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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 />