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Chronology This chronology traces significant histori- cal events in federal and Colorado water law and is not intended to be comprehensive. An Alrleriarn Water Works survey showed tt~rat Nori:h Arnericcan houseP~iolcJs intauc9ed in the study used approximately146,000 gallons of water annually. Of this amount, 42 percent (b 1,300 gallons) were used indoors. The remaining 58 percent (84,700 gallons) were used outdoors. 1803 United States makes the Louisiana Purchase, adding the territory of the Mississippi, Arkansas, and Missouri River watersheds to the Continental Divide. 1848 The United States and Mexico sign the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico cedes to the U.S. the entire area west of the Continental Divide to California. 1852 Hispanic settlers in Colorado's San Luis Valley construct the People's Ditch, the oldest prior appropriation water right existing in Colorado today. 1861 Congress established Colorado Territory out of the Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Utah Territories. 1861 The first legislative session in the Colorado Territory enacts statutes allowing irrigators to withdraw water from the streams. 1862 Congress adopts the Homestead Act, allowing settlers to occupy public land and obtain land ownership if they live on and improve the land for five years (later reduced to two years). 1866 Congress enacts the Mining Act, allowing Territories and States to adopt their own water laws, which will also apply to public lands. 1872 Territorial Supreme Court of Colorado decides Yunher v. Nichols holding that Colorado water law arises from necessity in an arid climate and includes the right to cross public and private ].ands to build water diversion and conveyance structures. 1876 Colorado adopts its Constitution and is admitted to the Union. The Constitution provides that the natural waters of the streams are a public resource dedicated to the use of the people, and the right to appropriate unappropriated water for beneficial use shall never be denied. 1879 Colorado General Assembly adopts the state's first adjudication and admin- istration statute, which provides for court decree of water rights to establish priority dates for irrigation uses. It also established water commissioners to enforce the priority system. The Adjudication Act was re-adopted with changes in 1881. 1882 Colorado Supreme Court in Coffin v. Left Hand Ditch holds that Colorado law recognizes prior appropriation water rights and not riparian water rights. The court also holds that the Colorado constitution permits diver- sions of unappropriated water from one watershed for beneficial use in another watershed. 1891 Colorado Supreme Court decides Strickler v. City of Colorado Springs, holding that cities may buy and trans- fer agricultural water rights to munici- pal use, so long as injury to other water rights does not occur. 1897 Congress adopts National Forest Organic Act. This prohibited further homesteading and sale of forested watersheds. The U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. New Mexico has held that this and other forest statutes do not create instream flow rights for fish and recreation within the national forests. 1897 Colorado General Assembly adopts first statutes for exchanges of water rights. 1899 Colorado General Assembly Z B C^ L O R A D^ F^ U N D A T I ^ N F^ R W A T E R E D U C A T I ^ N This 1950s map shows a portion of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project which is managed try the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District.