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18 Before the turn of the century, settlers in the Uncompaghre Valley recognized that the Uncompaghre River could not even meet their irriga- tion needs much less those of additional settlers. According to Beidle- man (1959a), much of the agricultural land was abandoned and many valu- able houses were deserted because of inadequate water resources. Those settlers who remained naturally began toying with the idea of diverting the greater flow of the Gunnison River into their own valley by means of tunnels and canals. In 1901, Meade Hammond, State Representative from Delta, introduced the Gunnison Tunnel Bill (House Bill No. 195) into the Colorado legislature and on April 11 it was approved, with $25,000 authorized to support the project. The funds soon were exhausted, with little progress on the tunnel and its canals, and interest in new state appropriations lagged. Eventually, the federal government became involved, and, according to Beidleman (1959b), the diversion project, variously called "Uncompaghre Valley Project", "Gunnison River Diversion" or "Gunnison Tunnel Project" was one of the first five projects under- taken by the newly formed Reclamation Service (presently the Bureau of Reclamation). Authorized early in 1903, the Tunnel was not considered completed until 1910, when the first water for irrigation was turned into it on July 6. The total length of the Tunnel is 30,582 ft, with dimensions in cross section of about 10 by 12 ft. The fall of the Tunnel was 2.02 ft per 1,000 ft, while the intake on the Gunnison River was about 7 ft below low-water line. Beidleman (1959b) mentions that the main feeder canal was 30 ft wide at the bottom and 83 ft wide at the top, with the average depth of water being 10 ft. Actually, this feeder canal, commonly called the South Canal, is quite variable in width and depth along its 11.4 mi before entering the Uncompahgre River. Best