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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The poudre, District Number Three, was the first district to request
the court to appoint a referee to hear testimony or priorities. H. H.
Haynes was appointed referee. Greeley appointed two lawyers to protect
their interests by cross examining those claiming priority to the Union
Colony. When the testimony was all in the referee made the recommenda-
tion to the court but Judge ~lliott refused to issue the decree on the
grounds that the law was unconstitutional. Later he decided that the
law was only defective. While the Supreme Court was reviewing the case,
the 3rd Colorado legislature convened and the Act of J881 was adopted.
This law formalized the hearings by which the referee was to prepare the
decrees. It also created the office of the stat" "ngi M'cer, and jJrovided
for the gauging of all streams used for irrigation purposes. Thus the
Colorado system came into existence. The men who designed this system
had been irrigating only 10 years, yet it worked so well that it has been
adopted, with only a few modifications, by the other sixteen western states
having irrigation interests.

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The Cache La PoudreValley irrigators made a third important
bution to modern irrigation. They have developed techniques and
practices for conserving water' that has made the water supply of one
small stream effective, far beyond the dreams of any other irrigators--
even those people who count their irrigating experience by milleniums.
In 1878, ~ajor pmvell was authorized by Congress to determine the
irrigation potential of the west. He took Utah as an'area representative
of the eleven western states. By determining the flow of the streams
of Utah, and estimating that a second-foot would irrigate a hundred acres,
he reported to Congress that 3 percent of the western lands might be
subjected to irrigation. Powell I s forecast has proved remarkably
accurate for the west as a whole. In the Poudre Valley, for every second-
foot that flows out of the mouth of the canyon there are now over hoo
acres under irrigation. This high efficiency has been achieved by
storing water when it is not needed, and by using water high up in the
watershed so that the maximum return flow could be achieved.

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During the 1860ls and 1870ls hay and small grains were the chief
crops produced under irrigation in Colorado. In the 18801s, alfalfa and
potatoes began to be grown on a comparatively large scale. With hay and
small grains the flood flow was usually sufficient to give each water
user enough to insure a crop. Alfalfa and potatoes, and later, beets,
required irrigation over a longer season. By mid-July only a few senior
appropriators were entitled to water from the stream. Supplemental
supplies of water had to be found if the land of the valley was to be
put under more profitable crops.

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The first movement in this phase was the development of reservoirs.
The first reservoir built in the State to serve as an irrigation supply
was built on Coal Creek in Jefferson County in 1859. A dozen or more
reservoirs in the State have an earlier priority than any in the poudre
Valley, but they are all of small capacity. In 1882 the building of
relatively large reservoirs was begun with the construction of Ohambers
Lake in the channel of the upper Poudre, and of Windsor Lake reservoir
in the lower valley. According to tables prepared by John E. Field,
reservoir'building in the poudre reached it peak in the decade of 1880

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