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IN THE BEGINNING Dhe 1930's. one of the most difficult economic periods in our na- tion's history. a time when many Americans alive today are too young to remember. The Great Depression and searing drought plagued much of the country. The year 1931. for example, was one of the driest on record in the state of Colorado and the West. People were aware of and concerned about water in those days. but there were few water institutions in existence at that time. The first major Colorado action of some significance was authorization of the Moffat Tunnel in 1922 at a special session of the state legislature. The Moffat Tunnel Improvement District was created with great emphasis being placed on the railroad tunnel. It was intended to open up Northwest Colorado to com- mercial exchange with the rest of the state and the nation. However, the project languished until it was tied to a water tun- nel which began serving Denver some fourteen years later. In the early 30's, plans were being made in northeastern Col- orado to build a project to divert water from West to East through the Continental Divide. The proposed project was seen by some in Western Colorado as a serious threat to their water supply for future growth in the region. It was in this atmosphere in 1933 that a small group. only a handful of resourceful and spirited men of vision, formed the WESTERN COLORADO PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION (WCPA), the forerunner to the Colorado River Water Conserva- tion District. The Protective Association, in reality, was a quasi-official body with no real power. Indeed. it was poorly funded but certainly fiercely dedicated to protecting Western Colorado water in- terests. Years of negotiations between WCPA and Northern Colorado W a_i~ Users Association would result in the construction of the Col~do-Big Thompson Project (C-BT) by the Bureau of Reclama- tio~ater Users would become Northern Colorado Water Con- servancy District. authorized in the same year as the Colorado River District. to contract for use of project water.) The key issue in the minds of West Slope negotiators was simp- ly that in order to insure an adequate water supply for the future. it was imperative that compensatory storage be built to store water for use by West Slope beneficiaries. That the Western Colorado Protective Association was formed and survived during the years of drought, hard times and testy negotiations can probably be attributed to Frank Delaney, a Glenwood Springs attorney and pioneer water lawyer. Others who molded WCPA, men who would be remembered for their contributions to the history of water in Western Colorado. were U.S. Representative Edward Taylor who, as Chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, would play a key role in planning for the C-BT; Frank Merrill, chosen to be the first secretary-engineer of the fledgling Colorado River Water Conser- vation District a few years later; Judge Clifford Stone of Gun- nison County, who would head the Colorado Water Conservation Board in the early y,ears; D.W. Aupperle, the Protective Associa- tion's first president and later Mesa County director on the River District board; Silmon Smith of Grand Junction; Dan Hughes of Montrose who would also become a River District director; and from Delta. Judge Clyde A. Stuart. It should be noted that Judge Stone. Delaney. Smith and Hughes were often referred to by their compatriots as the "four orphans". because of their personal sacrifice working without pay or any reimbursement. These were times when money, not necessarily understood by the majority, was more often than not a frustrating and embarrassing problem. The issues surrounding the possible construction of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project. as thrashed out in the meetings of the mid-thirties between negotiators from the Protective Association and those representing northeast Colorado. were not so much whether or not the project SHOULD be built, but whether it WOULD be built under conditions demanded by the West Slope. In the background during these negotiations was Represen- tative Ed Taylor sitting as Chairman of the powerful U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee in Washington. D.C. This would be the committee that would control the purse strings to finance construction by the Bureau of Reclamation of 1