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• General Discussion of the History and Land Use of the Nucia /New Horizon Mine Permit <br />Area <br />An understanding of the major land use of irrigated agriculture is benefitted by an insight into the <br />background of the present community and land use in the Nucla area. Peterson (1949) and Mercer <br />(1967), respectively, authored articles on the history of the town of Nucla and the Colorado <br />Cooperative Company, the latter being the driving force behind the present situation at Nucla. The <br />following summary discussion is taken from the above two references. <br />In 1894, the Colorado Cooperative Company was incorporated in Denver in order to establish a <br />utopian or socialist community somewhere in Colorado with agriculture as the basis for the <br />economy of the community. Based on evaluations of many sites, it was decided to settle in an area <br />known as Tabeguache Park located a few miles north of the San Miguel River and Naturita, <br />Colorado - then a post office and stage stop. The site was selected because of the availability of <br />cheap federal lands under several Acts, including the Desert Land and Homestead Acts, and the <br />positive results of a survey that indicated water could be brought from the San Miguel River to the <br />Park. The first group of people arrived at Naturita in 1895 and began farming in that area while <br />surveying the ditch, building roads, and establishing a sawmill. In 1896, the colony established the <br />site of Pinon where Cottonwood Creek enters the San Miguel, while also beginning work on the <br />ditch five miles upstream. All lumber for the town, trestles, and flumes, as well as lath for fruit <br />• boxes in Montrose, was supplied by the Companys sawmill 13 miles up Cottonwood Creek. Work <br />went slow because of the amount of cut and fill, rock blasting, and trestle/flume construction <br />needed to complete the canal. Worker dissatisfaction caused many delays for a project that was <br />dependent on community cooperation and effort. This was overcome by contracting the ditch work <br />to shareholders for credits (redeemed at the Company store) or shares with the requirement that <br />a given amount of ditch in a certain time frame be completed. By 1904, the first water reached the <br />east side of First Park (used in preference to Tabeguache Park by the local population) and lands <br />which had been filed on by private individuals were cleared, tilled, and irrigated: By 1910, the ditch <br />had been extended to Second Park north of Tuttle Draw. In 1905, the town of Pinon was moved <br />essentially lock, stock, and barrel to the present site of the town of Nucla - a name derived from <br />the Latin word Nucleus. The ditch, an accomplishment for late 19th century technology, has a fall <br />of 4 feet per mile and is approximately 20 miles long. Atone time, the Cottonwood Creek trestle <br />and flume was the highest and longest in the world, but has since been replaced with a siphon. <br />Though a store, dairy, sawmill, and laundry, along with the ditch were Company businesses and <br />cooperatively owned and operated, only the ditch remains a cooperatively owned and run venture. <br />The land use and ownership patterns today are probably a reflection on the early days of the <br />Colorado Cooperative Company. Mercer (1967) states that individuals were permitted water rights <br />. on up to 40 acres for each share of stock, though it required several shares of water to adequately <br />(Revised zseuiyosl 2.04.3-9 <br />