WSP10094

• File Number: 8027
• Description: Section D General Correspondence-Federal Agencies
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 6/1/1952
• Author: Clifford H Stone
• Title: Clifford H Stone - 100 Years of Irrigation Development in Colorado
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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~m-mRED YEARS OF IRRIGATlOO DE'n:I.OHf,?l;l' I!:l C0LO!\JU10

by

Clifford H. Stone

Director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board

The Colorado Irrigation Ctart.e!Ul1al was observed on April 8. 9 and

10. 1952. Ii monument ,carorying an appropriate plaque. was placed at

the headgate of the San Luis People's Ditch in the San Luhl Valley.

This ditch has s priority date, the oldest in Colorado. of April
10, 1852, and 'it has been in continuous use since that time. With
the exceptian of one ram. aU or the land irrigated by this c:litch
is presmtly operated by direct descendents of the men who built it
one-hundred yeR.rs ago. The Spaniards who located thtlS ditch brought

with them the legal concept of the appropriation ot 1f8ter tor agri_

cultural purpooes in arid reait6lE!. This 1n1'lueooe, together 'lith

other factors, gave birth in Colorado to t.he priority of appropriat.ion

doctrine of water law. They, and settlers i.n other parts of the State,

initiated a s,ystelll of water la\'l which i8 now expressed in the conetltl.l-

tion and statutes of the St.ate.

The John Hatcher Ditch on the Purgatoire River, a tr1blltllI7 of

the A.."'kBnsas R1ver, was construc1;ed in. 1846. but, beca-oJlle of the

troubles wtdch theoe early irrlgatora had with tlte Indians. it m1S

onJ;r 11ltermittently used prior to the early 1860s. other ntw

diversions fl"Olll the Arkansas River in Color,~do were :7:.Qde near Fort

Bant in 11l32, but were used only tl ft!!'R years. In 1841wster was
divert.ed f'l"<lll1 the Arkansas iu'ver for in'igation of land near the
present site of fueblo# Colorado. Those diversions were abandoned in 1854.