality, it probably looked more like a large beaver dam, like the mission dams (Espada Dam is still extant, I believe, but I have no digitized photos of it). As we back away further to the south down San Pedro Creek, we see how the San Pedro Acequia basically paralleled it. There would have been lateral (and smaller) acequias running perpendicularly from it to the east and west to irrigate the lands. The other acequia depicted, crossing the north-south acequia in my model, is the Upper Labor Ditch ( Acequia de Arriba)and originated from the river -- not the creek -- just below its source several miles to the N.E. It irrigated the fields on the eastern downhill slope to the San Antonio River, crossed San Pedro Acequia on an aquaduct and then dumped into the creek just to the west. [Source for the history involved is Jesus F. de la Teja's San Antonio de Bexar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier (1995, U. of N.M. Press)].
|
|
|
Post by estebans on Oct 13, 2013 4:51:45 GMT -5
Thanks for posting these images from your project, Rich--they are really helping me visualize things better, and I look forward to buying the finished product. The foremost memory I have of my first visit to the Alamo in 1965 is tracing the version of the Potter map in Robert Penn Warren's book to take along, and not being able to orient myself with it at all on arrival. Pretty neat to have lived long enough to zoom around 1836 Bexar your way.
It is interesting that these mission dams bowed out (downstream) instead of in. One would think it would be stronger as a concaved structure like its modern counterparts.
It made me wonder if the fluid dynamics for feeding the acequia would be just a little better with this shape of dam, converting more of the energy of the stream's flow toward the acequia's flow, instead of having a sort of dead eddy at the far end of a convex version of this dam. At least I want to think that if the dam was the wrong shape for optimal strength, there must be a good reason. They certainly knew what made an arch strong, so why do the dam the other way round? Maybe every little bit helped with an acequia.
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Oct 13, 2013 12:34:12 GMT -5
It made me wonder if the fluid dynamics for feeding the acequia would be just a little better with this shape of dam, converting more of the energy of the stream's flow toward the acequia's flow, instead of having a sort of dead eddy at the far end of a convex version of this dam. At least I want to think that if the dam was the wrong shape for optimal strength, there must be a good reason. They certainly knew what made an arch strong, so why do the dam the other way round? Maybe every little bit helped with an acequia. I couldn't agree more. It has been a bugaboo to me ever since I first saw a picture of the Espada Dam and read the caption making the comment on the reverse arch. Yours is the first conjecture I've heard that might just make sense. And when you think of the engineering going on just to keep the acequia traveling along in parallel to the river with the same downward pitch yet always higher up the valley -- following contours of the land (without geological survey maps!!!), you've gotta figure they did it for a reason.
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Oct 13, 2013 13:09:53 GMT -5
Thanks for posting these images from your project, Rich--they are really helping me visualize things better, and I look forward to buying the finished product. Estebans, her is a link to a thread I have started for the purpose of "showing off" the model. lol. You may get a better idea of the scope of it from this. Thanks for the support. johnwayne-thealamo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1496&start=0
|
|
|
Post by estebans on Oct 13, 2013 15:36:35 GMT -5
Rich, I had a couple more notions about the dam design mystery: Besides using some of the stream's energy to feed the acequia better, the concave shape may have created what I think is called a plenum, a volume that damps out variations in the river's flow, which might have mattered a lot during both surges from rain in the watershed and drought stages. It would be a passive method of regulating the acequia's flow somewhat, helping to make it more predictable as a foundation for the agricultural/social web that depended on its stability and fairness. The spillover at the dam during flood stages may even have been more benign with the concave dam, which would be a concern when it rains like it's trying to do this weekend. I was also thinking about the process of "buttoning up" a dam, you know, the point in the process where you actually close it off completely--maybe that's easier to do with this shape than some others.
Given their wisdom from hundreds of years of experience, the answer might even be that this shape of dam averages out best for several such factors, compared to other shapes they might have used. If you just want to route the stream's energy toward the acequia, then of course you angle a straight dam downstream at the acequia, but then that acequia will surge out of control during floods . . . so you want a plenum or reservoir shape to absorb the floods and abate the low stages as much as possible, while utilizing a bit of the stream's energy, and being an easy enough dam to build. I should think somebody from the Army Corps of Engineers could suss that question out in about three shakes, so no doubt you can get a solid answer from somebody in the Alamo community before long.
I've been following your presentation at the other forum as "stimbotdeguerra," but didn't want to interrupt the flow of images there, given your technical complications in putting those up . . . I know it's tough when you know a project is gonna be really nice when it's done, but it ain't done yet--hang in there. Being able to annotate with explanations like shooting at Ben Milam or why they made the dam this way is going to be very cool indeed.
Stephen Schneider
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Oct 13, 2013 16:47:07 GMT -5
I've been following your presentation at the other forum as "stimbotdeguerra," but didn't want to interrupt the flow of images there, given your technical complications in putting those up . . . I know it's tough when you know a project is gonna be really nice when it's done, but it ain't done yet--hang in there. Being able to annotate with explanations like shooting at Ben Milam or why they made the dam this way is going to be very cool indeed. Stephen Schneider Ha! Man-o-war! Yes. You sly fox. lol. Well, Stephen, it will always be a work-in-progress in that it is easily up-datable with new information. Having a film background, I certainly want full CGI for the images so that you can't tell any of it from real life. Unfortunately, my seven year old desktop computer can't even handle my SketchUp model without my having to keep the Alamo portion in a separate file. The Bexar model is currently 128 MB while the Alamo and Pueblo de Valero alone are 132 MB. Combine them, and my computer crashes! lol. So this truly is only a first step. Even with what I have, I can effectively use it to illustrate points as I have been doing here and on the other forum. I can't draw worth a hoot -- and I don't have 95 million dollars to make the next Alamo movie yet -- but I can sure have some fun doing this, and perhaps contributing to discussions where appropriate.
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Oct 14, 2013 3:41:03 GMT -5
The San Pedro Acequia (as mentioned above) had its source at San Pedro Springs, northwest of the city, and paralleled San Pedro Creek (seen on the extreme left in the first picture). It followed N. Flores Street (the main Nacogdoches Road or el Camino Real) but crossed over a block to Acequia Street (now Main Avenue). You can see it entering the street from the left several blocks north of the plaza. This acequia was dug by the presidial military for the community's drinking water and private irrigation and flowed out the S.W. corner of the plaza ( seen in the second picture, being crossed by Dolorosa Street) where it continued to water the Labor de Abajo (the lower fields of the Bexarenos). This was a community water supply shared by the Bexar presidial company and the townspeople and had nothing to do with the missions. Note: I haven't seen it yet, but part of this acequia just beyond the site of the second picture was uncovered during some of the new construction south of Main Plaza and is now viewable. By jeems, maybe if we keep digging around, we'll find Jim Bowie's lost treasure!
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Oct 14, 2013 3:54:40 GMT -5
The Zambrano Sugar Mill, commonly known as the "Old Mill" or "Molino Blanco," was located on the right (west) bank of the San Antonio River nearly a mile above the town. Water was delivered to it from a lateral acequia coming from the Acequia de Arriba (the one mentioned earlier that began at the San Antonio Springs and emptied into San Pedro Creek just below the dam) and traveled the last hundred feet or so from the higher ground in an above-ground aquaduct. Then, as I understand it, the water entered a port five or six feet up in the mill wall, poured over a mill wheel causing it to turn and operate the mill (as in the replicated San Jose Mission mill) and then exited through lower port in the back of the building into the mill race that took it to the river a few yards away. Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Oct 26, 2013 0:10:09 GMT -5
Alamo Acequias. 1) Photo No. 1 is showing the Acequia that can be seen in the Herman Lungkwitz painting The Alameda. It flowed from left to right (north to south) and was crossed by Alameda Street (now Commerce) just south of where the Alameda began. The tree models I selected for my Alameda, while not exactly winter cottonwood trees are about the correct height, which appears to be in the neighborhood of sixty feet in the Lungkwitz painting when compared to his figure on the road. 2) This is an angle looking north from the Alameda Street bridge along the acequia (looking upstream) toward the Alamo in the distance. St. Joseph's Church now stands at on the far side of the road immediately to the left of the Acequia. 3) Here we see an aerial view looking N.N.E. over Pueblo del Alamo and the Alamo itself. You can see the beginning of the Alameda at the right and the path of the acequia coming from behind the Alamo church. Its source is the compuerta reparto (delivery gate) which is seen at the upper middle edge of the green model plane. This gate controlled water flow from the Acequia Madre coming from near the San Antonio River source two miles north and divided it into two acequias -- the one I have just explained and the one paralleling it 1,000 feet to the east (upper right portion of the picture). There would have been several laterals coming from the eastern acequia and emptying into the western one. These irrigated the Labores Afuera (outer fields). The Alamo acequia came southwest from the compuerta and then further split just northeast of the Alamo into two, one of which came by the rear and to the Alameda as explained and the other around the north and west walls of the Alamo and then down to the river along a very early trace of what is not Crockett St.
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Oct 26, 2013 1:13:03 GMT -5
1) Looking from the west, it is easier to see the Acequia Madre in the distance (click on picture to enlarge it), reaching around the far end of the Alameda and the Alamo Acequia splitting into its east and west treks around the Alamo, the eastern branch crossing the near end of the Alameda and the western branch ending up in the river just to the right of the bend. (I find it fascinating that there is a huge storm drain, surrounded by a sculptured facade, that still empties into the river under the Crockett Street bridge at this exact spot. Could it be?) 2) The western branch also had a channel that went under the north wall (in foreground) through an archway and ran the length of the plaza. It is assumed that this inner one was the original described in Mission Valero inventories with Indian houses facing it from both sides (the west wall buildings were the only remnant by 1836). What is not clear is when the additional branch outside the west wall was dug. Recent research has suggested that this outer ditch was dug by General Cos in 1835 when he blocked off the inner ditch with earthworks and cannon ramps, also blocking up the arched portals through which it passed under the walls. I do not believe this is an absolute. It may have been dug by the Compania Volante when they occupied the fort between 1801 and 1824. Here, I show it empty and filled in with earth in areas of great traffic, like at the end of cannon ramps. My own conjecture. 3) My structural representation of the acequia in the Alamo is taken from the extant Acequia Madre de Valero in Hemisfair Park just south of where the Goliad Road once crossed it. The Hemisfair 90 foot long segment was excavated in December, 1966, by Mrs. Roy T. Schutz, curator of Anthropology of the Witte Museum and declared a Texas Historical Landmark.
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Oct 26, 2013 1:30:15 GMT -5
Since the acequia in the Alamo compound was dry and the mission period well in the convento courtyard was as well, the defenders in 1836 began to dig a new well. Enrique Esparza said in one of his interviews that he saw men "drawing water" from this well shortly after he entered the Alamo. It remains unclear just where this well was located. LaBastida's plat does not show it. Sanchez-Navarro's locates it near the west wall. The Adina de Zavala plat and Amelia Williams plat (both allegedly copies of the lost Jameson plat) shows it just off the S.W. corner of the Long Barrack, and Enrique Esparza simply said it was south of the center of the plaza. I have depicted the Sanchez-Navarro position. Attachments:
|
|
|
Acequias
Oct 26, 2013 21:32:09 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by Herb on Oct 26, 2013 21:32:09 GMT -5
Rich, don't know about Crockett Street Bridge, though it sounds plausible, I do remember Jake Ivey telling me (during Mark Lemon's first tour) that the fountain coming out of the wall as you go down the steps at the SW corner marked the location of the "Cos" acequia and was meant to commemorate it. But, you probably already knew that ....
Got to say again, I really like what you're doing!
|
|