My WebLink
|
Help
|
About
|
Sign Out
Home
Browse
Search
The Fort Lyon Canal: The First 100 Years 1897 to 1997
CWCB
>
Water Supply Protection
>
DayForward
>
5001-6000
>
The Fort Lyon Canal: The First 100 Years 1897 to 1997
Metadata
Thumbnails
Annotations
Entry Properties
Last modified
8/2/2012 10:36:25 AM
Creation date
8/1/2012 1:15:26 PM
Metadata
Fields
Template:
Water Supply Protection
Description
The Fort Lyon Canal: The First 100 Years 1897 to 1997
State
CO
Date
1/1/1997
Author
Dodson, O. Ray
Title
The Fort Lyon Canal: The First 100 Years 1897 to 1997
Water Supply Pro - Doc Type
Publication
There are no annotations on this page.
Document management portal powered by Laserfiche WebLink 9 © 1998-2015
Laserfiche.
All rights reserved.
/
200
PDF
Print
Pages to print
Enter page numbers and/or page ranges separated by commas. For example, 1,3,5-12.
After downloading, print the document using a PDF reader (e.g. Adobe Reader).
Show annotations
View images
View plain text
little better than a wilderness, Henry Fosdick, an engi- <br />neer in the employ of the U. S. Government, constructed <br />a small ditch for the use of the Cheyenne and Arapaho <br />Indians, the headgate of which was at a point on the <br />river where it flowed at the foot of a bold cliff of lime- <br />stone that was known to the freighters on the old Santa <br />Fe Trail as the Point of Rocks, about three miles north- <br />west of the present city of La Junta. This is the point <br />subsequently selected for the headgates of the Fort Lyon <br />Canal, which follows approximately the original line of <br />the Indians' ditch as far as the latter was built, which <br />was but a mile or two. But little is known of the extent of <br />the farming operations carried on by the Indians, if any, <br />but it is certain that all operations were abandoned be- <br />fore the year 1868, when George T. Reynolds, a Texas <br />cattleman, purchased a land claim under this ditch, fil- <br />ing upon the land as a homestead, and proceeded to <br />reconstruct the abandoned ditch, changing the location <br />of the headgate and enlarging it to a capacity of about <br />52 second -feet. On the land thus irrigated native grasses <br />and a little corn were the principal crops raised by Mr. <br />Reynolds until 1874, when he sold his interests in the <br />ditch and land to Abraham Armentrout, who continued <br />to use the ditch for irrigation. <br />Stock raising was then the chief industry of the Arkan- <br />sas Valley, and but little attention was paid to irrigation. <br />The country was sparsely settled, and as the stockmen <br />discredited any attempts at farming by irrigation, the few <br />settlers in the valley took but little interest in the possi- <br />bilities of reclaiming the arid lands by artificial applica- <br />tion of water from the river. However, about December, <br />1883, inspired by the success attained in irrigation in <br />9 <br />
The URL can be used to link to this page
Your browser does not support the video tag.