PUB00148

• Year: 1978
• Title: The Colorado Water Study Directions for the Future
• CWCB Section: Administration
• Description: The Colorado Water Study Directions for the Future
• Publications - Doc Type: Historical

rights-of-way on payment of damages. Wells, who was to play an
important role in the Constitutional Convention, rejected this
approach, asserting that "the right springs out of necessity and
existed before the statute was enacted, and would still survive
though the statute were repealed."s6

5. The Constitutional Convention: Background.

The 15 years following the adoption of the first water right
statute by the legislature of Jefferson Territory in 1861 saw a
great increase in the agricultural economy of the state and the use
of water for irrigation purposes.57 The small, haphazard diversions
by individual farmers were giving way to cooperative efforts by
groups of settlers and large diversions by orgahized ditch companies.
The development of the water resources of the state was perceived to
be the key to its economic success.

In 1873, Governor Elbert called a convention of governors of
states in the arid region to discuss ways to encourage the con-
struction of large canals and reservoirs on its own lands. Develop-
ment was hampered for a time by the Panic of 1873 and the depression
which continued through the next four years.

One of the most important developments in irrigated agriculture
in Colorado was the establishment of the community of Greeley by
Nathan C. Meeker" and his Union Colony on the banks of the Cache la
Poudre River.59 This was a cooperative undertaking involving the
pooled resources of all colony members, a factor which permitted the
construction of large irrigation canals. One of these ditches, known
as Colony Canal No.2, was completed in 1872 and was the largest
diversion on the Poudre at that time.

The Union Colony was highly successful in the 1872 growing
season. In that year a similar venture was undertaken at Fort
Collins 25 miles upstream on the Poudre. This Agricultural Colony,
as it was known, built two large canals of its own and began to
divert water out of the stream.

The inevitable conflict between these two groups was precipi-
tated by a severe drought in 1874. During that summer the farmers
in Greeley found that there was not enough water in the Poudre to
fill both of their canals. They knew where the water was going.
Meeker's Greeley Tribune demanded recognition of the right of prior
appropriation and the creation of a river superintendent to divide
the water according to the prior rights of all users.60 Meeker felt
that these steps were necessary in order to protect the investments
of his colony and to assure the economic development of the area.

l1-8

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I
I