Construction of the Two Buttes Dam and Reservoir: Plainsman Herald

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PLAINSMAN HERALD Construction of The Two Buttes Dam and Reservoir Barbara Oringderff ` Two Buttes Creek flows 4slowly through Baca County in southeastern Colorado. The .�c.reek is past the silent site .where the 100 million- year -old .skeleton of a 40 foot long Plesiosaur was discovered in :939; past the places where .prehistoric hunters used what -we now call Clovis and Folsom points; near the mysterious cir- ctilar arrangements of stones called tipi rings and near, also, the natural rock shelters with their pictographs and petro glyphs that were likely written there more than a thousand years ago. Perhaps the quietest and the least- populated area of the Great High Plains, the area that is now Baca County, Colorado, was first claimed by Spain in 1541. It later became a part of Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Kansas Territory, and was a part of the Colorado Territory in 1876; when Colorado became a state. Settlers began to come into the grassland area shortly thereafter and a dam on Two Buttes Creek was discussed in the 1880s, by early home- steaders. They considered it a way of irrigating their crops, but not until after the turn of the century were there any actual preparations for such a project. Work on the Two Buttes Dam and Reservoir began in 1909, . after more than a year of sur- veying and financial planning, which culminated in October of 1908 when a contract to finance a dam of the Two Buttes Creek actually was made with F.B. Sherman and Company of Chi - i ago. McCoy and Co., another Chicago business, was to sell the bonds. Early local members of the board of directors of the Two Buttes Irrigation and Reservoir Company included Lamar, Colorado bankers and A.N. Parrish, W.C. Gould, J.H. Roy and Charles' H. Fred L. Harris, a bona — salesman, engineer and attorney from Chicago; was elected treasurer and general .manager of the company, a position he continued to hold for many years. In 1930, he was elected to represent Baca and Prowers counties in the Colorado State Legislature. In October, 1909, contracts were let for - the actual con - struction. H.M. McDowell was awarded the contract on the canals and the contract for construction of the dam itself went to Dennis Gibbons. A -short time later, the company relieved Gibbons of his contract, probably because the work was not progressing quickly enough. The company organizers decided to supervise the construction themselves. . Two Buttes Irrigation and Reservoir Company employed between one and two hundred men, one hundred teams of horses and mules, two graders and 46 dump wagons. They - established a camp, complete with cooking and dining faci- a bunkhouse, commissary and corral with feed bunks for .their horses and mules. ' The Town of Two Buttes also was started by the company in October of 1909. The irrigation and reservoir company built the :first permanent building in the town.. It was a combined restau- xant and hotel that drew approval and praise from the populace. The .dam . was an earth -fill structure with a concrete core. The core was set on bedrock and anchored into the rock walls on both ends. It was almost as high as the dam itself. A tunnel for discharge of the water was carved from solid rock on the north end of the dam and head - gates were installed to control the flow of water. The gates were controlled from the top of the dam by steel rods through a concrete shaft in the tunnel. Because the water in the new lake was to be used for irri= gation purposes, the canal system was equally important. There was a main canal 23 miles long with two laterals. Lateral Number One was 4.7 miles and had one branch two miles in length. Lateral Number Two was five miles long and included two branches of five miles and 5.1 miles, respec- tively. This made a total of 44.8 miles of laterals. There were many fills and cuts in this distance and three siphons for a total of 2,625 feet. The system was completed November 26, 1910, at a cost of $695,000, about twice the amount originally estimated. Unfortunately, the system never did irrigate as many acres as builders had projected it would, making the venture only marginally successful for Two Buttes Irrigation and Reservoir Company. The company finally, sold the dam and reservoir to Colorado Fish, Game and Parks Department. According to the Baca County history book, water rights on Two Buttes sold in 1908 for $35 per acre with $5.00 down and ten equal payments on the balance. Today, Two Buttes Darn is in disrepair and the crystal lake it formed is nearly dry, a sad ending to an ambitious project. Of course, we still have places with names like Comanche National . Grassland, Sand Arroyo, Picture Canyon ind, of L course, the two ancient brooding hills of Two Buttes Mountain that remind us of the people who tried to tame this wild and beautiful land. (The authoz wishes. to thar2.. all the area people who helped provide information , for this story and to acknowledge the Baca County Colorado history T had -o trouble communlcat- i m�. , *VItc pl; yers just. didn't like WIIILt 1 iuld to Say. — Conner Giants manager Frank Robinson Deppe. CONSTRUCTION BEGINS —In the fall of 1909, Two Buttes Irrigation & Res- ervoir Company employed about 200 men, 100 teams, two graders and forty -six dump wagons to work on the construction of the dam and reservoir.