Lake Scott State Park
Lake Scott State Park is the site of a ruined Taos Pueblo. The Taos arrived in western Kansas in 1664. After having escaped the Spanish colonial rule in New Mexico. They formed an alliance with a group of Plains Apache. The Taos Indians built the protective pueblos and an irrigation system from a nearby spring to water their crops. The settlement, known as El Cuartelejo, was occupied for 20 years before the builders returned to their home territory. The pueblo was reoccupied in 1696 by a group of Picuri Indians. The Picuris were compelled to retreat to their homelands in colonial New Mexico ten years later.
Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District
The Pueblo people of the Rio Grande valley had developed primitive irrigation systems in the Rio Grande valley by the 10th century AD.
These systems used a main "acequia" (shared irrigation ditch) into which water was diverted from the river, with secondary ditches leading off the main channel named for specific families. Maintenance of the main "acequia" would be a community responsibility.
The Spanish arrived in New Mexico in 1598, and used Indian labor to extend the system of irrigation ditches.
In 1848 Mexico ceded the territory to the United States. Railways arrived in 1880, bringing new settlers.
The Federal government encouraged irrigation, which probably peaked in the early 1890s.