Aquaduck Traditional Cache
badfeet: I have changed the container and location in hopes of making this a little more muggel proof. The area deserves a cache
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This is one more of a series we have placed on Canada Larga road. This should be an easy find, the cache is in plain site
This is another of those locations that I have driven past a hundred times and never realized what was here. From this point look across the creek bed at that pile of rocks, that was once a part of the Mission aquaduct. A full explaination follows.
The aqueduct remnant at Canada Larga survives as a small but significant portion of the extensive San Buenaventura Mission water system.The historic data surrounding the development of San Buenaventura Mission point to an aqueduct construction date within the years 1805 and 1815.
Mexican artisans (stonecutters and stonemasons) forever changed the appearance of California missions.Imported by the Spanish government in 1770 until 1800 to serve as laborers and instructors to theIndians they imparted enough skills to the Indians to do masonry construction which then flourished throughout the California mission system.
Chumash Indian dexterity and agility combined with the skills learned from the Spanish artisans created the elaborate seven-mile aqueduct running along the Ventura foothills.Without a permanent water supply the San Buenaventura Mission community could not have survived.
The aqueduct remnant represents an impressive technical accomplishment, and occupies an important position in the early California complex water system.The aqueduct served the mission and community from the time of construction until 1862, about eighty years, when the system was destroyed by the floods of 1862.
There is little doubt that this aqueduct ruin constitutes one of the oldest man-made structures in Ventura County.The local landmark is a heritage of the cultures which built the great state of California:Indian, Spanish, and American pioneer.
There are other segments of the aqueduct which are underground further to the south toward the mission.Time and the elements have destroyed much of this structure, and almost total destruction has been accomplished by man’s development of the area during the last sixty years.
The San Buenaventura Mission and the mission reservoir where the aqueduct terminated, are registered by the State Historical Resources Commission as California historical landmarks No. 114 and 310, respectively.The longevity of the Canada Larga Aqueduct, andthe engineering skill it establishes it as of historic value to California mission life, and an educational resource worthy of further interpretation.
The first mission was destroyed by fire. Building began on the new masonry structure in 1792 and was completed in 1809.The elaborate seven-mile aqueduct built by the Chumash Indians between 1805 and 1815 began at the Compardo Lago and terminated at the adobe reservoir behind the old mission.
The Canada Larga portion of the San Buenaventura Mission Aqueduct rests on an acre site adjacent to Canada Larga Road, four miles from the mission and downtown Ventura.The County-owned property is situated approximately º mile east of Highway 33 and is bordered on the west by a stream. The aqueduct bridged this wide stream, some 150-200 feet. The channel originated from a dam probably between 1-2 miles north at the junction of San Antonio Creek and the Ventura River.The creek was less turbulent and still exhibits a natural dike near the junction of the two flows. ( Robert Browne, San Buenaventura Water System, 1974)
The aqueduct is made of cobble stone and mortar (random rubble). The walls are supported on both sides by two massive buttesses, six feet wide and ranging in thickness from 4-1/2 to almost 7 feet. The remaining structure consists of two masonry supports which total an approximate length of 100 feet.A 12-foot gap between fragments resulted from a turn-of-the-century blast to create an opening for a road.The portion to the is approximately 20 feet long.The larger fragmentis about 70 feet long.The height of the aqueduct ranges from 10 feet at the northwest end to under 2 feet at the southeast corner.
At Canada Larga, the aqueduct was a covered system.The channel in the top of the structure is approximately 10 inches deep and 30 inches wide.At other sections along the foot of the hill, there are several remaining portions of the acequia (Spanish for irrigation ditch) masonry still intact.
Some undisturbed sections are covered at present by a thin layer of soil. There are other small acequia sections found to the north where the aqueduct had been built along the steep slope of the hill. The downhill side of the trough has broken away from the main body, and in some places fallen down, leaving the uphill side remaining. In some areas the broken sections have not been found.The acequia sections were merely open lined ditches of either unmortared stone, brick or mortared stone of brick.One acequia was found out in the compact soil of the hill, around which the water flowed to the aqueduct at the Canada Larga, by Gessler in 1968. The small sections found are owned by several private citizens and the City of Ventura.
It can be assumed that there was at least one point of takeoff for irrigation water along the seven-mile route, and there could have been more. No evidence of other reservoirs was found during the 1974 archaeological survey on the mission water system.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Lbh ner ybbxvat evtug ng vg
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