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<br />4 <br /> <br />Diversions and ditches were built as these novice westerners learned of <br />the necessity for irrigation to raise a crop in thfs"Great American <br />Desert." All of these activities were initially performed in the spirit <br />of rugged individualism. Very little, if any, cooperative enterprise <br />took place. Each person "pulled himself up by his bootstraps. 11 Very <br />soon, however, these rugged individualists learned that building major, <br />irrigation works was a costly and difficult task, and they began to pool <br />their resources. By 1882 the Cache La Poudre River, a major tributary <br />of the South Platte, was a vast network of irrigating canals. <br />A century of water development began: with the first ditch, built by <br />the Lower Boulder Irrigation Company in 1859. This development was <br />followed by the construction of many other ditches throughout the South <br />Platte Basin. One of the most famous irrigation developments was <br />accomplished by the Union Colony. This cooperative was organized by, <br />Nathan Meeker and promoted by Horace Greeley of New York with his famous <br />saying, "Go West, young man. Go Westl" While the colony members had <br />little knowledge of farming and none of irrigation, they succeeded in <br />one of the first large irrigation developments in the South Platte <br />Basin. <br />Initially, it was generally bel ieved that the mountain streams <br />could supply all the land that could ever be brought under a ditch. <br />However, for the first time in the mid-1870's, some of the ditches <br />lacked enough water. Visionary farmers began to look for ways of <br />increasing the water supply. Irrigators pooled their resources to build <br />storage reservoirs and eventually the idea of diverting water through <br />the mountains from the Colorado River Basin began to evolve. Several <br />diversions were accomplished before 1900. <br /> <br />