October 8, 2007Chumash Mission Aqueduct.Quite a few stories have been written about the Chumash Mission Aqueduct that ran from the area that is now Anez Apple ranch down along the hillsides of what is now Ventura Avenue to the Ventura Mission to bring much needed water to the blooming settlement. The Aqueduct was built, according to all available records somewhere between 1792 and 1815 which makes it one of the oldest genuine antiques in San Buenaventura. It was not until 1888 that the first metal pipelines were installed along Ventura Avenue. (Rumors have it that Councilman Jim Monahan actually worked on that pipeline).While I was building my home on Cedar street in 1988 a section of the Aqueduct was discovered. Construction was halted for a period to allow Mr John Foster and Ms Roberta Greenwood noted archaeologists to carefully and systematically uncover and examine the section which turned out to be approximately 15 feet in length. They carefully recorded the findings with pictures and charts, a booklet entitled "Examination of a Small Portion of the Mission San Buenaventura Aqueduct" was written. The Aqueduct was built with river rocks hauled up the hillside by Chumash Indian workers, large rocks on the bottom and smaller rocks nearer the top. The section is about 3 to 4 feet in height and has a channel to carry water running down the center, this channel is finished with a plaster coating that was made by grinding sand and fired seashells which made lime. To this day you can't pound a nail through the plaster.The Aqueduct was built to carry fresh water to the Mission, the garden fields, a laundry which was located on Main street under what in now Jonathan's Restaurant, and to a large mill near the Mission. Without this extremely important element of Mission construction it is doubtful that there would be a San Buenaventura today. At least not the San Buenaventura we enjoy.Once the archaeological examination was completed, I was told that the team was going to re-bury the section that they had so painstakingly uncovered. I told them that they could leave it as it was and I would reconfigure the construction of that section of my house to build a room to contain the Aqueduct. I did just that and today I have what is possibly the only private viewing room containing a section of the over 200 year old Chumash San Buenaventura Mission Aqueduct.Rellis Smith

res@venturastuff.com