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3 I _31."\' Pcudre'VallEY Ccntributic,ns to Colcrado Irrigation 'Prll.ctice \ . . J. C. McKinnon Assoc1!Lte Professor of History, Colorado A &. M College The first ditoh in the Spanish land-grant area of Colorado has now oompleted its first oentury of servioe. The Spanish~Americans who built the people's Ditch can count their irrigation e~perience, though, by centuries. ,In the time of Coluinbus, in Spaili, and ii'l'our own southwest, irrigation was an ancient institution. The Spanish 'entered wl:lat' is now the ,southwestern part'of the United States,in'l,99, ideally equipped to get the most out of the resources of the area:--The climat& of Spain is much like our own southwest. 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. .3tlan- ish law reoognized that water wae a utility which all should share. Title j;Q..Q.ter was ..h_l!!<!-b.z,1;E.e._,~i!l!p.~J.Ux.....~Il!L9,ol!lmWle." .Dr_t.he-puoblo, ,as a "common property for domestic use, irrigation, and,otheJ;' PW-po,s,es." -Vhile tlie-use'(jf water was free to'all~ 'it was g'overiied by,II11!Il~C1pl!1 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 l~guage and culture, then as now, was an almost insurmountable barrier. "ie learned most of our engineering by the "trial and error" method, and developm.ent, of irrigation was therefore slower. Herbert M. Wilson, irrigation engineering specialist for the United States Geological Survey during the l690's when that was the only federal agency interested in irrigation, 'lrote in his report of 1692: "Until about 1662 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 ignore4 both the European and Spanish-American achievement. ' According, to men who jJa.ve made the study of ancient cultures their profession, agriculture and irrigation, developed togethe,r. As the last ioe age began to recede the rain belt followed it. The climate of the Mediterranean 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 col1ection 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 enabl.e them to cope with the oonditions which they found wast of the lOOth meridian. .~ater had been so abundant that the laws they brought. with them were concerned with getting it to the sea as quickly and unobstructively as possible. The result was that all irrigaUon in Col.orado, except for the acequias built and operated by Spanish Americans, had to be developed empirically. ., . . ..... ...: