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EAST students find a piece of history

By Glenn Wallace

Staff Writer

The Environmental and Spatial Technologies (EAST) class at Santa Ynez Valley Union High School had a very good year in 2004.

Students working on the Mission Santa Ines Aqueduct Mapping project found their work included in the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Society museum, published in three magazines, had been awarded the Geospatial Solutions Outstanding Project Award -- beating out college and U.S. Army entries -- and received the California Governor's Award for Historic Preservation.

Tuesday morning, EAST students presented evidence of their latest accomplishment, tracking down remnants of the lost dam, built in the early 1800s, that fed the aqueduct.

"We wanted to finish the story we started last year," said project member Erik Glendinning.

EAST teacher Chip Fenenga reported that geographic information science (GIS) data, along with historic records found by students Erin Gnekow and Breanna Schlags, indicated that a dam was built along Alamo Pintado Creek to feed the Mission's aqueduct. Yet even after tracing the path of the aqueduct, "We could not find the dam when we looked in 2004," said Fenenga.

The final piece of the award-winning project seemed lost in the passage of time.

That changed on Thursday, March 24. Six students , armed with GPS units and cameras ventured into the creek bed near the Creekside housing development for another attempt to find the dam.

"All the aqueduct pieces were between 520 and 500 feet elevation, so we used contour lines and elevation to predict where the dam site was," explained EAST member Kelly Lyon.

On a hunch, and reportedly to take up extra class time, the students ventured upstream of where they had earlier predicted the dam to be.

"You never expect to find it, but then there it was," said Tim Manchester, who led the group of students, some media, school officials and county Trust for Historic Preservation archaeologist Mike Imwalle, who had assisted students in their research.

What remains of the dam are a few low sections of cement and river rock, over which the Alamo Pintado spills, an unknown portion of the dam lying buried beneath almost 200 years of sediment.

"It can now be documented and labeled a historic landmark," said Manchester as he stood atop the dam remnants with other members of the group who helped find the dam.

"My ancestors built this dam so it was rewarding to be part of finding this again," said Krista Armenta.

When the students are asked what was next for the aqueduct project, it becomes clear that finding the dam has only raised more questions.

How high was the dam? How much water did it hold? Where was the outlet location? Can individual rocks be matched up to historic photographs to answer these questions?

As the EAST students fire off these and other questions, it becomes clear that 2005 is going to be just as eventful as last year.

April 14, 2005