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9 rivers. The 267 days of testimony involving the Laramie River had taken its toll Although Carpenter believed that he alone could take credit for victory if the Court found for Colorado, he was not optimistic. In fact, he was quite angry. The justices, he believed, were favoring Wyoming's claims to priority and had accepted some "grossly misstat[ed" facts presented by counsel 43 When he returned home he was depressed and physically run down. An outbreak of "Spanish influenza" hovered around him in Washington and appeared in Colorado late in 1918. His stenographer became ill Soon thereafter he, too, was a flu victim His strength never fully returned, but his spirits were buoyed by continuing indications that the compact process he was engaged in on the South Platte River would soon result in triumph. In May 1921, when he was about to begin his most significant work for Colorado and the West on Capitol Hill, he was suffering from the early debilities of Parkinson's Disease, but he was so pleased by the way Nebraska had responded to negotiation on the South Platte that he found the strength and determination to attempt a similar victory on the Colorado River. 44 He spent the last twenty years of his life at home, the last thirteen years in bed, so crippled that he could only respond to questions by winking. But his advice continued to be solicited by those who continued work on interstate compacts. They missed his courtesy, fairness, statesmanship, patience, diplomacy, persistence and profound legal knowledge.45 To the "The Silver Fox of the Rockies,"46 they expressed their utmost respect in letters, speeches and congratulatory messages. In the midst of World War II, eight years before Carpenter's d.eath in 1951, Colorado Governor Ralph Car recognized Carpenter as the "Father ofInterstate River Compacts." A testimonial was presented at the annual meeting of the National Reclamation Association and signed by representatives of the seventeen western states. It recognized Carpenter as Crusader of better irrigation theories and Builder of better rules and practices, who went forward patiently and unselfishly, when illness and physical suffering dictated rest and relaxation; Father ofInterstate River Compacts; Dreamer who visioned the West's potential greatness;