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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I III-1 Chapter III Land Use The land under the Beaver Park irrigation system has a total area of 10,000 acres which was originally planned for irrigation. The maximum actually served was reported as 6,2)7 acres in 1919 according to company reports, In 1954. the average irrigable area was reported as 5,004 acres with 1,295 acres of that amount left idle because of limited water supply (A. J. Hamman, 1954). The present shareholders have approximately ),450 acres of land with about 200 acres of that amount not being irrigated, All of the irrigated land is in private ownership. The soils of Beaver Park have been mapped by the Soil Conservation Service, but the data has not been published - yet, The major soil series a~ Beaver Park are the Penrose- Minnequa and Manvel silty clay loarns, A generalized soils map is included in this chapter, In 1954, Dr. A. J. Hamman of the Agricultural Extension Service of Colorado State University published a study of the Beaver Park system, His study (page 4) reported on the thickness and water holding capacity of the Beaver Park soils, He indicated that 2700 acres (54%) of the total irrigated land had a soil depth of less than one foot, 1900 acres ()8%) had a soil depth of one to two feet, and 1085 acres (8%) had a soil depth of over two feet. According to Dr, Hamman. the average available moisture of the soils ranged from 1.64 to 1,)1 inches per foot, The soils of Beaver Park are underlain by limestone and shales of the Niobrara formation, The limestone is fractured and weathered to a depth of 4 to 6 feet in most areas. The soils are developed from the limestone and shale and are clayey with rock fragments, The ~oils are calcic silty-elay loams high in mineral content, but have a very low organic content, Along the drainage depressions in the topographic