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C) r-. co ~ The Gunnison River Diversion Project By RICHARD G. BEIDLEMAN* In the excitement of a Centennial year, it is easy to forget historic events of only a half-century ago. But in the Uncompahgre Valley on September 23, 1959, there will be some, at least, who will remember a moment fifty years earlier when the valley traded its desert for an Eden. At the touch of a President's hand, the head gates of a new tunnel, the longest in the West, had swung open, releasing the turbu- lent waters of the Gunnison River from the forbidding chasm of Black Canyon into what William Howard Taft called the "incomparable valley with the unpronounceable name."1 The Gunnison River Diversion Project was one of the first recla- mation projects to be undertaken by the United States Reclamation Service. Long before the grandiose endeavor became a reality, it had been a dream in the minds of many western Coloradans. In this article there has been an attempt to portray both the dream and the reality. This, like the story of Colorado's first gold rush, is an account of men against the elements, especially here the elements of water and earth. The sources are scattered, the facts at variance with each other. Local newspapers of the time probably represent the best reflection of what took place with respect to exploration of the river; the annual reports of the U. S. Geological Survey and the U. S. Reclamation Service portray in detail the saga of tunnel construction. This consideration of the Gunnison River Diversion Project was prepared as a portion of the museum prospectus for the proposed visitor center at Black Canyon National Monument, under Mission 66. The author is indebted to the National Park Service for permission to present this compilation in published form,-The Author. EXPLORATION OF THE BLACK CANYON It took more than the mere quest for adventure to entice the first white men down the churning white waters of the Gunnison River where it rushed through Black Canyon! In the decades before the turn of the century, so one story goes, there was a French settler, F. C. Lauzon, living in the Uncompahgre Valley! His holdings comprised forty barren acres which were watered by a dribble from the fluctuating Uncompahgre River and by erratic downpourings from short- lived storms. Lauzon knew of the Gunnison River, entrenched in its rock-walled canyon to the north, and after long cogitation he became convinced that its bountiful waters could be di- verted into the arid Uncompahgre Valley by means of a judiciously placed tunnel and system of connecting canals. Probably many of the local ranchers and farmers, including . Dr. Richard G. Beidleman, of the Zoology Department, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado, has taught at Colorado State University and at the rniversity of Colorado. Recipient of a large grant from the Ford Foundation. several years ago, Dr. and Mrs. Beidleman followed many of the routes of early Western explorers, in a search for zoological data. He has written numerous articles for Colorado Wonderland} Colorado Outdoors and other W.estern publi- cations.-Editor. 1 Lillian R. Brigham, C()lorado Travelore (Denver, 1938), p. 134. 2 C. H. Forbes-Lindsey, "Exploring the Gunnison Canon," World's Work, Vol. 14 (1907), No.5, 9376; A. W. Rolker and Day A. Willey, "The Heroes of the Gunnison Tunnel," Everybody's Magazine, Vol. 21 (1909), No.4, 506-508.