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<br />Colorado's oldaest farm is s
<br />Gallegos family keeps agricultural living alive
<br />By O'arcy Fallon Farm•Historic Strututres Awardfor having go to the f:~rm. They just didn't tin
<br />Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph five buildings on the land that are over 50 stand 1 by I had ro come down here.
<br />SAN LUIS -Joe Gallegos stands in his
<br />family's lush orchard, cupping a black
<br />plum in his calloused palm.
<br />ht a land where shade and water are
<br />rare, both elements come together in this
<br />cool, old grove. The air smells like liqueur,
<br />and the muffled sound of ripened Cruit
<br />dropping on the dock grass mingles with
<br />the sound of water running through the
<br />San Luis People's Ditch, and the one that
<br />feeds it -the mother ditch.
<br />But, hey. don't 'start writing a haiku.
<br />'Hat's cow manure under Gallegos' boots.
<br />"People romanticize the Carm," Galle-
<br />gos saysw•ith abrusque laugh. "They don't
<br />1(vt bere_antl_]las_to [leaf tvith the cold
<br />winters and the lonely times attd the hard
<br />times."
<br />Still, ii s hard not to wax poetic: Galle-
<br />gos' 1,800-acre farm is steeped in history,
<br />from the irrigation system that dates back
<br />murly a century and a half to the Camily's
<br />~lt~ roofed adobe, which stands out
<br />,~6m the old barn and shed like a queen
<br />dowager.
<br />The Gallegos clan holds the oldest adju-
<br />dicated water rights in the state -meaning
<br />that it has [he right to irrigate its fields be-
<br />fore anyone else in the valley. Their water
<br />rights on the San Luis People's Ditch pre-
<br />dates statehood. As for the farm itself, it's
<br />the oldest contihually operating one in the
<br />state. Since 185?, five generations have
<br />famted [his stubborn land benveeu San
<br />Acacio and San Luis, Colorado's oldest
<br />totm.
<br />The farnt easily wins the distinction of a
<br />Colorado Centennial Farm -one of 189
<br />such awards bestowed [[port working farms
<br />and ranches that have been in [he same
<br />Tamil}' for more than 100 }'ears. The farm
<br />has also received an additional Centennial
<br />years old.
<br />JOE GALLEGOS' great-grandfather,
<br />Dario Gallegos, was one of the original se-
<br />ven settlers of the Sangre de Crisro land
<br />grant who came here from Mexico. The
<br />Mexican government, hoping to establish
<br />a solid presence in what was then its col-
<br />ony, hued settlers with the promise of rich
<br />creek bottoms, upland ranges and moun-
<br />tain forests.
<br />The land was divided in a Moorish confi-
<br />guration, sectioned oEf in long pieces, or
<br />extenciones. The arrangement gave each
<br />settlers access [o the same ecosystem: blue
<br />grass, woodlands, couonwood bottom-
<br />lands, orchards and upland prairies.
<br />patios Gallegos' liyestock tlbut?shed on
<br />ate grass on the vega, the San-Lois iawrr
<br />commons. Nearly 150 years later, although
<br />vactors have replaced horse-drawn wa-
<br />gons and a new house has sprung up next
<br />to the old adobe one, the Gallegos family is
<br />still n»ttting the Carm. Joe Gallegos, 38,
<br />manages the spread day-today with his
<br />father, Corpus Aquino Gallegos, 7?, a re-
<br />tired school principal.
<br />They raise cattle anti grow alfalfa, as well
<br />as organic crops - Bolita ("little ball")
<br />beans, English peas and white cote "chi-
<br />cos," used Cor roasting and in stews.
<br />GALLEGOS' CONNECTION to the
<br />farm is rooted in his childhood. He ¢rew
<br />up in Colorado Springs, where his parents
<br />were teachers, but spent every weekend
<br />commuting to the farm, helping out with
<br />family chores.
<br />Dividing his time between the farm and
<br />Colorado Springs was difficult, he says.
<br />While other kids hung out at malls and
<br />chased girls, he was shoveling manure, ca-
<br />strating bulls and mending fences.
<br />"They were yout]g and tvild, and I had to
<br />der-
<br />Mow-
<br />mg a awn was a brg~ob to them. But I'd
<br />have to swat][ :r 50-acre field," he said.
<br />"1 wasn't good enough to play basket-
<br />ball. ]was competing against kids who had
<br />been plm'ing Little League for years. But I
<br />could ride a horce."
<br />After graduatitg from Mitchell High
<br />School, Gallegos graduated from Color-
<br />ado State University in 1980 with a degree
<br />in mechanical engineering. His expertise
<br />took him abroad. to Ireland and Angola,
<br />where he could earn big bucks, working 90
<br />days straight, then flying back to San Luis
<br />for another 30 days m work the iand and
<br />the livestock. A transfer to Midland,Texas,
<br />brought him closer to home, but his sche-
<br />dule wasn't as ommodating, and he
<br />fdu~id fii4rseify~ing for home.
<br />Gallegos says he came home because he
<br />couldn't bear to be away from the farm,
<br />even if it wouldn t make him rich.
<br />"Many farmers think I'm crazy that I'm
<br />tvwking here. My cousin said. `If I were
<br />you, I'd he an engineer. Save yourpennies,
<br />then pour your money back into the
<br />farm."'
<br />But that's not C~Ilegos' way. "Thisisnot
<br />a commodity, this place," he says. "This is
<br />a ranch. 1ou have to live it and take each
<br />step as it comes. Yon have to really believe
<br />in it."
<br />FOR THE past few years, with the help
<br />of the federal Soil Conservation Service,
<br />Gallegos has been practicing what he calls
<br />"regenerative agriculture." He and his
<br />brother, Jerry, have pioneered a program
<br />that is replacing sa~ggebrush with the native
<br />grasses that once 8durished here before a
<br />huge influx oEsheepovergrazed the range.
<br />Gallegos, with the heap of a (65,000
<br />grant from the ICellogFoundationgiven to
<br />the Costilla Cottrny Economic Develop-
<br />
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