PUB00068

• Year: 1952
• Title: A Hundred Years of Irrigatioin in Colorado, 100 Years of Organized and Continuous Irrigation
• Author: CWCB
• Description: Irrigation history of Colorado
• Publications - Doc Type: Historical

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evidence of the appropriation was submitted to the court by sworn
testimony of witnesses familiar with the history of that ditch from its
inception. An attempt was made to have a priority awarded to the ditch
as of September, 18116, but the trial court held that there was no
privity of interest or title between the original appropriator and the
then claimant, and accordingly fixed the priority date as of the year
1864. H~vever, the appropriation originally made has been used and still
is being used, for the reclamation and use of the 60 acres first put under
irrigation by Hatcher. .

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So far as I have been able to determine from such investigation
and research as I have been able to make, the foregoing is a brief out-
line of the history of irrigation in Colorado down to the date of the
construction of the San Luis Peoples I Ditch, the irrigation enterprise,
the celebration of the 100th anniversary of which is the occasion for
this meeting.

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Beginning with the year 1860 and following the gold rush of 1859,
a great influx of people familiar with the practice of irrigation in
New Mexico for generations, came into Colorado and immediately construct-
ed more or less extensive irrigation works. This was not only true in
the valley of the Rio Grande, the Picketwire, the Greenhorn and the
Fountain, the three latter being tributaries to the Arkansas River, but
to a less extent was also carried on in northern Colorado. The develop-
ment, however, in southern Colorado, was'quiteextensive; on the Picket-
wire, for instance, the average or normal flow of that stream during the
irrigation season was completely appropriated by the year 1864.

Subsequently the great irrigation systems on the Platte and its
tributaries, the Arkansas and its tributaries and the Rio Grande and its
tributaries, were constructed and have continually expanded, and are
still expanding, furnishi.ng the foundation and basi.s for the greater
part of the ecoriomi.c wealth and welfare of the State of Colorado.

In the process of this development Colorado was the pioneer in the
adoption of what is known as the doctrine of the priority of appropria-
tion for the beneficial use of the waters of the streams; or "first in
time, first in right." This was a distinct departure from the common
law theory of riparian rights: that is, that the oWner or occupant of
the lands immediately adjacent to a natural stream was entitled to have
that stream continue to flow past his holdings, undiminished in quantity
and unimpaired in quality. The riparian right.doctrine, of course, was
never practically adaptable to the proper and economically feasible
diversion, transportation and beneficial use of water for irrigation.
The State of California attempted to apply this doctrine in the develop-
ment of irrigation in that State, b~t it proved to be a failure, and
that State has been more or less continually engaged in controversy and
litigation throughout its existence. It now attempts to operate under
a hybrid law, based in part on the riparian right doctrine, and in part
on the doctrine of priority of appropriation. Their experience
emphasizes the wisdom of those leaders and statesmen of the early days
of Colorado, who made our laws conform to the necessities of the region,
rather than attempting to guide and govern the utilization of a necessary

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