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<br /> <br />""" , <br /> <br />-2- <br /> <br />To the disappointed gold seekers the river with its adjacent fertile lands <br />offered sOlace, and many who did not strike it rich established farms and <br />ranches which were indispensable to the life of the nearby mining. camps. The <br />,claim made by Bafen*that farming by irrigation was al1 estl!blished occupation <br />as early:as 1860 is. s.ubstantiated by the reqordsof the St'!te Engineer's Office <br />whiqh show that the first water right on tl')e Platte system was adjudicated <br />October ,1, 1859, known as t~e ,Lower Boulder Ditch on Boulder Creek. <br />The South Platte River has been likened to a giant fan, deriving its <br />water, from its tributaries or ribs of the fan with their'point of origin on <br />thfleasternedge of the Continental Div1defrom Wyomi(19 south to the Park or, <br />Mosquito Range between the Platte and the Arkansas. <br />Of the ~9,022 square miles in the Basin in ColoradO, 23 percent 1s above <br />8,700 feet in elevation" and portions rise to over 14,000 feet. Fifty-four <br />percent of the area. .is above 6,000 feet,. and it contains 18.4 percent of the <br />total land area of the State. . ThflBas1n 1s.the most populous in 1;he State. <br />~n 1950 it contained 60 percent of the population,or 800,000; incomplete <br />1960 census figures indicate that it.has,experienced a greater growth than <br />any other basin in the State. and now has 63.6 percflnt of the population, or <br />1,107.,640. <br />The Basin contains approximately 1,220,000 acres of irrigated land whIch <br />ranges from the high mountain meadows in South Park near its headwaters to <br />the intensively cultivated, area on its main stem. The South Platte Basin <br />in addition to its land, water and forests -- is endowed with many other <br />natural re.sources. Its minerals,metallic and nonmEltallic, its fuels and <br />its favorabl.e cl.imate are all .asset,s which have contributed to the dov"lo~'","nt <br />of agricUlture, industry and recreation in the area and will continuo to <br />influence its future development ,and use of water.. <br /> <br />*Colorado and Its People, by LeRoy n. Hafen, Vol. r. <br />