The San Buenaventura Mission Aqueduct was a seven-mile long, stone and mortar aqueduct built in the late 18th and/or early 19th century to transport water from the

Ventura River The Ventura River, in western Ventura County in southern California, United States, flows from its headwaters to the Pacific Ocean. The smallest of the three major rivers in Ventura County, it flows through the steeply sloped, narrow Ventura V ...

to the

Mission San Buenaventura Mission San Buenaventura ( es, Misión San Buenaventura), formally known as the Mission Basilica of San Buenaventura, is a Catholic parish and basilica in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The parish church in the city of Ventura, California, Unite ...

Ventura, California Ventura, officially named San Buenaventura (Spanish for "Saint Bonaventure"), is a city on the Southern Coast of California and the county seat of Ventura County. The population was 110,763 at the 2020 census. Ventura is a popular tourist des ...

. Accounts vary greatly as to when the aqueduct was built. One account indicates it was built between 1780 and 1790 by the

Chumash Indians The Chumash are a Native American people of the central and southern coastal regions of California, in portions of what is now San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, extending from Morro Bay in the north to Malibu ...

under the direction of a Spanish priest trained in

hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...

. Others place its construction in the 1790s, and yet another indicates it was built between 1805 and 1815 by stonemasons brought from Mexico. The aqueduct supplied water for the residents of Mission San Buenaventura and irrigation for the mission's pasture and agricultural lands. Water from the aqueduct helped the mission flourish. Few vestiges of it remain today. Large sections were destroyed in a

Great Flood of 1862 The Great Flood of 1862 was the largest flood in the recorded history of Oregon, Nevada, and California, occurring from December 1861 to January 1862. It was preceded by weeks of continuous rains and snows in the very high elevations that began in ...

, and settlers used stones from the old aqueduct to build homes. The combined effects of floods, land cultivation, neglect and land development reduced most of the aqueduct to rubble. The only significant section that remains is located at the mouth of Canyada canyon on land that was formerly known as Rancho Cañada Larga o Verde owned by the Canet family from 1873 until at least the 1960s. This remaining section is 100 feet long and ten feet high, and is believed to have "served as a siphon, drawing water uphill through conduits." The location is at 234 Canada Larga Road near the road's interchange with the Ojai Freeway. In the early 1970s, the Ventura County Cultural Heritage Commission led a fight to preserve the remaining piece, declaring it a county landmark in 1972. The following year, county supervisors voted to purchase the site. In 1975, the aqueduct site was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, and in 1977 the aqueduct site was fenced off to protect it from vandalism. It was also recognized as a

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

in 1985. A controversy arose in 1989 when a newly discovered three-foot section of the aqueduct was demolished during construction of a house. The Ventura County Cultural Heritage Board sought to prevent further demolition, and the owner built his home over the aqueduct, preserving a 20-foot-long section in his basement. In recent years, preservationists have raised concerns about the failure of the county to take action to protect the remaining section of the aqueduct on Canada Larga Road. In 1998, the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote that "the lone surviving significant chunk of what was once the seven-mile San Buenaventura Mission Aqueduct sits forlornly in a weed-filled corner of an orchard near a freeway offramp north of the city." Though the site is owned by the county, and the head of the county's Cultural Heritage Board called it "an engineering marvel" in sore need of preservation, the county has lacked funds, and the effects of

El Nino EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

rains continued the deterioration of the aqueduct. Ventura_Mission_Aqueduct

References

{{Ventura River Aqueducts in California Irrigation canals Buildings and structures in Ventura, California Transportation buildings and structures in Ventura County, California National Register of Historic Places in Ventura, California Water supply infrastructure on the National Register of Historic Places History of Ventura County, California Parks in Ventura County, California Spanish missions in California Aqueducts on the National Register of Historic Places Transportation buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in California

See also

References