Submitted by Mary Davis, Village Historian
Did you know that Corrales’ rural heritage is threatened and that the draft 2024 Comprehensive Plan proposes several actions to help preserve that heritage?
This article features photographs from the Historical Society’s collections that illustrate the Village’s long rural history that did not die at the end of the first millennium and is alive today in Corrales. Although the open fields and orchards that were here in the mid-twentieth century have mostly disappeared, there are still at least 100-150 small family farms plus the Wagner farm still operating in Corrales. The major changes in Corrales’ history—the arrival of Italian and French families in the late 19th century, the many Anglo newcomers who “discovered†Corrales after WWII, and the population explosion in the 1970s and ’80s, have not diminished the Village’s attraction for people who are drawn to nature and its bounty; they immerse themselves in caring for flourishing vegetables and flowers, lively sheep or chickens, healthy and gleaming horses. It was hard work 100 years ago and still requires much labor and care.
Our rural heritage today faces three threats, as discussed in a paper by long-time Corrales resident Mike Marshall, who coordinates irrigation with six neighboring small farms. He lists as the first threat the diminishing supply of water resulting from the loss of the siphon at the north end of the village that brought irrigation water from the river to the west side of the Rio Grande. He points out that the wood siphon, installed as a WPA project in the 1930s, was probably left high and dry by the narrowing of the river bed that caused the river to cut a deeper channel, thereby dropping lower in its bed, exposing the wooden siphon. The increased heat and lack of rainfall has made matters worse. The delay in the siphon’s reconstruction has resulted in dry useless fields and dehydrated gardens and orchards.
The second threat is the possible reclassifying of family farm properties as residential rather than agricultural lands. Marshall writes, “It is our understanding that family farms…if they do not produce significant sales receipts will be classified by Sandoval County like potential development properties and will be taxed at a much higher rate.†Such a reclassification places an even greater burden on the farm owners who in desperation will simply sell their land. Marshall points out that most family farms in Corrales are “utilized to produce products for family use, occasional sales, trades, and gifts.†His three-acre farm, and others like it, do not provide a major source of income, but the very existence of these family farms is what makes Corrales “rural.â€Â
And thirdly — ironically — if the owners do sell their lands, current Village zoning regulations require a 30 foot road easement and an 80-100 foot diameter turn around, destroying open space, diminishing the character of our old narrow farm roads that served Corrales’ historic linear land division pattern, and resulting in a “suburban,†rather than rural, character.
The Comprehensive Plan addresses these problems, and others not as closely related to preserving family farms and farmland, but with the overarching purpose of saving and protecting what is left of Corrales’ rural character. The Plan deserves our support and our determination to keep Corrales a distinctive and invigorating place to live.
Information provided by Corrales Historical Society (CHS) Archives Committee. Want to learn more? Visit www.CorralesHistory.org for all the interesting things the Historical Society has to offer. New members are always welcome and this is the perfect time to join!
