There is ample evidence that prior to 1765 various humans lived in and roamed the Placitas area. Agricultural activities before that time are thought to have been successions of stream-side and catch-basin type "waffle gardens" of Native American origins. Current thinking attributed organized, modern farming and irrigation systems to the Las Huertas settlers of 1765.

These settlers moved to the Placitas area from what is known today as Algodones, Bernalillo and San Felipe. They were agrarian people of Spanish and Native American heritage. The Spanish authorities, as a precondition for the land grant, required that the settlers agree to farm and raise livestock. There were sources of water locally available, but it was necessary to construct an irrigation system to get the water to the areas to be cultivated.

The original settlement of 1765 - San Jose de las Huertas - was of an area in the lower Las Huertas Canyon. The settlers built a walled village. Even today this site remains undisturbed and is one of the last examples, not built over, of a Spanish colonial village. The original settlers of 1765 consisted of 21 families. In addition to their homes in the walled village, there were farm fields outside called "solares" (plots). They built an extensive irrigation system, some of which still exists. This was the Old Village of San Jose de las Huertas. ("Huertas" is translated as gardens, vineyards, orchards or planted fields of crops.)

The grant of land which was provided to and claimed by the original 21 families is now known as "The San Antonio de las Huertas Grant". At first the Grant was quite an extensive area stretching from the "Las Placitas" historic marker on NM Highway 165, to a high point on the Sandia Mountains, to a place east of what is known today as The Diamond Tail Ranch, to the boundaries of San Felipe and Santa Ana Indian lands - a very large tract of land.

The early settlers lived in precarious times. There were some not-so-lofty reasons for the Spanish authorities to encourage this settlement. One of the main reasons, unfortunately, was to create a buffer to protect the "more important" villages and Pueblos of the Rio Grande Valley. In addition, the settlers were a source of tax revenue in the form of the crops and livestock they produced. Grant areas not farmed were used for grazing, hunting, timber, firewood gathering, and foraging for food and herbs. Today only 4,763 acres of the Land Grant remains intact. The majority of the original Grant lands are part of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands, or have been turned over to private parties other than the heirs of the 1765 settlers. The United States took over the entire New Mexico Territory after the Mexican-American War and The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848 was to protect the Land Grants, but many of the Grants are still in question.

As time passed and the families grew, the amount of land under cultivation also grew. The Old Village of San Jose de las Huertas spilled over onto the mesa to the northwest where an acequia (irrigation ditch) was dug to the Llano de las Huertas. The source of water for this new system was the Las Huertas Creek and some springs above the Old Village known as Los Ojos de la Rosa Castilla. The land that was put into cultivation was terraced to provide level planting areas. The implements and tools used were hand made, and the farming techniques were a combination of Pueblo and Spanish origin, just like the people themselves.

From 1765 to about 1830 the people of Las Huertas farmed, fed their families, and paid their taxes. There were occasional attacks by marauding tribes, but with a little help from the nearby Spanish garrison the settlers were able to defend themselves. When the Mexicans ousted the Spanish in 1821, the situation began to change. Help was no longer so readily available. The Mexican authorities advised the settlers to take their families down to their relatives in the Pueblos and villages of the Rio Grande Valley. A few of the men and older boys remained to take care of the farms and livestock.

By the late 1830s the raiding had subsided and the settlers returned. There were greater numbers and many new areas within the Land Grant were opened up to accommodate the growing families. So it was that sometime around 1840 the present Village of Placitas was established with its own spring-fed acequia system which still supplies irrigation and domestic water to the Village. Here, as in Old Las Huertas, arroyos were filled in and sloping land was terraced to provide new fields to cultivate. Springs as far away as Tunnel Springs were accessed for Village area irrigation.

The upper canyon, too, had its own acequia system attached to the waters of upper Las Huertas Creek and springs known as Ojo de la Casa, Una de Gato, and Las Placitas. The Tejon, San Francisco and Tecolote settlements also had their own irrigation systems and were part of the original Land Grant and community of settlers.

237 years from the date of the 1765 settlement, descendents still farm and maintain the acequias as their ancestors did. They are determined to pass their precious land and water rights on to the coming generations. The descendents are volunteers serving on Village Water Boards, Forest Advisory Boards, Soil and Water Conservation District Boards, and otherwise citizens who try to be good stewards of the only land and water they know. May the next generation learn from their loving predecessors!

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