History, Part 7
The waterfall
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OUR FRIEND JOE ROYBAL, who grew up in the house next to the condominium in the 1950s and 60s, tells us there used to be a waterfall in Arroyo del Rosario. He says it was four or five feet high.
That probably explains the remains of a peculiar gabion located in the arroyo about halfway between Griffin Street and Paseo de Peralta. Gabions are walls made of rock wrapped in wire. I’m not talking here about the gabions that run parallel to the arroyo along its sides over that whole distance, but rather a distinctive gabion that once upon a time, must have crossed the arroyo like a dam. The middle has washed away but the two ends are still there (see photos below). During heavy rains, water would have built up behind it and spilled over from a height of several feet, forming a waterfall.
Why would the engineers who built the arroyo’s gabions construct a dam? For erosion control. It might have been a so-called “check dam”.
This dam, if that’s what it was, is located at the following coordinates. Click them to see the location in Google Earth.
Joe thinks the arroyo’s gabions were built as an WPA project which would make them at least 79 years old as we write this in 2022. If so, they are in remarkably good shape. Most of the wire looks and feels like new.
Joe says the rocks in the gabions have lots of fossils in them.
Links
Published by Southern Sandoval County Arroyo Flood Control Authority but written by a consultant with input from other engineers. See section 5.11.8, ‘Check Dams’.
This page was first published on March 16, 2022 and last republished on December 13, 2024.