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Kidd (WestWater Engineering Inc. 1996) reports that construction of the interstate highway, which caused the loss of an area known as the Colorado River Overflow, upstream of Grand Junction, near Debeque, was a major blow to razorbacks because that was the best remaining spawning area. The report conveying this information also notes that "The decline of endangered fish in the Gunnison River had occurred prior to Mr. Kidd's arrival in Western Colorado in 1969" but "Prior to 1975, the nonnative fish populations had not yet reached the critical levels which seem to have precluded successful regeneration of most endemic fish." (WestWater Engineering Inc. 1996). The flow regime of the Colorado River has not changed much since 1975, but prior to 1974, razorback suckers apparently were common between the Highline Canal and Debeque, Colorado (both just east of Grand Junction), and were wiped out by a gravel pit mine and the loss of the aforementioned Colorado River Overflow (WestWater Engineering Inc. 1996). Kidd also notes that razorbacks were relatively common through the early 1980s in the Grand Valley, but that the flood of 1983 and 1984 destroyed three additional important spawning areas (Kidd, G., Northwest Fisheries, personal communication, May 25, 1999). Interviews with long-time residents (Quartarone 1995) also have been used to suggest that the fish declined prior to 1950. For instance, Hamilton (1998) quotes the latter source by saying: "In the late 1940s and early 1950s, many of those with fishing experience dating back to the 1920s stated that these fish were becoming rare in the Upper Colorado Basin." But the specific examples supporting this statement in Quartarone's report were all from the Dolores, a river severely affected by pollution from mining operations. With respect to the Gunnison River, an interview with a man who netted fish for his mink farm noted that razorbacks were common until the mid-1950s, but were basically extirpated prior to the big water projects on the Gunnison (WestWater Engineering Inc. 1996). It was also concluded in the latter report that squawfish probably were never abundant in the Gunnison, a conclusion that contradicts at least one historical account that described experiences in the 1950s with a fish trap on the lower Gunnison: "...we'd go down there and there's times you couldn't even pick the damn thing up there'd be so many squawfish in it" (Quartarone 1995). It was also, concluded that the decline of razorback suckers in the Gunnison was more directly related to the loss of important spawning and rearing areas because of bank armoring and channelizing rather than to the decrease in river flow or interruption of migration routes (WestWater Engineering Inc. 1996). Squawfish reportedly declined in the Green River from the 1930s until Flaming Gorge Dam was constructed (Quartarone 1995). One man was quoted as saying that his father told him in the early 1950s that squawfish were rare and that he formerly saw more of them (Quartarone 1995). This comment, however, is contradicted by another interviewee who recalled catching squawfish on the Green "as big as a junior high kid" (Fig. 2) in the early 1950s (Quartarone 1995). The piscicide rotenone was used in the Green in the early 1960s, and although not abundant, squawfish and razorbacks were found. Older residents in the area said the endangered fish were mostly gone before the rotenone incident (Quartarone 1995). There is also indication that other forms of pollution contributed to declines of the pikeminnow and razorback sucker in the Green River. For example, a retired game warden described a 1957 float trip on the Green River through the town of Green River, Wyoming: "...as soon as you get past Green River we were finding ducks and geese and everything else dead on the shores from