One of the many Texas Engineering Landmarks in celebration of Texas ASCE’s Centennial: 1913-2013 “Engineering a Better Texas.” Visit them all!
NOTE: This waymark’s coordinates take you to the Historical Marker, but the 31 miles give many opportunities for alternate viewing. Please post photos, coordinates, and details about YOUR visit.
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IN A THUMBNAIL:
The Franklin Canal is an irrigation canal in the Upper Rio Grande Valley near El Paso, Texas. The canal acquires water from the Rio Grande via the American Canal. The canal is 28.4 miles (45.7 km) long with a capacity of 325 cubic feet per second. Though the canal was privately constructed in 1889, it was acquired by the US Bureau of Reclamation in 1912. It is part of a large canal network in the Upper Rio Grande Valley. It was made a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark of Texas in 1976
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The Franklin Canal, started in 1889, was the first large-scale, complex irrigation project in West Texas. The canal, a private undertaking of the El Paso Irrigation Co. (nee The Franklin Irrigation Company), was completed in 1891 at a cost of $150,000.
A masonry wing dam extending about 300' diagonally into the Rio Grande diverts water into the heading of the Franklin Canal, about a mile northwest of El Paso. The 31-mile-long canal begins about 30' wide but decreases to 15' at Fabens, where it returns to the Rio Grande. When completed, it had a capacity of 175 cubic feet per water per second and could irrigate about 1,400 acres at normal river flow. The canal had a steeper grade than necessary, which required concrete drop structures at several locations to control the velocity of the water. The novel design of the drop structures consisted of counter-balanced cylindrical gates that could be adjusted to allow a discharge of the proper velocity to prevent erosion or silting of the channel. (Source: Arthur Powell Davis, Irrigation Works Constructed by the United States Government (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1917).
In 1912, the U.S. Reclamation Service purchased the canal, and it became a key part of the Rio Grande Project. The canal was extensively renovated and enlarged between 1912 and 1916. The work included repairing the diversion dam, enlarging the heading of the canal, and lining a portion of the channel with concrete. When completed, the Franklin Canal became one of the projects primary canals, capable of irrigating 40,000 acres.
Capable, but despite designer and investors’ best hopes, the erratic flow of the Rio Grande meant it would water only 3,000 acres in the few years following. Compound arid West Texas’ capricious weather with the fact the Rio Grande’s waters must be shared with Mexico: in 1935, Congress commissioned diversionary projects to measure and allow Mexico’s share to pass through to the Acequia Madre, while diverting everything else into the American Canal, a two-mile stretch that now feeds the Franklin Canal -- a largely successful solution to the problem of dividing the waters.
(An interesting modern photo can be found at (
visit link) -- showing a near empty Rio Grande in juxtaposition with a full Franklin Canal.)
The canal has been altered several times since its initial construction. Currently, however, it’s a far cry from its glory days, compromised by urban growth. Truth be told, the portion of the canal leaving the downtown area of El Paso is heavily silted and poorly maintained.
TEXAS HISTORICAL MARKER TEXT
For centuries, the Rio Grande has been molded and shaped by the humans living along its banks. Informal irrigation systems have existed along the life-sustaining river from the Spanish Colonial period. As early as the 1840s, area farmers began more modern improvements on these systems.
By 1889 El Paso developers needed a means to efficiently provide water to farmers in the El Paso Valley. The El Paso Irrigation Company began construction on the Franklin Canal the following year. A dispute between the U. S. and Mexico over water rights led to the international treaty of 1906, in which it was agreed that the U. S. would deliver 60,000 acre feet of water to Mexico via the Franklin Canal.
Completed in 1912, the canal began at the international dam and extended five miles, paralleling the Rio Grande on its north bank and continuing through downtown El Paso. It was intended to deliver water thirty miles into the El Paso Valley.
Demands on the canal increased as the area's population grew. Upgrades began in 1914 and continued into the 1930s. The American Dam was created in 1938 to hinder the efforts of Mexican citizens to siphon water from the Rio Grande.
Modifications have been made to Franklin Canal throughout the 20th century. It is an important element in the history of water control along the U.S.-Mexico border. Essential to irrigation on both sides of the Rio Grande, the canal continues to affect development in both countries. (1998)
(Marker Number: 11586)
References/Further Reading:
Franklin Canal, Extending 31 miles along the Rio Grande, El Paso, El Paso County, TX (
visit link)
Alternate Water Source and Route Benefit Ascarate Park (Texas AgriLife Research Center at El Paso) (
visit link)
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City of Socorro plans to fix bridge over Franklin canal (El Paso Times) (
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Other waymarks:
Franklin Canal in Texas Historical Markers (
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