WSP06903

• File Number: 8549.600
• Description: Wagon Wheel Gap Reservoir
• State: CO
• Basin: Rio Grande
• Water Division: 3
• Date: 12/1/1941
• Title: Rio Grande Water Conservancy District and Wagon Wheel Gap Reservoir
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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over- to supplement the supply in dry yeal'~.
Such projects are usually financed by, or
with the aid of the Federal Government.
5. 'The construction of drainage, always
necessury in any irrigated country before it
becomes fUlly fruitful, follows as a matter
of course to relieve areas over saturated by
the itTigation of the remaindcr of the
project.

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History of the Project

Anthropologists tell Us that at least foul'
distinct prehistoric cultul'es flourished in the
San Luis Valley in times past, the last two
of which depended for a portion of their
sustenance on agricultural products, un-
doubtedly produced by the aid of some sort
of irrigation pI'actiee. The continual shift-
ing of the great Sand Dunes in the north-
eastern portion of the valley fl'om season to
season and year' to year, furnishes new evi-
dences of these occupations.
Spanish and Mexican colonization started
about one hundred years ago; Anglo-Ameri_
can colonization in the late 1850's and 1860's.
Possibilities for the construction of small
ditches along the rivers and tributm:y
stl'&amii by individuals were quit.e generally
exhausted and fully appl'opl'iated during the
1860's and 1870's.
The heyday of colonization in the San Luis
Valley was the periOd of 1880 to 1889 - a
pel'iod of large runoff whcn very few past
records were available and it was thought
an inexhaustible supply of irrigation water
was available. During this period large
companies were formed usually financed by
loans from val'jous insurance companies.
Some of the largest canals in thc world were
constJ'ucted, The Rio Grande Canal, when
it was originally constructed was the largest
strictly h'l'igation canal in the world, al-
though greatly exceeded in size by the
Punjab Canal in India constructed by the
English Government, but utilized for the
dual purpose of transportation and irri-
gation,
During th(-~ pcriod 1880 to 1889, possibili-
ties for the constl'uction of large canals
wer'e exhausted.
Commencing- with the year 1889, a series
of dry years followed, culminating in the
excessively dry yea" of 1902, Feveri!:lh SUI'-
veys were made in efforts to seCllre sup-
plemental supplies of water. Irrigation
Jitigation of all kinds became I'ampant;
foreclosures on farms were gencral.
The Travelers Insurance Company fore-
closed on the Rio Grande Canal and the
Monte Vista Canal, as well as on the State
lands with which these two canals were
originally subsidized, and othcr large canals
in the area were reol'ganized,
A great many of the original colonists left
the country during this periOd.
Like shortages occurred in the valley of
the Rio Grande in New Mexico and Texas,
and in the Juarez Valley in Mexico, and

clailll was nlade that developments in Colo-
rado caused this shortage. It is now Con~
ceded that the development in Colorado had
very little, if ..ny. effect on the supply.
Nevertheless the Mexican Government filed
claims for $30,000,000 against the United
States for damages alleged to have been
caused to the people in the Juarez Valley in
Mexico, and in 1896 the United States plac-
ed an embargo on the construction of r.eser-
vail'S and other regulatory works in Colo-
rado,
In 1906 a Treaty was made between the
United States and Mexico, wherein the
United States ceded 60,000 acre feet from the
Rio Grande annually to Mexico, in settle-
men t of all claims, and in order to insure
thc delivery of the water contracted under
this Treaty, constructed the great Elephant
Butte Reservoir with a capacity of 2,60D,000
acre feet, and incidentally brought in about
174,000 acres of new land in New Mexico
and Texas to pay for the project.
On December 26, 1906, the construction of
the Farmers' Union Reservoir was author-
ized, and water users went in On snowshoes
on the 31'd of January, 1907 to start construc-
tion, and this reservoir was completed in
1912. Shortly after the authorization of the
Farmers' Union Reservoir, the Santa: Maria
Reservoir was authorized, and this re~el~voi1'
was completed by The Travelers Insurance
Company in 1914, ~

Later the construction of the Continental
H.eservoir was authorized, . but on account
of the fact that this site was owned by spec-
ulators, not connected with any established
irrigation system, and must be a junior
reservoir on a limited source of supply, al-
ready burdened with the senior claims of the
Santa Maria Reservoir, the construction of
this reservoir' was not undertaken until
1922 when the Del NOl'le Irrigation District
was formed.

A number of small reservoirs of less than
1,000 acre foot capacity have been built and
a limited amount of transmountain diver-
sion has been acconlplished.

The field of small reservoir construction
although seriOUSly delayed and hampered by
Governmental restriction, international and
interstate differences and misunderstand_
ings, has now been completely Or at least
substantially exhausted.

After the imposition of the embargo
against reservoir construction in Colorado in
1896, all improvements to existing water
rights were impossible, and all progress
stopped. During the forty-five years since
this elnbargo was imposed, no new im-
provements have been made On the Rio
Grande in Colorado, except the small res-
m'voirs above mentioned, permiSSion to
build which was only had after many years
of the most arduous labor and effort.
In 1925 on an appeal to the Secretary of
th e Interior from an order of the General
Land Office denying the approval of the
Vega Sylvester Reservoir, the embargo was
removed by the Secretary of the Interior.

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