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<br />1 <br /> <br />(}u66 <br /> <br />Section I <br />The Early History of the <br />Fryingpan-Arkansas Project 1900-193'( <br /> <br />The early history of the Fryingpan-Arkansas ProjQct <br />can be traced back as far as the early 1900 I s when the need. for <br />additional water, other than the normal flow of the Arkansas, <br /> <br />River, was needed. It is very important to,note that water was <br />and still is very important to the Lower Arkansas Valley because <br />their entire economy is based upon water. Agriculture, of cours~, <br />is the main occupation or business of ~he LOWer Valley and this <br />industry cannot survive without water., As a result the business- <br />men who operate the grain elevators, the Sugar Beet Factories, <br />farm implement stores and the like, their businesses suffer when <br />1 <br />the farmers suffer through bad years., ,The need for water in <br />the Lower Valley now becomes very blatant. <br />A lack of water in the Lower Arkansas Valley initiated <br />by several years of drought caused neighbors to battle each other <br />for available water. Later as irrig4tion farming increased and <br />late season water demands could not be;met by unregulated stream <br />. 2 <br />flow. farmer owned mutual irrigation companies were formed. <br />These irrigation or canal companies were formed to regulate and <br /> <br />1 <br />Interview with Roy Cooper, Pueblo, Colorado, December <br />11. 1974, p. 90. <br />2 <br />, Terence Brace, "T1:'l6 Southeastern Colorado Water Conser- <br />, yancy District and Its Relation to the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project <br />and Their Functions", p. 1. <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />