WSP02036 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

C'J C') N CHAPTER I GENERAL DISCUSSIONS Settlement Histor y Settlement. of the project area started in 1880 while western Colorad(> was still inhabited by the ute Indians. Early efforts by white settlers to inhabit the area were retarded by hostile Indians until a compromise agreement. between the United States and the Ute Indians was reached on September 4, 1881. The agreement specified that the Indians leave the area and locate on the Uintah Indian Reservation in the Territory of Utah. lIiost of the early settlers were miners and prospectors who turned to irrigation agriculture after being unsuccessful in mining attempts at Leadville, Kokomo, and Aspen. In 1920 40 Italian families were brought from New York by the Midlands Railroad Comp:lny to operate coal mines in the Silt area. \ihen the railroad failed a short time later the families turned to farming in the vicinity. Population Census records, givin;;; population of the principal comnunities in the general vicinity of tlE project, are SllIlllmrized in tlE following table, The populations shown for Silt and Antlers include. farm popu- lations, but the figures for Rifle include only urban population. POPULATION OF PROJECT AREA Census 920 1930 1940 1 0 1,008 1,287 1,373 1 18 .\ :1 "! " Population increased 36 percent in the comnunities during the 1920-1930 per iod but only 4.5 percent during the following 10-year period. The snaller increase during the latter decade is attributed to the limited amount of irrigation water available and to the fact that the mining industry had been- stabilized prior to 1930. The population of Silt and Antlers did not. increase from 1940 to 1950. The increase in Rifle during that period Was we to increased in- dustrial activity. " , ~:< ..:' ~~ Present Industrial Development Local Industrv Agriculture is the region's basic industry. Several thousand acres of range land I.Ind National Forest Reserves surround the cultivated 4