Colorado Water History

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Colorado Water History

• By
• Travis Hoesli

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Colorado Water History

• Here is a land where life is written in water the
  West is where the water was and is
• Father and Son of Old Mother and Daughter Follow
  Rivers up immensities
• of Range and Desert thirsting the sundown ever
• Crossing a hill to climb a hill still Drier
• Naming tonight a City by some River
  
• a different Name from last nights camping fire

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Colorado Water History

• Look to the green within the Mountain Cup look to
  the Prairie parched for water lack
• Look to the sun that pulls the Oceans up look to
  the Cloud that gives the oceans back
• Look to your Heart and may your Wisdom grow to
  power of lightning and to peaces of Snow
• Thomas Hornsby Ferril

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Colorado Water History

• In the word of Ferrils Poem we see
• How water connects all aspects of life and
  environment.
• Colorados climate and geology shape us.
• Water was developed as Colorado became developed.
• Colorado water ecology is formed by diverse
  watershed and prairies.
• How the water cycle works
• Moisture and rainfall determine waters fate in
  Colorado.
• Storms in Colorado can bring fury and peace.

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Colorado Water History

• The story of Colorado water and be told by
• History
• Geography
• Science
• Economics
• Politics

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Colorado Water History

• Unit Objectives
• Recognize the important historical dates in
  Colorado Water History.
• Know the people that made a historical difference
  in development and use of Colorado Water.

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Important Dates in Colorado Water History

• 14,000 BC First people appear in Colorado.
• 1 AD The Anasazi (ancient ones) move into Mesa
  Verde area to farm the mesa tops.
• 450 Anasazi begin to build houses and develop
  pottery.
• 750 Anasazi begin to build pithouses and live
  together in pueblos.
• 1100 Anasazi begin building cliff dwellings and
  develop water delivery systems.
• 1539-42 The Spanish explorer Coronado ascends the
  Rio Grande, then crosses the high plains into
  what is now Kansas.
• 1664-1680 The Spanish enter Colorado searching
  for Indians at El Quartelejo, somewhere in the
  lower Arkansas Valley.
• 1762 French Traders Paul and Pierre Mallet ascend
  the Arkansas River.
• 1776 Escalante and Dominguez explore western
  Colorado and name many rivers and streams.
• 1787 Governor Juan Bautista de Anza tries to
  settle Comanches at San Carlos on the Arkansas
  River.
• 1800 Beaver trapping begins in the streams of the
  Central Rockies

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Important Dates in Colorado Water History

• 1819 The Adams-Onis Treaty defines the Arkansas
  River as part of the official boundary between
  the United States and New Spain.
• 1820 Major Stephen H Long proclaims the High
  Plains "the Great American Desert.
• 1822 Trading along the Santa Fe Trail, following
  the Arkansas River, becomes legal.
• 1835 The Bent brothers and St. Vrain build Bent's
  Fort on the Lower Arkansas River.
• 1840 The Oregon Trail became heavily traveled.
  As more people ventured from the trail to find
  new routes to the west, Settlements popped up in
  Colorado.

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Important Dates in Colorado Water History

• 1849 Torrential rains and bitter cold batter the
  plains.
• 1851 Hispanic settlers found San Luis, today the
  oldest continuously inhabited place in Colorado.
• 1855 Irrigation on the Conejos River begins.
• 1858 The Russell party finds gold along Cherry
  Creek, touching off the Pikes Peak Gold Rush of
  1859.
• 1859 David K. Wall diverts water from Clear Creek
  for farming near Golden.
• 1859 Placer gold discovered on the forks of Clear
  Creek, and arrastras are brought in to crush ore
  to recover gold from hard rock.
• 1861US Congress creates Colorado Territory.
• 1862 Homestead Act was passed and many farmers
  arrived in Colorado to claim land. Cooperative
  ventures such as the Union Colony showed that
  large amount of water can be diverted to land
  higher and farther from the streams.
• 1867John W. Smith builds the 24-mile-long City
  Ditch to deliver South Platte River water to
  Denver.

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Important Dates in Colorado Water History

• 1872 With increase in irrigation and demand for
  water the Colorados Territorial Courts started
  making water decisions. In that same year the
  Territorial Supreme Court recognized the
  appropriation doctrine in the Yunker vs. Nichols
  case.
• 1870 Union Colony, now known as Greeley, is
  settled. Farmers begin water diversion.
• 1871 Chicago-Colorado Colony founds Longmont and
  begins canal construction.
• 1874 The summer is unusually dry. High
  temperatures, forest fires and grasshoppers
  abound.
• 1876 Colorado becomes a state.
• 1876 Doctrine of Prior Appropriation is included
  in the state constitution.
• 1876 The "English Company" completes the Larimer
  and Weld Canal.

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Important Dates in Colorado Water History

• 1881 State Engineers Office was created to
  supervise the administration of water.
• 1881 T. C. Henry begins construction of the Rio
  Grande Canal, completed in 1884. At the time it
  was thought to be the largest canal system in the
  United States.
• 1882 North Poudre Canal completed.
• 1883 The High Line Canal and Antero Reservoir
  completed to divert water from the South Platte
  River to Denver and other communities.
• 1885 E. F. Hurdle installs Colorado's first
  centrifugal water pump near Eaton.
• 1885-1886 Savage winter pounds the plains 85
  percent of the cattle perish.
• 1887 Artesian aquifer in the San Luis Valley
  accidentally discovered.
• 1893 A three-year drought begins destroying farms
  and fruit orchards on the high plains.
• 1894 Walter Scott Cheeseman's new Denver Union
  Water Company consolidates the assets of 11 water
  companies and obtains an exclusive water
  franchise in Denver

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Important Dates in Colorado Water History

• 1901 Colorado General Assembly passes District
  Irrigation Law.
• 1901 The court case Kansas v. Colorado begins
  over the division of the Arkansas River waters.
  It concluded in 1907.
• 1904 Uncompahgre River Project begins to transfer
  waters via a tunnel from the Gunnison to the
  Uncompahgre River for farming. Completed in 1910,
  it was Colorado's first federal water project.
• 1911 The court case Wyoming v. Colorado begins
  over the quality of water. It lasts 11 years.
• 1922 Seven western states negotiate the Colorado
  River Compact to divide the river's waters.
• 1922 Colorado legislature creates the Pueblo
  Flood Conservancy District and the Moffat Tunnel
  Improvement District, which leads to trans
  mountain diversion of water from the Fraser River.

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Important Dates in Colorado Water History

• 1925 Construction begins on the Grand Canal near
  Grand Junction
• 1925 Colorado and Nebraska agree on dividing the
  waters of the Platte River. Twin Lakes Tunnel
  begun to bring water from Roaring Fork River to
  Twin Lakes and the Arkansas River.
• 1925-1930 Southern plains plowed up in response
  to rain and high wheat prices left from World War
  I.
• 1928 Colorado, New Mexico and Texas negotiate to
  equitably apportion the waters of the Rio Grande.
• 1930s The Dust Bowl dries out the High Plains.
• 1936 Colorado-Big Thompson Project is proposed in
  Congress. Approved in 1937, construction on the
  project begins in 1938 and is complete in 1957).

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Important Dates in Colorado Water History

• 1956 Upper Colorado River Projects begins,
  ultimately resulting in Blue Mesa Dam on the
  Gunnison Rifle Gap Dam near Silt Lemon Dam on
  the Florida River and Paonia Dam near Paonia.
• 1962 Frying Pan-Arkansas Project brings
  additional water to southeastern Colorado.
• 1965 Cherry Creek flood causes extensive damage
  in Denver
• 1966 New Mexico and Texas sue Colorado for
  failure to meet its obligations under the Rio
  Grande Compact.
• 1976-77 Drought occurs in Colorado.
• 1976 Big Thompson River floods.

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Important Dates in Colorado Water History

• 1981Construction of the Closed Basin Project
  begins completed in 1992.
• 1989EPA blocks construction of the proposed Two
  Forks Dam.
• 1991Colorado Water Education Foundation created.
• 2003 After drought court case began over use of
  Irrigation wells on South Platte

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Colorado Water Hall Of Fame

• There are many people through out the history of
  Colorado that have contributed to the development
  of water in Colorado but here are a few that made
  huge contributions.
• Herbert Hoover As Secretary of State he played
  large role in 1922 River Compact.
• Theodore Roosevelt his experience as a rancher
  gave him a feel of the importance of water in the
  west and pushed for the passage of the
  Reclamation Act that had many Colorado water
  projects in it.
• Elmwood Mead was the first developer of water
  codes.
• Charles Lory Former ditch rider and president
  of Colorado AM and National leader in water
  policy.
• Michael Hinderlider State engineer from
  1923-1954. Was a strong advocate for water user
  and by the time he left in1954 his office
  administered 25,000 water right and regulated
  storage in 1800 reservoirs.

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Colorado Water Hall Of Fame

• Ralph Parshall Colorado State instructor and
  USDA employee that researched and developed the
  Parshall Measuring Plume which is used through
  out the world to measure and regulate water use.
• Delph Carpenter- Was the Greeley Lawyer that
  worked to write and pass the Colorado River
  Compact.