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<br />3 <br /> <br />'-'6- <br /> <br />to 1890. All other dietricts wer~ a decade or two later. The atoring of <br />water for late summer use has done much to increase the productivity of <br />agriculture. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />In 1890, Terry Lake rsservoir, just north of Fort Collins, was con- <br />struoted by the Larimer and U,eld Canal. Horaoe G. Clark described the <br />ohange which that reservoir had made in the 'lives of farmers living Under <br />it, before tha Ninetsenth Irrigation Congress in Chicago in 1911. Mr. <br />Clark who was a water user of ths Larimer and Weld, saidl <br /> <br />"I was a farmer undsr this ditoh, and with othsrs, suffered <br />from an insufficient supply of watsr. We looked with jealoua <br />eye on the profitable crops of potatoes grown by our brothers <br />under old Greeley Ditoh Number Two . . . . We oould not raise <br />potatoes. And we had frequently to irrigate our grain crop <br />whsn it was too early--when it bakad in the ground, turned the <br />grain yellow, and out the yield down one-third-for fear we would <br />make no crop at all for laok of water later on. About one orop <br />of alfalfa-the first--and a half orop the second cut. .'. That <br />was our condition under the Eaton Ditch . . . .prior to the advsnt <br />of Terry Lake.11 <br /> <br />Anothe~ phase of this search for more water with which to devslop <br />a higher agriculture was the devslopment of interbasin and tranemountain <br />divsrsion. The Larimer County Ditoh was ths agency that pioneered in this <br />field. A. A. Edwards, dirsctor and secretary of that company, was the <br />man who promoted this dsvelopment. In 1890 the Larimer County Ditch was <br />started. Since it was the last but one of the major ditche~ on the <br />river, its stream t'low rights were very poor. That same year the company <br />began to build the Grand River Ditoh to intersect saveral tributarias cf <br />the Colorado River, and to bring the water over poudre Pass into the <br />South Fork. In 1891 heavy rains washed out Chambers Lake dam, which <br />the Larimer County Ditoh Company had aoquirad and snlarged. As a result <br />of the damages caused it was thought bast to reorganize, so ths Water <br />supply and storage oame into existence. This oompany oompleted the <br />Larimer oounty Ditch and several diversion projects. The "Sky Line" <br />Ditch was begt1ll in 1891 and ccmpleted 2 years later. This was an inter- <br />basin project, bringing watsr from the Laramie River to the Poudre. <br />The new oompany also oompleted the Grand River Ditoh in 1895. The Sand <br />Cresk Ditoh diverting from Sand Creek and Deadman Creek into Sheep Crssk <br />was built in 1899. The largest of all the diversions, untU the Big <br />Thompson, whioh was constructed and operated by the Laramie-Poudre D:l:strict <br />was the Laramie-poudre system. It was begun in 1910 and completed'2 <br />ysars later. The tunnel through whioh the water was brought aoross the <br />dividing mountains had a oapaoity of 1,500 second-feet. This projeot ' <br />provoked Wyoming into bringing a suit against Colorado. Ths resulting <br />Supreme Court decision in this case limited tha amount that could be <br />diverted to a small fraction of the oapaoity of the system, and has <br />prevented any further diversion projects from the North Platte and <br />Laramie watersheds. These diversions bring into the poudre watershed <br />about 25,000 acre-feet eaoh season, and it has gone for the most part, <br />not to irrigate new land, but to improve agriculture on land alraady <br />under irrigation. <br /> <br />. <br />