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<br />.... <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />- 2 - <br /> <br />half a million acres of land, the municipal and industrial uses in the basin, and <br /> <br /> <br />natural losses in stream channels. <br /> <br /> <br />The development of the water supply is not a recent occurrence, but has <br /> <br /> <br />extended over a long period of years. The watershed of the upper Arkansas River <br /> <br /> <br />was a part of the territory e.cquired from France, under the Louisiana Purchase. <br /> <br /> <br />That portion of the watershed south of the river in eastern Colorado came to the <br /> <br /> <br />United States with the annexation of Texas in 1848. <br /> <br /> <br />According to historians, the first white men to view the Arkansas River <br /> <br /> <br />were in the party of Coronado, who crossed the river in what is now western Kan- <br /> <br /> <br />sas, near the Colorado line, in the early summer of 1541. De Soto crossed it <br /> <br /> <br />about a thousand miles downstream the following year. Both of these adventurers <br /> <br /> <br />were searching for gold. More than 300 years later, large quantities of gold were <br /> <br /> <br />found in the basin, but the discovcries were made high on the tributaries, a con- <br /> <br /> <br />siderable distance from the path of the Spaniards. <br /> <br /> <br />Almost the same length of time elapsed before Zebulon Pike sighted the <br /> <br /> <br />peak which bears his name and first plotted thc river's course in 1806. For about <br /> <br /> <br />50 years thereafter, the settlements in the area consisted of fur trappers' head- <br /> <br /> <br />quarters, Indian trading posts, and military forts. Their locations were deter- <br /> <br /> <br />mined by the trails leading into the region from liussouri and the north, among <br /> <br /> <br />which was the Santa Fe Trail, which turned south-V1Gstward away from the Arkansas <br /> <br /> <br />River near the present town of La Junta, and in the general vicinity of Bent's <br /> <br /> <br />Fort, first established in 1838. William Bent has been given the credit for be- <br /> <br /> <br />ing the first white man to employ irrigation in raising crops in the State. <br /> <br /> <br />~\hat was known as The Pueblo was established in 1842 at the junction of <br /> <br /> <br />Fountain Creek and the Arkansas River, which is the site of the now largest city <br /> <br /> <br />in the basin. General John C. Fremont visited, this camp in 1843 and recorded that <br /> <br /> <br />seVeral white men were engaged in farming and cattle raising. <br /> <br />....: <br />