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7 <br />preserve local control over its use. Collectively, these oppos ing perspectives of <br />scientists, lawmakers, and farmers clashed and compromised with one another to shape <br />groundwater’s use and regulation in the region. <br />As groundwater was increasingly utilized and regulated, human-made systems of <br />administration became entangled with the hydro logical systems of th e South Platte River <br />and its aquifer, producing unexpected outcome s and strange difficulties. Ancient natural <br />forces once shaped the river and aquifer, yet widespread irrigation changed the <br />fundamental character of both. Later, as over all water use in the region expanded with <br />increased access to groundwater , delicate balances between water use and availability <br />remained possible under just the right combin ation of human and natural influences. But <br />as regulations designed to preserve thes e tentative accommodations were debated and <br />legislated, underlying hydrologi cal systems worked to dissol ve any clear-cut legal or <br />administrative categories, confounding key prin ciples of Colorado’s water administration <br />system. In the South Platte valley, clashing perspectives and natura l conditions sculpted <br />the use of groundwater, produci ng a series of fragile ac commodations between people <br />and their surroundings – a world made by humans and nature together. <br />Throughout most of its reaches, the Sout h Platte River is a muddy agricultural <br />workhorse, churning across Colorado and Nebras ka for more than 400 miles. But its <br />journey begins in melting snow. Starting high in the Rocky Mountains, it rushes through <br />rugged valleys, merges with icy creeks, and spills onto the thirsty plains. There, it <br />meanders – sometimes gushes – through the c ity of Denver, whose residents once panned <br />7 <br /> The study of cognitive perceptions of water and its meaning represents another emergent strain in water <br />history. For a comparison of abstract and subjective ways of looking at a river, see Linda Nash, “The <br />Changing Experience of Nature: Historical Encounters with a Northwest River,” The Journal of American <br />History 86, no. 4 (March 2000): 1600-1629. <br />5 <br />