PUB00068 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

I \ . .1 -31- , PcudreVallcy Ccntributicns to Colorado Irrigation Practice ... J. C. McKinnon Associate Professor of History, Colorado A & M College The first ditoh in the Spanish land-grant area of Colorado has now completed its first century of service. The Spanish~Americans who built the People's Ditch can count their irrigation experience, though, by centuries. In the time of Coluinbus, in Spain, and ih our own southwest, irrigation was an ancient institution. The Spanish 'entered what' is now thesouthvvestern part of the United States in 1599, ideally equipped to get the most out of the resources of the area:--The climate of Spain is much like our own south.vest. The crops and livestock they brought to the new world were well adapted to the area. More important still, they had the law and social organization with which to administer irrigation. ~pan- ish law recognized that water was a utility which all should share. Title _tQ_Y@.t;."l' wash.E'~d~bytllernunic...:i,J)!tl.i:tY.Ltl1e_COJ!lll)11Ue., .or_the_pueblo, ,,as a "common"pfirperty for domestic use, irrigation, and other purposes." While the-liKe'of water was free to all, it was governed bY-municipal rules, and administered by village officials. " . Basic engineering practice was well developed too. It is quite unlikely that the builders of the People'S Ditch had to alter it much re- specting curves, slopes, embankments, or other detail. Our Anglo-American pioneers in Colorado could have saved themselves money and trouble had they consulted their Spanish-American neighbors, but difference in language and culture, then as now, was an almost insurmountable barrier. ~e learned most of 'our engineering by the "trial and error" method, and development of irrigation was therefore slower. Herbert IVi. Wilson, irrigation engineering specialist for the United States Geological Survey during the 1890ls when that was the only federal agency interested in irrigation, wrote in his report of 1892: "Until about 1882 there can scarcely be said to have been con- structed a single irrigation work designed on sound engineering princi- ples." What he said applied only to Anglo-American efforts. He ignored both the European and Spanish-American achievement. i I I I i I , I I I , I i I ! ! . According to men who have made the study of ancient cultures their profession, agriculture and irrigation, developed together. As the last ice age began to recede the rain belt followed it. The climate of the !\iediterranean area, north Africa, and the middle East was thus modified. An abundant growth which had provided a relatively easy life began to dis- appear. Only by the collection of seed and watering of plants could life be maintained. Thus agriculture was born. . However, our Anglo-American forebears had no irrigation in their recorded experiences. Coming as most of them did from the United Kingdom and northern Europe, they had nothing in their past to enable them to cope with the conditions which they found west of the lOath meridian. 0ater had been so abundant that the lavvs they brought with them were concerned with getting it to the sea as quickly and unobstructively as possible. The result was tha~ all irrigation in Colorado, except for the acequias built and operated by Spanish Americans, had to be developed empirically. t: