The Fort Lyon Canal: The First 100 Years 1897 to 1997

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nal to furnish water, and when two - thirds of all such outstanding water rights should have been fully paid for according to the terms of the several contracts entered into, then the title of the said Canal would pass to the owners or holders of such water rights, and a new mu- tual company would be formed, issuing its stock pro rata to the owners of the water rights previously issued. In February, 1892, Mr. George S. Redfield, a brother -in- law of T. C. Henry, purchased the equity in the canal then belonging to the Bent County Bank and others (or whatever equity there might have been, if any, remain- ing in it over and above the claims of the outstanding water rights) for the sum of $22,677.00, notwithstand- ing the fact that it had been so largely oversold. Redfield thereupon formed a new Company called "the La Junta and Lamar Canal Company" to whom he conveyed the canal property by deed. Water rights were again of- fered for sale, and although few were sold outright, about 70 second -feet of water rights were disposed of by an ingenious method devised by the Canal Company. Parties holding dry lands under the canal were ap- proached with a proposition from the Lamar Farm Com- pany to purchase their lands, provided, however, that the owner of the land would execute a deed of trust thereon including two water rights from the canal for each quarter section of land before making the sale, by this method water rights were disposed of through these mortgages to the Eastern investor. Practically all of these mortgages defaulted on the first payment, the demand upon the Canal Company to furnish water became largely in excess of the capacity of the canal, and dur- ing 1892 many farmers lost their crops for lack of water. 14