9337

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9337
• Author: Colorado River Water Users Association.
• Title: The Colorado River of Many Returns.
• USFW Year: 2001.
• USFW - Doc Type: Coachella, California.
• Copyright Material: NO

WYOMING
n early January, 1945, Perry W. Jenkins of Cora, Wyoming, and Earl
T. Bower of Worland, Wyoming, were making preparations to
journey to the desert resort city of Las Vegas, Nevada. Their
destination was the recently constructed Last Frontier Hotel and
Casino located on the now famous street known as The Strip. As word
spread of their trip, neighbors and
friends certainly must have felt a
small twinge of envy. The
opportunity to trek to the warm
desert clime of Las Vegas would
offer more than the obvious and
welcome respite from the usually
harsh and frigid winter conditions of
the Mountain West. Entertaining
casino shows in combination with
ubiquitous gambling were in the
offing to those who ventured to the
desert community.
However, fun and
entertainment were the last things
on Jenkins' and Bower's agenda. The only "gambling" in which they
had an interest involved the future water use of that liquid gold field
known as the Colorado River.
Jenkins and Bower were traveling to Las Vegas to participate
in an ad hoc meeting of Colorado River water users to discuss and
protest a proposed treaty between the United States and Mexico - a
treaty that could guarantee Mexico 1.5 million acre-feet per year of
Colorado River water. Making their trip even more daunting was the
fact that the state of Wyoming and L.C. Bishop, state engineer, had
endorsed the treaty.
As they made their way to Las Vegas, this newest attempt to
politicize and, therefore, threaten Wyoming's allocation of Colorado
River water must have seemed like deja vu to these two veterans of
Wyoming's battles over water rights.
Beginning in 1920, Wyoming and the other Colorado River
Basin states recognized that the demands on the river required
cooperation with each other or the federal government would be the
final arbiter of Colorado River water with little regard to each state's
rights. In 1921, therefore, Wyoming approved the idea of a compact,
which was signed the following year (1922).
That same year, 1921, the Colorado Legislature petitioned
Congress for permission to change the name of the Grand River to
the Colorado River. Congress granted Colorado's request, and the
diminutive stream originating on the western side of Colorado's
Continental Divide became the headwaters of the mighty Colorado
River. In his book, "Across the Wide Missouri," Bernard DeVoto
wrote: "The United States government, reversing geology, exploration,
history and Spanish and American tradition, has decided the Green
River is not the Colorado. It [the Green] is longer than the Grand
River and before it joins the Grand develops the characteristic which
the Colorado maintains to the lower end of the Grand Canyon.
But ... now the Grand is the Colorado."
In 1922, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Wyoming in
Wyoming vs. Colorado, affirming that the appropriative doctrine
applies regardless of state lines: first in time, first in right.
With these events and the Colorado River Compact as
backdrop, Jenkins and Bower made the lengthy trip to Las Vegas.
Each man was prepared to represent his respective organization and
the water users of Wyoming. The meeting was called to order on
Friday, January 12, 1945, at 10:15 a.m.
THE MAJESTIC PALISADES ROCK FORMATION AND TOLLGATE ROCK STAND
SENTINEL-LIKE OVER THE GREEN RIVER AS IT SWEEPS TOWARD THE CITY
OF GREEN RIVER, WYOMING.
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