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13 { i The Pierce Lateral is a separate company in which the Water Supply and Storage Company has no financial interest. Water Supply and Storage Company stockholders under the Pierce Lateral individually own shares in the Pierce Lateral Company, which in turn entitles them to use of the lateral for trans- portation of their water to their farm headgates. ,he Jackson Ditch Company has 24 shares of stock, of which the Water Supply and Storage Company owns 6.25 shares and has the voting rights of another 8.625 shares, which gives the Company controlling voting rights in Jackson Ditch. The Jackson Ditch ownersh i'p p rov ides approxi mate I y 1600 acre feet per year to the Water Supply and Storage Company, which represents 2.5% of the Company's average water yield. Three di rectors representing the Water ..Supply and Storage Company are on the Board of Directors of the Jackson Ditch. HISTORY OF GRAND RIVER DITCH The publication Hiqh Country Names, by Arps and Kingery, describes the Grand River Ditch as follows: I "The Grand Ditch collects water from the Never Summer Mountains and carries it across the Continental Divide to Long Draw Reservoir. Although techni- cally the name ;s Grand River Ditch, the 1961 map uses Grand Ditch. This may be because the U. S. Board on Geographic Names tends to simplify names, or because the Grand River has been changed to the Colorado River, or be- cause of the need to distinguish this ditch from the enormous canal near Grand Junction known as the Grand River Ditch. Every name connected with the Grand Ditch since its inception in 1890 has been changed. The Never Summer Mountains were known as Rabbit Ears or the southern part of the Medicine Bow Mountains. The pass over which the ditch crosses the Divide was Mountain Meadow Pass, now La poudre Pass. Even the name of the Poudre River has variations, as in the report in the Denver Republican for October lD, 1897, which states that A. G. Allen had spent the summer con- structing '~'Iarge high-line feeder for the North Fork Ditch across the Continental Divide to the Cahula poudre.' "Various companies have been connected with the Grand Ditch. The company that now Owns and operates it is the Water Supply and Storage Company, a non-profit farmers' cooperative with headquarters at Fort Collins, with the enviable record of financing its extensive operations 'in:.'" COnser.- vat ive .'manner.. i "Irrigation ditches seldom are built all at once and, no exception, the Grand Ditch inched piecemeal along the Never Summer Mountains until on September I, 1890, the first segment started carrying water across the Divide. In 1894 three more miles were built, in 1897 another few miles. Then the ditch head rested at Opposition Creek in Hells Hip Pocket. , '~ith this setup the company was satisfied for about 25 years. Then every- body on the plains east of the Rockies started talking transmountain diver- sion of water from the upper Colorado River. The Water Supply and Storage Company decided to acquire more water and lengthen its ditch. This literally took an Act of Congress, because in 1929 the Never Summer Mountains had been