By Larry Torres, Associate Professor, UNM-Taos

Some men like to have everything done their way. Arthur Rochford Manby was such a man. From the first 24 years when he lived in his native England to the next years when he plotted and schemed incessantly in Taos, New Mexico, he wanted everything under his control. This included acquiring the vast Martinez de Godoy Land Grant that took in a lot of Taos County.

The life of Arthur Rochford Manby was recounted in a historical novel that reads like pure invention because of its seemingly incredible episodes. When the late Frank Water, author of the novel “To Possess the Land” was asked why he wrote it more like a piece of historical fiction than fact, he simply stated “nobody would have believed it otherwise.”

Besides Waters’ account, a slim booklet titled “Headless in Taos” explores the mystery of how Manby was allegedly decapitated and yet was seen by many people long after his death. And if these episodes of intrigue and swindling weren’t enough to interest someone in the life of Arthur Manby, perhaps the idea that he ‘forced’ a river to run uphill would.

Manby had been eyeing some property near Arroyo Seco in the northern part of the county and he hoped to add it to his ever-expanding frontier empire. He acquired a parcel of land in lower Desmontes, as the place was called, owing to the fact that its first residents removed the stumps or ‘desmontaron’ in order to clear away the land. The only problem with this scheme was that there was no local water source with which he might irrigate the land.

Manby searched high and low, with the emphasis on the ‘low’. He found that there was abundant water streaming out of Twining Canyon overflowing the banks of a river that ran down to join the Rio Grande. Manby’s dilemma was this: How to tap into this water source and channel it uphill onto the Desmontes plain to irrigate his own land.

As he explored the area he discovered that there was an old buffalo trail descending to the bottom of the San Antonio Valley as Valdez was known in those days. He figured that, properly dug, the sloping angle of the trail might make a suitable bed for a manmade acequia stemming from Twining River.

According to the late Alberto Durán, who was a youngster at the turn of the century, Manby hired a bunch of local men to dig the acequia ditch using the buffalo trail as a guide. Alberto Durán had been hired by Manby to be the “aguandero” or water boy to bring drinks all day to the thirsty men.

As soon as the water was channeled into the acequia, lo and behold, the water ran uphill! A tree line along the ditch is easy to follow with the naked eye from across the valley of Valdez.

Water experts from the Office of the State Engineer assure the public that it is impossible to have water run upwards. They insist that the ground at the base of the canyon where the water springs forth from Twining, is in fact, higher than the ground at the top of the canyon where the water emerges. But local residents know better. They know that the water runs uphill because of the stubborn will of Arthur Rochford Manby who wanted his land irrigated one way or another. The old man is still getting everything done his way.